The Power Broker

“I think The Power Broker was the best book I ever read and in broad strokes, it's correct. Robert Moses had more power than any urban figure in American history.”

“Robert Caro wrote a really great book. I think the book was flawed because I think Caro only looked at Moses's own documents and Moses had a very narrow view of himself.”

“That's a little bit of exaggeration, but when you really think about Robert Moses and you read the Power Broker, you are just stunned by the scope of his achievement.”

“The Power Broker is a stunning achievement, but you're right the title is The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the fall of New York.”

“You have to have some highways and Caro had it exactly wrong. He talked about Moses and the decline of public transit in New York. Actually what you need to explain in New York is why public transit survived in New York”

“I think Robert Caro deserves a lot of credit for doing research on Moses, his childhood, his growing up, his assertion that he's the most important person ever to live in and around New York. And to just think of Franklin Roosevelt and all the people who lived in and around New York.”

“The only thing Moses didn't do was the subway, and many people have criticized him because the subways deteriorated between the time they were built in the early part of the 20th century in 1974 when Caro wrote to Power Broker.”

“And he was so arrogant, he didn't listen to people like Jane Jacobs, who fought him and said, “You're saying Greenwich Village is a slum? Are you kidding me?” He thought it was a slum.”

“I think what Caro was trying to explain and your question suggests is, was Moses responsible for the decline of public transit? Well, he was building cars and roads and bridges. So in that sense, a little bit, yes.”

“And he says this perfectly wonderful Jewish neighborhood that was not racially prejudiced and everybody was happy and not leaving was destroyed by Moses. As a historian of New York City, or for that matter, any city, if a student comes to you and says, that's what I found out, you say that it runs counter to the experience of”

“You would not know from the power broker that Los Angeles was building freeways too. Or he says that New York had more federal money. Well, not true. I've had students work in Chicago and Chicago is getting more money per person than New York for some of these projects.”

“One reason why The Power Broker, Robert Caro’s famous book, received such popular acclaim is it fits in with book readers' opinions today, which is “Old is better.” You got to think about New York City.”

“And there I said, and I still stand by this, that The Power Broker, I learned more from it than any book I ever read and I wish I had written it myself so that my name was on it rather than his. And I think it was the best book I ever read.”

“What's amazing about The Power Broker is his ability and interest in going back and interviewing his third grade teacher and stuff like that and finding that out. That's way more than what most of us are willing to do.”

“Now, later in the Power Broker, Carol alleges that quote, "During the seven years since the end of World War II, there had been evicted from their homes in New York for public works, mainly Robert Moses' public works, some 170,000 persons."”

“And I'm going to quote again from the power broker here. It would have been more than enough to build the long proposed and desperately needed Second Avenue subway”

“And this quote from the Power Broker, you may need to brace yourself for here. All right, I'm strapped in. Robert Moses had always displayed a genius for adorning his creations with little details”

“He does live to see the publication in 1974 of The Power Broker by Robert Caro, which effectively savages his reputation and paints him as an outrageous bigot.”

“And so yeah, uh if you want to read 1300 pages about Robert Moses, check out the Power Broker.”

“And I'm going to quote now from Robert Keros's The Power Broker, which is a book about Bob Moses. Quote, "This lesson Moses would often recite to associates. He would put it this way." As long as you're fighting for parks, you can be sure of having public opinion on your side.”

“I'm going to quote again from Kos the power broker. Once they had authorized that small initial expenditure and you had spent it, they would not be able to avoid giving you the rest when you asked for it. How could they? If they refused to give you the rest of the money, what they had given you would be”

“Now, I should note here that Moses's biographer, Robert Ko, is the first person who starts making these claims about Moses. He writes this massive book. It's like 1400 pages called The Power Broker, which is like after Moses's retirement, kind of blows a hole in the guy's legacy because he had been seen as like the man who built”

“One of the the the series I'm proudest of reading, uh not just Robert Caro's The Power Broker, but series on Lyndon Johnson.”

“once you know you have the attention like robert caro famously cut 250 000 words out of the power broker his book about robert moses which is itself over a thousand pages”

“i heard robert caro cut like 300 000 words out of the power broker”

“Silent Spring, ultimately the power broker, which is my book is sort of in conversation with the power broker.”

