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The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, Volume 3 of 3
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Published May 17, 2011
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About the author
Robert A. Caro
35 books2,924 followersRobert 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 hundred greatest nonfiction books of the twentieth century. He has since written four of a 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".
For his biographies, he has won two Pulitzer Prizes in Biography, two National Book Awards (including one for Lifetime Achievement), the Francis Parkman Prize (awarded by the Society of American Historians to the book that "best exemplifies the union of the historian and the artist"), three National Book Critics Circle Awards, the Mencken Award for Best Book, the Carr P. Collins Award from the Texas Institute of Letters, the D. B. Hardeman Prize, and a Gold Medal in Biography from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2010 President Barack Obama awarded Caro the National Humanities Medal.
Due to Caro's reputation for exhaustive research and detail, he is sometimes invoked by reviewers of other writers who are called "Caro-esque" for their own extensive research.
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 hundred greatest nonfiction books of the twentieth century. He has since written four of a 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".
For his biographies, he has won two Pulitzer Prizes in Biography, two National Book Awards (including one for Lifetime Achievement), the Francis Parkman Prize (awarded by the Society of American Historians to the book that "best exemplifies the union of the historian and the artist"), three National Book Critics Circle Awards, the Mencken Award for Best Book, the Carr P. Collins Award from the Texas Institute of Letters, the D. B. Hardeman Prize, and a Gold Medal in Biography from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2010 President Barack Obama awarded Caro the National Humanities Medal.
Due to Caro's reputation for exhaustive research and detail, he is sometimes invoked by reviewers of other writers who are called "Caro-esque" for their own extensive research.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 12, 2026
This is less a biography than a slow, meticulous construction of a tragedy—one in which the protagonist engineers his own fall with the same brilliance he once used to build empires.
Robert Moses’s life is, on its face, astonishing. The scale of his accomplishments defies easy comparison: roads, bridges, parks, and public works reshaped New York—and by extension, modern urban life itself. Yet what makes this book so compelling is Caro’s refusal to separate achievement from method. The same traits that enabled Moses’s meteoric rise—relentless will, institutional mastery, utter certainty—eventually transform him into the villain of his own story.
Large portions of this book are genuinely cringe-inducing, not because they are poorly written, but because Moses simply cannot stop himself. Time and again, you watch him double down, overreach, and bulldoze opposition with breathtaking arrogance. Caro makes you feel the discomfort of witnessing power exercised without restraint—and without reflection.
The emotional tension is unexpected: you find yourself rooting for Moses’s downfall while simultaneously dreading it. His collapse feels necessary, even just—but also tragic, because you cannot deny the magnitude of what he built or the talent that made it possible.
Bottom line: The Power Broker is a masterclass in political biography and a cautionary tale about power untempered by accountability. Awe-inspiring, unsettling, and deeply human, it leaves you marveling at how greatness and ruin can spring from the same source.
Robert Moses’s life is, on its face, astonishing. The scale of his accomplishments defies easy comparison: roads, bridges, parks, and public works reshaped New York—and by extension, modern urban life itself. Yet what makes this book so compelling is Caro’s refusal to separate achievement from method. The same traits that enabled Moses’s meteoric rise—relentless will, institutional mastery, utter certainty—eventually transform him into the villain of his own story.
Large portions of this book are genuinely cringe-inducing, not because they are poorly written, but because Moses simply cannot stop himself. Time and again, you watch him double down, overreach, and bulldoze opposition with breathtaking arrogance. Caro makes you feel the discomfort of witnessing power exercised without restraint—and without reflection.
The emotional tension is unexpected: you find yourself rooting for Moses’s downfall while simultaneously dreading it. His collapse feels necessary, even just—but also tragic, because you cannot deny the magnitude of what he built or the talent that made it possible.
Bottom line: The Power Broker is a masterclass in political biography and a cautionary tale about power untempered by accountability. Awe-inspiring, unsettling, and deeply human, it leaves you marveling at how greatness and ruin can spring from the same source.
March 29, 2025
☹️ the end
May 18, 2020
Ugh - I hate that in the end I felt bad for him for being left out. And you get some appreciation for the fact that he got things done. Just the wrong things. ugh.
Anyway - RM still racist and classist and not giving a fuck about anybody but himself as ever.
loved this slight on LA:
"No other metropolitan region in America possessed 700 miles of such highways...Even Los Angeles which presented itself to history as the most highway oriented of cities - which was in fact not a city in the older sense in which New York was a city but a collection of suburbs whose very existence was due to highways - possessed in 1964 only 459 miles of such highways."
