Name: The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of new York
Price: 23.55 EUR
Availability: InStock
Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Author: Robert A. Caro
ISBN: 9780394720241

portada The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of new York

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of new York

Type

Physical Book

Author

Robert A. Caro

Publisher

Vintage

Year

1975

Language

English

Pages

1344

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

23.4 x 15.2 x 4.8 cm

Weight

1.63 kg.

ISBN

0394720245

ISBN13

9780394720241

Synopsis "The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of new York"

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER - A modern American classic, this huge and galvanizing biography of Robert Moses reveals not only the saga of one man's incredible accumulation of power but the story of his shaping (and mis-shaping) of twentieth-century New York. One of the Modern Library's hundred greatest books of the twentieth century, Robert Caro's monumental book makes public what few outsiders knew: that Robert Moses was the single most powerful man of his time in the City and in the State of New York. And in telling the Moses story, Caro both opens up to an unprecedented degree the way in which politics really happens--the way things really get done in America's City Halls and Statehouses--and brings to light a bonanza of vital information about such national figures as Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt (and the genesis of their blood feud), about Fiorello La Guardia, John V. Lindsay and Nelson Rockefeller. But The Power Broker is first and foremost a brilliant multidimensional portrait of a man--an extraordinary man who, denied power within the normal framework of the democratic process, stepped outside that framework to grasp power sufficient to shape a great city and to hold sway over the very texture of millions of lives. We see how Moses began: the handsome, intellectual young heir to the world of Our Crowd, an idealist. How, rebuffed by the entrenched political establishment, he fought for the power to accomplish his ideals. How he first created a miraculous flowering of parks and parkways, playlands and beaches--and then ultimately brought down on the city the smog-choked aridity of our urban landscape, the endless miles of (never sufficient) highway, the hopeless sprawl of Long Island, the massive failures of public housing, and countless other barriers to humane living. How, inevitably, the accumulation of power became an end in itself. Moses built an empire and lived like an emperor. He was held in fear--his dossiers could disgorge the dark secret of anyone who opposed him. He was, he claimed, above politics, above deals; and through decade after decade, the newspapers and the public believed. Meanwhile, he was developing his public authorities into a fourth branch of government known as "Triborough"--a government whose records were closed to the public, whose policies and plans were decided not by voters or elected officials but solely by Moses--an immense economic force directing pressure on labor unions, on banks, on all the city's political and economic institutions, and on the press, and on the Church. He doled out millions of dollars' worth of legal fees, insurance commissions, lucrative contracts on the basis of who could best pay him back in the only coin he coveted: power. He dominated the politics and politicians of his time--without ever having been elected to any office. He was, in essence, above our democratic system. Robert Moses held power in the state for 44 years, through the governorships of Smith, Roosevelt, Lehman, Dewey, Harriman and Rockefeller, and in the city for 34 years, through the mayoralties of La Guardia, O'Dwyer, Impellitteri, Wagner and Lindsay, He personally conceived and carried through public works costing 27 billion dollars--he was undoubtedly America's greatest builder. This is how he built and dominated New York--before, finally, he was stripped of his reputation (by the press) and his power (by Nelson Rockefeller). But his work, and his will, had been done.

Robert A. Caro

(Author)

View Author's Page

Robert Allan Caro is an American journalist and author known for his biographies of United States political figures Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson. After working for many years as a reporter, Caro wrote The Power Broker (1974), a biography of New York urban planner Robert Moses, which was chosen by the Modern Library as one of the top hundred non-fiction books of the twentieth century. Since then, he has written four of the planned five volumes of The Years of Lyndon Johnson (1982, 1990, 2002, 2012), a biography of the former president. Caro has been described as "the most influential biographer of the last century".

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Customers reviews

Maximiliano Koweindl Tuesday, August 16, 2022
Verified Purchase
Buenisima la calidad del libro. Cumplio con las expectativas.
00
David Murcia Aristizabal Saturday, April 11, 2026
Verified Purchase
Un libro impresionante, sobre el poder, urbanismo y parques.
00
David Santiago Ovalle Caviedes Thursday, August 08, 2024
Verified Purchase
Excelente libro
01

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The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of new York - Robert A. Caro

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