“And then the third uh you know to the degree my book is in conversation with uh Robert Keros the power broker.”

“with Bob I think everyone who either is from New York or becomes a New Yorker Bob Carol is part of New York even just through the power broker alone”

“If you read the Caro biography of Robert Moses and you look at the strategies he employed, it’s actually very similar to what you’re mentioning here. It was in every single faction’s interest that the bridge that Robert Moses was working on gets done, through some of the mechanisms you mentioned.”

“I don't want to repeat myself, because I talked about this on my Byrne episode but we were talking about Robert Caro's books and one interesting thing is this guy was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize before he wrote The Power Broker.”

“In the last episode, we go deep into the other biography by Robert Caro, The Power Broker, and talk about why it might be inaccurate in certain respects.”

“And that's really why I actually wanted to talk to you and talk about this book because The Power Broker was released in 1974 and at the time New York was not doing well, which is to put it mildly.”

“But one of the interesting things from the Power Broker is Caro is trying to explain why governors and mayors who were hesitant about the power that Moses was gaining continued to give him more power.”

“an anecdote in the Power Broker where I think he's 71 and his daughter gets cancer and for the first time, he had to accept a salary for working on the World's Fair because he didn't have enough.”

“There's a good review of the book from Phillip Lopate and he made a good point, which was that the connotation of the word power is very negative, but it's a modern thing really to have this sort of attitude towards power”

“You write in the book — “Had the city not undertaken a massive program of public works between 1924 and 1970, had it not built the arterial highway system and had it not relocated 200,000 people from old law tenements to new public housing projects, New York would not have been able to claim in the 1990s that it was”

“There are many scenes in the Power Broker where he will go to the mayor who wants to do something else and Moses would say, “Damn it.” and throw his pages on the desk and say, “Sign this. This is my resignation. And I'm out of here””

“of Caro's in that chapter on the one mile, about Moses just throwing out thousands of people carelessly and how he could have diverted the cross Bronx expressway one mile and prevented thousands of people from getting needlessly evicted.”

“I guess if we take this kind of view and just care about progeny more, there's a part in the Power Broker where they're talking about the Cross Bronx Expressway through East Tremont and Moses is getting opposition from an elected official.”

“Now, Moses did write a response to the Power Broker, which was published in the New Yorker about 1975, which is a long response saying that Caro had it all wrong. Actually, I don't know what your reaction to the response was.”

“But before we close out the interview, if you have any other things you want to say about The Power Broker or about Moses or about his legacy or about NIMBYism today or the state of construction and public works today.”

“I'm curious why you think that this biography of Moses by Caro achieved the cultural prominence it did. Of course, it's like an incredible book and I enjoyed it a lot as well. But like there's countless biographies written every year and many of them are also good.”

“have you read the power broker the the book about Robert Moses I think I got like a scent like a tenth of the way through it”

“we had Robert Kon a few months ago for the 50th anniversary with the power broker and I always think about him being able to describe the dirt in the Texas Hill Country”

“before all that however in September 1974 50 years ago he published the power broker a book about the man who built modern New York City Robert Moses”

“I would argue that non-fiction biography history a lot of it doesn't stand the test of time in that way but the power broker has and I'm wondering why you think it has lasted as this own monument in its way for so long 50 years”

“you wrote the book is 50 years old the power broker you wrote and reported it more than 50 years ago I wonder if there's anything new that you have learned about Robert Moses since publishing the book”

“you understand now following the writing of this book how New York City Works in part because of the decisions at this one manade even all these years after riding the power broker do you say to yourself godamn you Robert boses why do I have to be caught in traffic here”

“and not only is it timec consuming but I think anyone who reads the power broker would agree that is also as you have said many times you tried to do a a a real piece of literary work you know it's not only the facts it is the pros”

“welcome back this is the book review podcast I'm Gilbert Cruz and I'm here with Robert Carol author of the power broker”

“I imagine you could have seen a scenario in which you had another editor who once you became the man who wrote the power broker maybe they didn't push back as much because what do I know he's Robert Kerry wrote the power broker”