Anyway - RM still racist and classist and not giving a fuck about anybody but himself as ever.
loved this slight on LA:
"No other metropolitan region in America possessed 700 miles of such highways...Even Los Angeles which presented itself to history as the most highway oriented of cities - which was in fact not a city in the older sense in which New York was a city but a collection of suburbs whose very existence was due to highways - possessed in 1964 only 459 miles of such highways."
April 4, 2025
A 60-hour audiobook that justifies its own existence! Amazing! This final part was probably the most interesting of the three, detailing Moses' unlikely fall from power. After reading the other two volumes, he felt invincible. But he was left without reputation, power, and friend. This must have been written before Moses died because the ending felt abrupt. I wanted a conclusion to Moses' life, even if the political story was complete. Anyway, highly recommend this to anyone not cowed by such a long book.
November 16, 2025
Volume 3 hits different. After everything we’ve been through with Moses, in this final stretch you watch the cracks form, the allies vanish, and the city finally start to push back. It’s still wild, still infuriating, and somehow even more human.
By the end, I’m looking at New York with totally new eyes. Every bridge, every parkway, every neighborhood line suddenly has a story behind it. It took me six months, and it was absolutely worth it. Exhausting but brilliant.
By the end, I’m looking at New York with totally new eyes. Every bridge, every parkway, every neighborhood line suddenly has a story behind it. It took me six months, and it was absolutely worth it. Exhausting but brilliant.
September 7, 2020
The third volume of Robert Caro's stunning biography of Robert Moses, the man who for more than forty years *was* parks and highways in and around New York City. In this final installment, Caro focuses on the ways in which Moses, who never drove, and whose idea of driving was stuck in the 1920s, continued trying to dig himself out of the congestion problems created by his massive highways by building yet more massive highways, ignoring the please of his own engineers who could see that for much less money, they could build public transit systems capable of bearing many times the traffic without requiring huge parking lots or yet more convoluted access roads for yet more bridges. Moses' fixation on cars and highways as the only means of transportation not only doomed a generation of New Yorkers to spending hours of their life every week stuck in gridlocked traffic, but also helped to destroy some of the rail lines that had to compete with highways that were being continually expanded at taxpayer expense while they were left unfunded and increasingly derelict. As usual, Caro details not just with numbers but with vivid personal anecdote the cost to the public of this stubbornness, conveying the discomfort of commuters stuck on tiny, crammed, increasingly unreliable LIRR trains, or crumbling subways, because Moses had decided to keep all money for road construction. It also details the ways in which Moses lied to the public about the "relocation services" offered by his slum clearance program, in which friends and associates of Moses made a killing administering condemned properties and forcing families out while providing no relocation assistance whatsoever, destroying entire communities in the process.
Thankfully, the continuing frustration of hearing about Moses' arrogance and shortsightedness is, in this volume, finally juxtaposed against some good news, as Moses' carefully crafted public image begins to deteriorate (as a result of poorly chosen fights to build a parking lot by the Tavern on the Green, resisted by an organized and media savvy group of mothers, and an attempt by a subordinate to undermine a free Shakespeare performance, resisted by a talented and media-savvy producer). Having lost the glow of public approval in this fight, Moses is finally tied to scandal by a new generation of young journalists, collaborating with one another to continue a story that their editors didn't want them to focus on, who realized the self-dealing in the slum clearance program could be traced up the chain to Moses. Partly in order to develop Flushing Meadows and partly because he needed the high salary promised, Moses agreed to give up his city posts (thus distancing himself from the Title 1 housing debacle) to take over the 1964 World's Fair, but the lavish kickbacks to union contractors on everything from security to construction to garbage collection, and the unwillingness of Moses' underlings to give him any bad news until it was truly unavoidable, led to the Fair being a massive financial failure, tarring Moses as someone hungry for money, destroying his reputation for competent management, and leading him into yet more vituperative exchanges against the press in general, which began to treat him as a joke rather than a sage.
