Robert Moses: The Master Builder of New York City

by Pierre Christin, Olivier Balez (Visual Art)

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

From the subway to the skyscraper, from Manhattan’s financial district to the Long Island suburbs, every inch of New York tells the story of one man’s Robert Moses, the architect who designed it all. Now, in Pierre Christin and Olivier Balez's new graphic biography, the rest of Robert’s story will be told.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Nonfiction, Comics, Biography, New York, Architecture, History

104 pages, Hardcover

First published January 8, 2014

About the author

Pierre Christin was a French comics creator and writer.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sort of Cliff Notes version of Robert Moses. This book just touches on his accomplishments and faults. Robert Moses redefined the New York City area in the 20th Century creating most of the parkways, bridges, parks, etc in the metro area. Without his creation of the parkways and Long Island Expressway on Long Island, I probably wouldn't live out on the island today.

Received a review copy from Nobrow and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

[Dov Zeller]

Not sure if the author/illustrator team bit off more than they could chew, or failed to take an adequate nibble, but this book doesn't feel like a completed project. It was informative, but not fully formed.

There are people who are commenting or saying in their reviews that the problem is with the form itself -- of graphic biography. I couldn't disagree more. A tale told well is a tale told well, with text-heavy books or without sequential art. I've read many great biographical sequential art works. Just to name a few: the Center for Cartoon Studies book about Annie Sullivan and Helen Keler; The Hypo; Woman Rebel; The Boxer; just about any biographical work by Rick Geary...

This book didn't have a firm direction. It was almost like reading two different books, one missing a beginning, the other the ending. I am still glad I read it, and I hope it inspires more graphic works in which Moses and Jane Jacobs take leading roles. They are both fascinating, determined, influential characters, with perhaps more in common than either would want to admit.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book to read to get to know Robert Moses is the Pulitzer-prize winning biography The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (1975), which is a tome, 1348 pages, one of the great biographies, and who will bother to read it? Maybe some folks who read this only 105 page sketch of his life, which sort of nods at his complicated disdain for the very rich and very poor as he lay down the highway system in New York. His connection to Jane Jacobs is touched on. Everything is really just touched on, really, though it is lovely to see and may whet your appetite to read a longer bio. I liked it just fine for that.

[Hannah Garden · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well I found this to be a real ding dong of a book. I considered that maybe I just wasn’t the best audience as an American adult—it’s YA that feels almost like it’s intended for use in a lower-grade educational setting and the author is French, so maybe a European tween who wants to learn about New York is the intended audience, but it’s so riddled with inaccuracies that it wouldn’t be of actual use to them at all, even if they could enjoy it just as graphic storytelling, but then the art is so eye-heavyingly dull and the narrative so brittle and bloodless it’s hard to imagine that, either.

This was a hard pass for me, let me know if you like it why.

[Derek Royal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not exactly sure what to make of this book, as I'm not entirely convinced the creators knew exactly where to take this biography. A more thorough knowledge of Moses's life would have helped in understanding many of the events that were covered, or referred to. And the last third of the narrative concerned Moses in relation to Jane Jacobs. Might that dynamic have been a more appropriate topic for the entire book?

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off, there is a long, detailed, and scathing review of this book on the Amazon website (9 February 2015) by Stan Augarten. I agree with him.

So what I did was to forget any pretensions about this being an accurate biography in illustrated form. Rather, I treated it as a genuine graphic 'novel' - a work of fiction, in effect set in a parallel universe which has some things in common with our own, about someone called Robert Moses, who did a lot of the things 'our' RM did. Then I could enjoy it!

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 3 out of 5]

So here we have a book about Robert Moses, one of the most influential cityplanners, his rise to power, and in the last quarter of the book, his quarrels with Village Voice journalist Jane Jacobs, who basically saw Moses' work as dehumanising.

The book mainly focuses on Moses' life story, but I found myself just as interested (maybe even more so) in Jane Jacobs, and would've liked a similar treatment of her life story.

3,5 stars

[Nuno R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since the first pages that I thought of Howard Roark, the character from Ayn Rand's Fountainhead (I only know the 1949 film, not Rand's original novel). Robert Moses, which I knew nothing about, seems one of those individualistic heroes (that objectivism idealizes) that fight against the status quo and "mediocrity". That impression was so strong that I went and read about Fountainhead, to see if there is a connection between Rand's hero and Moses and to check the dates (of Moses biography and Ayn Rand's book publication). Did not find anything (but my search was lazy). Still I found that the book did seem to be published during the height of Moses' influence and power. Maybe it was the first few pages of this comic that took inspiration from Fountainhead.

