num_pages: 1246
description: 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.
language: English
title: The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
titlecomplete: The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
characters: Robert F. Wagner Jr., Fiorello La Guardia, Robert Moses, Belle Moskowitz, William O'Dwyer, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Al Smith, Vincent R. Impellitteri, Paul Moses, Ole Singstad, Nelson Rockefeller, Herbert H. Lehman
genres: New York, Politics, Biography, Cities, American History, Nonfiction, Business, History, Urban Planning, Biography Memoir
ratings_count: 20326
places: New York City, New York
awards: awardedAt: 157795200000
name: Pulitzer Prize
category: Biography or Autobiography, awardedAt: 157795200000
name: Francis Parkman Prize, awardedAt: 157795200000
name: National Book Award Finalist
category: Contemporary Affairs
publisher: Vintage Books