The final fall from power came when Moses finally had to face someone whose power was equal to his own: Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Rockefeller's immense wealth (which made him in effect the political boss of the Republican Party in New York long before he ran for public office) allowed him to credibly threaten not to renew the exceptions to the mandatory retirement age law that allowed Moses to keep working. Moses made the strategic error of going through on his threats to resign from several state posts if his demands were not met; Rockefeller was in firm enough control of the party, and Moses' reputation sufficiently damaged, that the governor could endure the limited backlash to his resignation. The last bastion of Moses' power came from the Triboro Bridge Authority, whose bond covenants would have allowed the bondholders to sue the state if any interference was made into Moses' leadership of the organization, which was in effect a private fief. For decades, this source of funding had made Moses the only place to go for transit funding in New York. However, because the bondholders would not sue individually (due to the high costs of litigation), a representative had been appointed in the bond issues and empowered to sue on behalf of the bondholders. That representative was Chase Manhattan Bank, which was owned by the Rockefellers and run by Nelson's brother. Moses was misled by representatives of the governor into thinking he would maintain power in the newly created MTA, which included Triboro as a branch; in fact, he was forced into a consulting role. Unsurprisingly, Chase Manhattan Bank did not sue to resist this restructuring. There's always a bigger fish.
At the end of the book, we see Moses growing more and more frustrated by his inability to complete his grand (perhaps grandiose) vision of development on Long Island and around New York. Watching his influence drop away and his attempts to regain influence become more and more pathetic, you do feel sorry for him. But not all that sorry.
Thankfully, the continuing frustration of hearing about Moses' arrogance and shortsightedness is, in this volume, finally juxtaposed against some good news, as Moses' carefully crafted public image begins to deteriorate (as a result of poorly chosen fights to build a parking lot by the Tavern on the Green, resisted by an organized and media savvy group of mothers, and an attempt by a subordinate to undermine a free Shakespeare performance, resisted by a talented and media-savvy producer). Having lost the glow of public approval in this fight, Moses is finally tied to scandal by a new generation of young journalists, collaborating with one another to continue a story that their editors didn't want them to focus on, who realized the self-dealing in the slum clearance program could be traced up the chain to Moses. Partly in order to develop Flushing Meadows and partly because he needed the high salary promised, Moses agreed to give up his city posts (thus distancing himself from the Title 1 housing debacle) to take over the 1964 World's Fair, but the lavish kickbacks to union contractors on everything from security to construction to garbage collection, and the unwillingness of Moses' underlings to give him any bad news until it was truly unavoidable, led to the Fair being a massive financial failure, tarring Moses as someone hungry for money, destroying his reputation for competent management, and leading him into yet more vituperative exchanges against the press in general, which began to treat him as a joke rather than a sage.
The final fall from power came when Moses finally had to face someone whose power was equal to his own: Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Rockefeller's immense wealth (which made him in effect the political boss of the Republican Party in New York long before he ran for public office) allowed him to credibly threaten not to renew the exceptions to the mandatory retirement age law that allowed Moses to keep working. Moses made the strategic error of going through on his threats to resign from several state posts if his demands were not met; Rockefeller was in firm enough control of the party, and Moses' reputation sufficiently damaged, that the governor could endure the limited backlash to his resignation. The last bastion of Moses' power came from the Triboro Bridge Authority, whose bond covenants would have allowed the bondholders to sue the state if any interference was made into Moses' leadership of the organization, which was in effect a private fief. For decades, this source of funding had made Moses the only place to go for transit funding in New York. However, because the bondholders would not sue individually (due to the high costs of litigation), a representative had been appointed in the bond issues and empowered to sue on behalf of the bondholders. That representative was Chase Manhattan Bank, which was owned by the Rockefellers and run by Nelson's brother. Moses was misled by representatives of the governor into thinking he would maintain power in the newly created MTA, which included Triboro as a branch; in fact, he was forced into a consulting role. Unsurprisingly, Chase Manhattan Bank did not sue to resist this restructuring. There's always a bigger fish.
At the end of the book, we see Moses growing more and more frustrated by his inability to complete his grand (perhaps grandiose) vision of development on Long Island and around New York. Watching his influence drop away and his attempts to regain influence become more and more pathetic, you do feel sorry for him. But not all that sorry.
May 27, 2025
A powerful but somewhat sad ending to this incredible story. Such a brilliant man who was blinded by power for 50+ years. Also a sad commentary about how money and graft is so present in politics
June 7, 2025
So well written. A joy to read!
December 2, 2025
The entire chapter on Jane Jacobs was cut out!!
April 27, 2024
Volume 2:
Some of the best moments in The Power Broker are found in this second volume, including what I consider to be the best section of the entire book: the battle of the battery crossing. Caro devotes almost 100 pages to Moses’ plans for the tip of Manhattan, tracing the history of Fort Clinton and the entire Battery Park area since the early 1700’s. He details Moses’ fight with the reformers and their ultimate decision to appeal to the president as a final attempt to save the fort, including the revenge he sought after they ultimately succeeded. It was one of the most moving and memorable portions of a book I’ve ever read/listened to.