This is a well crafted book in all aspects. Good writing and use of documentation. Great art that has, in terms of style and colors, a retro feel. And a perspective that is coherent. Fans of Moses might not enjoy it as much as other people. But there is a balance. Since part of the history of New York's urbanism and Robert Moses coincide so much, this is also, in a way a story of the city (through the building and change of its cityscape). So the way Robert Moses rises and falls is also the story of how the city accepted him and finally dismissed him. And how "the city" became not just the powerfull on the top but also its inhabitants on the ground. And the character, which was a real man, is portrayed as such: a real person. Not as an idealized hero.

[Emilia P · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art in this is FANTASTIC. Picture postcard views of a mid-century New York, dastardly tales of Moses' machinations that made the city what it is, all around a fascinating story of the ins and outs, whys, wherefores, winners and losers in urban development. It makes me want to order Errol to read Caro's The Power Broker from which it admits to borrowing plenty. Get on it, bro.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very condensed biography of Robert Moses, but would be a great primer for people interested about him or New York during the early 20th century and don't have the time to tackle Caro's biography (or are maybe a bit too young). The art is really spectacular, and the colors used really capture that mid-century public works aesthetic that Moses brought to his projects.

[Curtis · Rating 3 out of 5]

At only 100 pages, this is a grade-school friendly rundown of the influence and impact of Robert Moses. I picture this as something assigned to junior high school students in New York, or something that could be sold at giftshops throughout the city. It's very boiler-plate, with dialogue often being overly expository. As a result it never feels like a proper narrative but more like a richly-illustrated summary.

Either way, I enjoyed this short take on Moses. I was glad to see that he was not overly-romanticized--his extremely problematic dehumanization of slum-dwellers (especially the non-white ones) is on display here. Both sides of Moses are presented in a way that would be easy for younger readers to understand, aside from a few verbose lines. The comic is also a great example of efficient visual storytelling. Artist Olivier Balez does a fantastic job with simplifying complex city-scapes into easily-readable, simple lines. The book is worth it for the artwork alone, in fact. His sense of lighting, colour, and panel layout pops off the page. I also enjoyed the use of grid-like panels--much like rows of windows in a sky-scraper--was a subtle way of saying something about Moses' obsession with efficiency, utility and order. The only issue I had with the art style was that, due to the speech bubbles being rectangular, they were sometimes hard to differentiate from the narrative bubbles. Had the narrative bubbles been stylized or coloured differently, they'd be easier to differentiate while still maintaining the rectangle motif.

I think I would have preferred this had it been longer. This would've made the book feel less like a series of vignettes and more like a solid story. It would also give the themes (gentrification, modernization and structures of power) room to breathe. Still, I'd recommend this to anyone looking to dip their toe into learning about Robert Moses, especially if you just borrow it from a library.

[Kinga (oazaksiazek) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,75
Ta graficzna biografia to kopalnia wiedzy na temat jednego z nowojorskich urbanistów, który swego czasu miał bardzo dużo do powiedzenia w trakcie planowania tego wielkiego, amerykańskiego miasta.

Robert Moses stworzył praktycznie od zera mnóstwo placów zabaw, mostów, basenów, bibliotek oraz tras widokowych. Jego zdanie na temat architektury było niezwykle istotne w Nowym Jorku. Z czasem jego decyzje stały się zbyt kontrowersyjne a na scenę, jako jego przeciwniczka, wkroczyła słynna Jane Jacobs.

To była bardzo interesująca książka z oryginalną i wpadającą w oko kreską. Olivier Balez pokazał tamtejszą rzeczywistość w ciekawy, przykuwający uwagę sposób.

Polecam wielbicielom Nowego Jorku, architektury i urbanistyki oraz nietypowych komiksów.

[Norma Peters · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had started The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro in 2023. I have read 647 pages: it is very well written, but heavy/dense, both literally and figuratively (if you know, you know what I mean). Since I do wish to finish the book, I needed a little push to get back into it. This is why I read this graphic novel. It is a good really-barely-skimming-over-the-surface overview of Robert Moses, think like a bonne bouche at a cocktail party, tasty leaving you wanting more. The drawings and story board are well done and the resources at the end are a good selection. IYI to know (I always look to see where a book is printed): this paperback English edition is printed in Lithuania.