“lord Robert Carol 50th anniversary of the power broker it continues to sit in works of non-fiction works of history and I'd argue works of literature as one of the greats of the past half century”

“because with the power broker we know that about 350,000 words of this book did not end up in the final book”

“yeah exactly the the power broker”

“I don't see the power broker in front of you well um you know I was away last week um and I had a lot of time stuck in airports and on runways and I finally put Robert Moses behind me”

“well um I'm still of course reading the power broker but it's raining today and that's a book that's really literally too big to fit in my work Satchel”

“yes I am back to Robert Moses uh you may remember last time I had taken a break from the power broker to start Hillary mantel's novel”

“well of course you know my personal reading is still Robert caros uh the power broker about Robert Moses and I will talk about that in a second”

“I'm still reading the Robert Caro uh book The Power broker about Robert Moses”

“well unsurprisingly I am still reading uh the power broker Robert Moses and the fall of New York that giant second installment of 46”

“my next big project U is a book that I think both of you have raved about in the past is Robert caros the power broker”

“no one even I I have to say when I started this book I don't think there was any real awareness even among Mayors and council members and governors of where this power came from”

“when I started to do the power broker I remember thinking if you don't slow yourself down this book isn't going to be any good and that's what I don't know exactly why I thought that”

“I did the power broker for what I kiddingly at first said the was the world's smallest advance so we lived in a I was a reporter lived in a house on Long Island totally out of money totally out of money”

“then she what she did mostly did on the power broker was typing”

“so in order to get enough money to finish the power broker I had to sign a two Brook contract the second book was for a biography of Fel LaGuardia”

“I just started reading finally reading the Power Broker. Power Broker is a historic book considered one of the 50 best books of the of the 20th century.”

“and then his big world famous bit of writing was called the power broker and it was on a New York politician called Robert Moses and Obama has since written like the forward for the most recent edition of the power broker just to give it an idea of how uh influential this book is. Many people uh regard the”

“this book The Power broker by Robert Carrol famous book pure priz winning book about Robert Moses most powerful man in New York for a very very long time”

“you mentioned robert carrow and lbj also the author as i know you know of the power broker”

“where apparently he read the six-minute summary of Robert Caro's great, great book The Power Broker about Robert Moses and Robert Moses was a who built built most of New York.”

“You really notice this when you read different paragraphs of The Power Broker where early on, if you just read the first third or the first half The Power Broker, you're like, clearly Caro is writing about Robert Moses the way he writes about Lyndon Johnson where”

“I wish you know I was talking to the historian Robert Caro who wrote volumes about Lyndon Johnson and also wrote the power broker am I right”

“Or they'll talk about The Power Broker. That's one of my favorites. The Power Broker by Robert Carrow. It is 1,344 pages. But David, I know it's long, but I'll tell you, Robert Caro is such a good writer.”

“So Moses — so Robert Carroll's the power broker is one of the great biographies of the past hundred years unquestionably.”

“you rad the power broker I reread the power broker”

“People 100 years from now will still be reading The Power Broker by Robert Moses. They will still be reading Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand.”

“it is a series on the power broker so the power broker by Robert Caro won the field surprise in 1975”

“I also liked totally different I liked reading the power broker about Robert Moses by carol Robert Robert Caro he just had a thing at the American History Museum.”

“the power broker, which is the takedown of Robert Moses in New York City and reveals that this guy who had remade the landscape of New York City during between the 30s and the 60s had like strangled the city with interstates and like driven the cross Bronx Expressway across a burough of New York City and like you know”

“in the Power Broker, which you know won all the awards and was, you know, kind of this absolute feat of journalism. But Moses gave him access for a long time.”

“and since I said that I've been reading with one eye especially alert to Robert Caro's language”

“I did read The Power Broker cover to cover when I was young when I actually was in college”

“like as with the power broker his first wonderful book we eventually ended up cutting”

“well I'm still broker you thought I was kidding when I said I'd be talking about this book for the next year and a half bad as pamin L mov”

“well I mentioned last week uh that I was on the verge of starting Robert caros the power broker which is his massive biography of Robert Moses”