The Power Broker
Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
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The Power Broker
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Narrated by:
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Robertson Dean
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By:
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Robert A Caro
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro is 'simply one of the best non-fiction books in English of the last forty years' (Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times): a riveting and timeless account of power, politics and the city of New York by ‘the greatest political biographer of our times’ (Sunday Times); chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of All Time and by the Modern Library as one of the 100 Greatest Books of the Twentieth Century; Winner of the Pulitzer Prize; a Sunday Times Bestseller; 'An outright masterpiece' (Evening Standard)
The Power Broker tells the story of Robert Moses, the single most powerful man in New York for almost half a century and the greatest builder America (and probably the world) has ever known. Without ever once being elected to office, he created for himself a position of supreme and untouchable authority, allowing him to utterly reshape the city of New York, turning it into the city we know today, while at the same time blighting the lives of millions and remaining accountable to no one.
First published in the USA in 1974, this monumental classic was a Sunday Times bestseller when published in the UK in 2015 and is now widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest books of its kind.
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Amazing work with dull oratory
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Outstanding
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Excellent book.
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But.
At 66 hours, this is a marathon effort. Sometimes it shows.
Robert Moses's career is in civil engineering and city planning in the '20's through the late '60's in New York. Caro's book came out in 1974, just after Moses had fallen from power. It was his first effort in an otherwise journalistic career. It is filled with the remorseless research that is the hallmark of Robert Caro. It has Caro's lyrical prose. It has courage, as this man who is his subject was iconic for most of his career and very powerful. It ploughs the same furrow as his LBJ books in that this is about a hugely energetic, talented and principled man who, in delivering amazing achievements, is corrupted by his matchless and unchallengeable power. This is a Shakespearean/classical Greek story of Hubris and Tragedy,
As a result, it is magnificent.
But Shakespeare is tighter than this. So is Robert Caro later.
It lacks the experience and firm hand of Caro's LBJ biography. It is repetitive about the various machinations that Moses engages in and equally repetitive about the terrible consequences for (usually poor and non-white) victims of his arrogant policies. But when you are talking about planning processes for access for roads and housing programmes, that has limited interest. I suspect this book breezed through editing in 1974 because it was topical and from a new author, nobody really cared. It could be 10 hours shorter whilst losing nothing of its power; indeed I think it would be improved.
This is a great book, by a majestic biographer, but at 66 hours it needs a higher level of execution than it achieves. But from a young journalist compared to the magisterial biographer Robert Caro is now, this is superb
Great, but....
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