[Shevek · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some of the visuals are really cool. Pretty much everything about the text within leaves much to be desired, from questionable facts and explanations of events to sentence structure and formatting. The Moses story is expansive and even Caro had to make substantial omissions in his 1200 page epic, The Power Broker. It will almost certainly be told on the screen some day but it will take a masterful hand to be done well, apparently the same could be said for a comic form of the story.

[kubelot · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 stars, rounding up to four. Loved the artwork, also the story was captivating and accessible even for a layman.
I had some problems with the polish translation, some issues with grammatical and/or stylistic structures. I also missed any explanations or footnotes on architectural terms

[Koen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tot ik de moed vat om Caro’s vuistdikke Robert Moses biografie te lezen, is dit een prima alternatief om iets bij te leren over de man die met zijn wegenaanleg en bouwprojecten bijna een halve eeuw lang het gezicht van New York bepaalde.

[Jak Krumholtz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cover caught my eye at the library. Was surprised to learn he died with less than $50K to his name. Kinda makes me want to re-read the Power Broker.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative, critical, comprehensive - prompts the desire for further reading

[Hal Schrieve · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book’s illustrations are gorgeous. They drip with fluid motion, subdued primary colors, and inviting, schematic depictions of New York’s evolution and the growth of new kinds of public (and exclusive) space. Light is flung across floors and skies and dances around the temples of a number of political figures as they emerge from shadows or move against windows. Every form is expressive and each panel does work effectively to create a sense of motion and impact.

The writing, on the other hand, works actively against the skills of the artist. It reads like a neutral, ambiguous book report for a seventh grade classroom. The author can’t decide how to effectively grapple with the political nuances of Moses’s life and makes the curious choice of taking the voice of an omniscient, neutral third person narrator who issues simple, vague statements about Moses and his dubious plans to transform the city. What could have been an episodic illustration of the arc of a career becomes an endless voice over that the reader begins to tire of by about page 30. Most of the dialogue serves only to illustrate things the narrator has already said, and none of the narration or dialogue makes us particularly root for Moses and at the same time the author seems to struggle to create a buffer so the audience doesn’t hate him. I am left wondering exactly what the creators’ goal was with the project.

What I hate most is the total lack of interest in giving a sense of context on the urban planning that Moses undertook or how his visions of the future formed. The text treats him as if he emerged in a vacuum, but his views were influenced by a variety of urban planners active all over the world during and before his time. We don’t hear a word about them. Likewise there is no effort to seriously deal with the people and ideas that opposed Moses and previous efforts to clear slums and create parks in a misguided effort to improve the lot of the poor.

Great art, reprehensible history—could have been so much better.

[Andrew Tatge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every even handed and succinct overview of the Great Builder. References in back point to deeper study, maybe think of this as a gateway to learning about the famous urban planner and his run in with Jane Jacobs. Nice art. Interesting commentary at the end about Jacobs’ and Moses’ legacy (notoriety for one, acclaim for the other, and possibly some unanticipated connections between one side of the contemporary political spectrum and NIMBY activists). Again, brief and light but points you in an interesting direction.
I’d recommend for middle schoolers perhaps?

[Mariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would make an excellent complement to The Power Broker. Of course it lacks the detail, nuance and notes of Caro's tome, but I'd happily use both books together to talk about some of these issues. It's very readable as well as beautiful and I will absolutely use it in my next urban history course.

[Joe Lanman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful art, and a fascinating story I knew nothing about. Some of the writing was a bit clunky though, and I'd actually be more interested in Jane Jacobs who featured near the end - protesting against Moses' callous redevelopment plans.

[Sonic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great care was taken to both celebrate this influential man's accomplishments, and also to give fair voice to his detractors, ... what results is a biography that leans towards Objectivity, which is all too rare in this world.

Expertly executed.

[Krzysztof · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ładny i sprawnie poprowadzony komiks. Jednak brakuje tutaj historii. Szkoda że autorzy nie zagłębili się trochę bardziej, tylko prześlizgneli się po tak intrygującym i nieoczywistym temacie 🙂

[Donnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much info in this easy to read graphic book.

Intersting that this book about an American was first written in French. Yes Moses admired the man who laid out Paris, and perhaps that connection was strong for the authors.

From this book we learn how Moses began with creating Jones Beach on Long Island, adding parks and community swimming pools to NYC, then moving on to building parkways and other roads, bridges including the George Washington that links New Jersey to Manhattan, tall residential towers to replace tenement slums, Lincoln Center and the United Nations Building.

Also, that he got much of the money to do his projects from WPA funds during the 1930's that were supposed to go to job creation. Well, he was paying for workers but also much of it was then going to materials as well which may have not been the original intent.

