The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
Author: Robert A. Caro
Desc: One of the most acclaimed books of our time winner of both the Pulitzer and the Francis Parkman prizes The Power Broker tells the hidden story behind the shaping (and mis-shaping) of twentieth-century New York (city and state) and makes public what few have known: that Robert Moses was for almost half a century the single most powerful man of our time in New York the shaper not only of the city's politics but of its physical structure and the problems of urban decline that plague us today. In revealing how Moses did it--how he developed his public authorities into a political machine that was virtually a fourth branch of government one that could bring to their knees Governors and Mayors (from La Guardia to Lindsay) by mobilizing banks contractors labor unions insurance firms even the press and the Church into an irresistible economic force--Robert Caro reveals how power works in all the cities of the United States. Moses built an empire and lived like an emperor. He personally conceived and completed public works costing 27 billion dollars--the greatest builder America (and probably the world) has ever known. Without ever having been elected to office he dominated the men who were--even his most bitter enemy Franklin D. Roosevelt could not control him--until he finally encountered in Nelson Rockefeller the only man whose power (and ruthlessness in wielding it) equalled his own.