Towards the end of this volume it begins to drag a bit, especially the last chapter when it’s simply listing mayors and Moses’ relationship to them, but there are so many memorable sections in the middle to help ease the load. The battle of the battery crossing, the mayoralty of the little flower, Moses’ completion of the Westside parkway, and the city’s post-war era are some of the highlights. The way Caro describes Moses’ riverfront highways around the island as entombing the island in concrete, and the beautiful Westside waterfront looking out at the palisades as permanently blighted by cars is vivid imagery that has been stuck in my mind since hearing it.
Could it have been shorter without much loss? Absolutely, certain circular sections could’ve been cut down, and yet remarkably this book has kept me invested and eager to know more through its 45th hour. Through the second volume it remains one of the greatest books I’ve ever listened to or read.
Volume 3:
Well here I finally am. All three volumes took about nine months, although they were broken up here and there with breaks. I thought this one was a bit weaker than the other two, Caro struggles to find secondary figures as meaty as Al Smith and LaGuardia to pair with Moses. This section is more firmly focused on RM, and it feels like some years are both flying by and filled with construction minutiae. I like those sections, but the balance feels a bit more off in this volume.
As a meditation on the waning power and life of Moses it continues to shine. The tracing of his loss of public favor is especially well done, with each blow he dealt to himself meticulously tracked. His gradual loss of positions, allies, and ultimately power is gripping. By the end he stood alone, kept away from his life’s ambition. “That’s a slender reed Bob” Al Smith told him about relying public opinion, and I couldn’t help but think back to that in the book’s closing sentences.
As cliche as it sounds I do think it’s a book that changes you. How could it not shape your thinking just a bit? In the most powerful city in the world a man who was never elected to any post spent tens of billions of dollars across 44 years on concrete monuments that will last for generations. I’m not saying it’s jaded me, but the way this book lays bare the machinations of power would affect anyone.
Finally theres personal accomplishment. This is a 67 hour audiobook in total, over 1200 pages. Of course I’ve wanted to read books of similar length, but never finished them. I feel “grown up” in a way I did not expect. I was interested in a long book, I said I’d read/listen to it, and then I did. There’s a past version of me to whom that’s almost unthinkable. It’s a 67 hour book, and I could go on about it forever so if you’ve read this far I’ll just say one thing: read this book, I don’t think you’ll regret it.
Some of the best moments in The Power Broker are found in this second volume, including what I consider to be the best section of the entire book: the battle of the battery crossing. Caro devotes almost 100 pages to Moses’ plans for the tip of Manhattan, tracing the history of Fort Clinton and the entire Battery Park area since the early 1700’s. He details Moses’ fight with the reformers and their ultimate decision to appeal to the president as a final attempt to save the fort, including the revenge he sought after they ultimately succeeded. It was one of the most moving and memorable portions of a book I’ve ever read/listened to.
Towards the end of this volume it begins to drag a bit, especially the last chapter when it’s simply listing mayors and Moses’ relationship to them, but there are so many memorable sections in the middle to help ease the load. The battle of the battery crossing, the mayoralty of the little flower, Moses’ completion of the Westside parkway, and the city’s post-war era are some of the highlights. The way Caro describes Moses’ riverfront highways around the island as entombing the island in concrete, and the beautiful Westside waterfront looking out at the palisades as permanently blighted by cars is vivid imagery that has been stuck in my mind since hearing it.
Could it have been shorter without much loss? Absolutely, certain circular sections could’ve been cut down, and yet remarkably this book has kept me invested and eager to know more through its 45th hour. Through the second volume it remains one of the greatest books I’ve ever listened to or read.
Volume 3:
Well here I finally am. All three volumes took about nine months, although they were broken up here and there with breaks. I thought this one was a bit weaker than the other two, Caro struggles to find secondary figures as meaty as Al Smith and LaGuardia to pair with Moses. This section is more firmly focused on RM, and it feels like some years are both flying by and filled with construction minutiae. I like those sections, but the balance feels a bit more off in this volume.
As a meditation on the waning power and life of Moses it continues to shine. The tracing of his loss of public favor is especially well done, with each blow he dealt to himself meticulously tracked. His gradual loss of positions, allies, and ultimately power is gripping. By the end he stood alone, kept away from his life’s ambition. “That’s a slender reed Bob” Al Smith told him about relying public opinion, and I couldn’t help but think back to that in the book’s closing sentences.