So interesting that he began with a goal to make the city better for the people, then gets sort of taken over by what is most economical and cost efficient.

Most fascinating of all, is that at the end of his career, and still to a certain extent--rather than being revered and remembered for all the "great" things he did, some of what he did is viewed as having harmed the City, and those items tend to predominate his legacy.

Further, you've got Jane Jacobs seen as a heroine of sorts--because she saved the Washington Square area from a grand expressway he wanted to put in (sort of the way city planners in Los Angels plowed Wilshire Blvd through the center of what is now MacArthur Park.)

The above goes to show that sometimes the simple act of saving something--a park, a building, a neighborhood--is the equivalent of creating that thing, without need of workers and materials.

[JC · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up on a trip to New York two years ago at The Strand. I finally got around to picking it up and found it to be informative, but if not totally absorbing.

I felt like I was getting the postcard version of the biography. It would be a good fit for younger folks trying to learn some basics. But so much felt like it was only at the surface and made me interested in what a deeper analysis would say about him. I also felt like it sometimes lacked a point of view; it seemed to flip-flop on what we were supposed to think about Moses. And not necessarily in a "we leave it up to you" sort of way. I wish it had stayed with one story for a longer time; it felt hard to be invested.

I will say, I love the art style. Though, I love almost everything Norbrow chooses to publish. Overall, I think this book makes me interested in learning more about Jane Jacobs, particularly. (I too love mocking Corbusier, who once spent a boatload of cash pick hammering the outside of the Barbican so it'd look right). So, in a way it accomplishes its goal to pull people in.

[2021 Popsugar Reading Challenge #36 - A book that has fewer than 1,000 reviews on Amazon or Goodreads ]

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Robert Moses: The Master Builder of New York City is a mediocre graphic novel, or graphic biography in this case. It provides a shallow overview of the life of this complex, great, and cruel man. The storytelling feels poorly focused. I wish that the authors had explored a specific theme or period of Moses' life rather than telling such a broad narrative. This is disappointing because Moses (and the building of New York) is a fascinating subject. What's more, there have been great nonfiction works done in the graphic novel medium - such as The Plot by Will Eisner, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui, and Ducks by Kate Beaton. This is one of those rare occasions where I want a remake.

Title: Robert Moses: The Master Builder of New York City
Authors: Pierre Christin [text], Olivier Balez [art]
Year: 2014
Genre: Nonfiction - Graphic biography
Page count: 104 pages
Date(s) read: 5/11/23 - 5/12/23
Reading journal entry #106 in 2023

[Emilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Como novela gráfica, logró interesarme. Los dibujos eran muy lindos pero mi problema sigue siendo la superficialidad del texto Abarca muy rápidamente la obra de un constructor que claramente se pasaba todo el día trabajando y diseñando nuevos proyectos. Entiendo que se privilegie la información ´más importante pero para mí, eso significa dejar de lado mucho detalle que puede resultar interesante.
Pese a esto, me encantó el libro. Tengo muchas ganas de leer más de él y de Jane Jacobs. Por supuesto también tengo ganas de ir a Nueva York y cuando lo haga, tendré en mente hacer un tour por las grandes obras de este señor. Me encantan las ciudades y me encanta saber de ellas.
Una novela gráfica que recomiendo mucho si te interesa el urbanismo y la planificación urbana.

[Wendy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is an illustrated/graphic book describing Moses' vision for NYC and his impact on the development of roads, bridges, parks, pools, playgrounds, libraries, and buildings in the city and its surrounding boroughs. There are puzzling gaps in the content of the book. Even so, I was intrigued to learn a little about his high-energy work ethic, flamboyant vision, and collaboration with Walt Disney. The author pulled no punches in describing his entitled, arrogant, manipulative, classist, and racist personality. It's surprising to learn that this utterly disagreeable guy successfully imposed his ideas on the city's elected officials and ended up creating much of the infrastructure and some of the most impressive buildings that remain today. I wish there had been more information in the book. This was just an appetizer.

[Raghuveer Parthasarathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

A graphic biography of the public official who shaped a lot of present-day New York. It’s hard to imagine such a thing working in an illustrated book as short as this, and this book definitely falls far short. It fails completely to give a sense of Moses’ methods -- *how* he managed to have such an impact – and very superficially looks at his motivations. The book is very awkwardly translated, and consists largely of blunt statements “telling” rather than “showing.” Other reviews imply that it has a lot of factual errors as well. The illustrations are quite good, but that’s not enough to save this