As cliche as it sounds I do think it’s a book that changes you. How could it not shape your thinking just a bit? In the most powerful city in the world a man who was never elected to any post spent tens of billions of dollars across 44 years on concrete monuments that will last for generations. I’m not saying it’s jaded me, but the way this book lays bare the machinations of power would affect anyone.
Finally theres personal accomplishment. This is a 67 hour audiobook in total, over 1200 pages. Of course I’ve wanted to read books of similar length, but never finished them. I feel “grown up” in a way I did not expect. I was interested in a long book, I said I’d read/listen to it, and then I did. There’s a past version of me to whom that’s almost unthinkable. It’s a 67 hour book, and I could go on about it forever so if you’ve read this far I’ll just say one thing: read this book, I don’t think you’ll regret it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 8, 2016
First off, I listened to the audiobook version which I recommend at 1.25 speed. I think the whole audiobook is about 66 hours at regular speed and while the narrator is good, his narration is just as good at 1.25 and you can shave off a little time of this enormous volume.
As for the book itself, I can see why it won a Pulitzer. It's an epic of a biography. I read that Caro took seven years to complete the book and it shows. I grew up in Florida so didn't hear about Robert Moses until the mid-2000's after moving to New York. While listening to this book one realizes just how much life in New York, but especially the New York City / Long Island area, is affected by Robert Moses' life work.
I think what keeps this from being just a dry biography is the depth that Caro went into. This is not just a chronological review of Moses. This book covers the people around Moses and the times they are in. This is about the people who influenced Moses and those he influenced. It's about people he helped and people he hurt. Those who liked him or he liked and those who hated him or those he hated.
Just as important I feel, this is about an important time in New York City / Long Island history. Moses laid the foundation for much of Long Island's growth and then changed much of the NYC landscape.
Understanding much of Moses' personal beliefs, good or bad, affected decisions he made and that corruption likely got the better of him as he collected more power; there is no denying the mark Moses has left on New York and maybe much more than we'll ever know.
As for the book itself, I can see why it won a Pulitzer. It's an epic of a biography. I read that Caro took seven years to complete the book and it shows. I grew up in Florida so didn't hear about Robert Moses until the mid-2000's after moving to New York. While listening to this book one realizes just how much life in New York, but especially the New York City / Long Island area, is affected by Robert Moses' life work.
I think what keeps this from being just a dry biography is the depth that Caro went into. This is not just a chronological review of Moses. This book covers the people around Moses and the times they are in. This is about the people who influenced Moses and those he influenced. It's about people he helped and people he hurt. Those who liked him or he liked and those who hated him or those he hated.
Just as important I feel, this is about an important time in New York City / Long Island history. Moses laid the foundation for much of Long Island's growth and then changed much of the NYC landscape.
Understanding much of Moses' personal beliefs, good or bad, affected decisions he made and that corruption likely got the better of him as he collected more power; there is no denying the mark Moses has left on New York and maybe much more than we'll ever know.
October 4, 2010
A meticulously researched book, but not as enjoyable of a read as "The Path to Power." The whole Moses-as-tyrant theme starts to get old around page 700, and I found it a bit of a slog after that. But it was really interesting to learn about how so many of the roads, bridges, and landmarks that shape the NY I know and love came into being. And it definitely did make me reflect on the tension between democratic, consensus-building processes and simply getting things done.
December 18, 2019
The research that went into this book is truly astounding. I don't think that I have read a better biography. The picture of Robert Moses will stay with me forever. Although I had no interest in reading about Lyndon Johnson, this bio encouraged me to pick up Caro's volumes on his life, and it was well worth it.
May 3, 2021
Not sure I can say much that hasn't been said in the 50 years since this book was published, but it's a remarkable portrayal of both Robert Moses and New York history, two subjects that (at least from 1924-1968) were closely intertwined. I would give it 6 stars if I could, and would love to read the un-edited 2,000 page original manuscript.
March 26, 2023
A long, acclaimed book, split into three parts in the audio version I listened to. Detailed without growing tiresome - against all odds, the final section, Part 3, is the book’s strongest - “The Power Broker” rewards the extensive time required to invest in a full listen.
September 14, 2022
A public An individual. A past. A future. Caro's masterful display of Moses' life is a massive reflection on the 20th century and its particular models of progress.
June 28, 2023
An interesting history of RobertMoses and his role in parks, beaches, highways, and housing in New York City. I highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews