Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: An astonishing masterpiece and a testament to the idea that "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." This is a must read for anyone who has the slightest interest in the history of New York City and its surrounding area. As an attorney for NYC who finds himself dealing with high ranking government officials, this book is a political bible in understanding how power has been and still continues to be consolidated in NYC. The book is lengthy but it is certain to endure. (I'm not sure if I can say the same for the structures that Robert Moses developed. They recently started demolishing his beloved collisieum near Columbus Circle.)
Rating:
Summary: A public work in itself
Review: I was attracted to this book because I thought, now that suburban sprawl is a <i>fait accompli</i> and we have all decided it's a bad thing, we might want to understand the philosophy behind it in the first place. There is that in this book, and so much more. Basically, Moses never really grasped that things had changed since he first built parkways to Long Island in the 1920s. He thought of driving principally as a recreational activity, or a means of reaching recreation. It never occurred to him that people would be using them to go long distances to and from work every day. And he refused to listen to any voice beside his own. More than anything else, this towering book is a uniquely American story in the vein of <i>Citizen Kane</i> (as well as all the other narratives referred to above). It's easy to paraphrase a line from that film and say that if Moses hadn't had power, he might have been a truly great man. Ironically enough, Caro pays tribute to Moses best by having done this biography determinedly and exhaustively ... the way Moses himself would have done such a job. And his storytelling skills are such that you go from rooting for Moses in the '20s as he fights the Gatsby-types to build his state parks to rooting (often unsuccessfully) against him in the '50s as he arrogantly bulldozes highways through city neighborhoods and lets the machine scalp the poor through his "housing" program. All the way, Moses's best and worst qualities - a twisted genius - are laid bare. If I had to say something negative, it would be to second the comments that there's still more to the story ... I'd love to see an uncut version, even if it were 2,000 pages. And I'd love to see a movie, too.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Great Modern Biographies
Review: Robert Caro's "The Power Broker" set the standard for contemporary biography. Rarely does a writer tackle a living subject (Moses has since passed on) and achieved both biography and history. A massive book, "The Power Broker" is not light reading, however, it's one of the most fascinating books I've ever read and once read, you'll never forget it and never look at New York City, or any other American city the same way again. If ever there was proof needed of the old cliche "Power corrupts", here is exhibt A. Robert Moses was a genuis, maybe an evil genuis, but that he left a big mark on the world in which we live there is no doubt. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Don't blame us--blame the "Authority"
Review: Everyone knows--or intuitively feels--that American cities had some great opportunities to become enjoyable, livable places during the course of the 20th Century but somehow blew the opportunity. This book explains a major component of why and how the betrayal occurred by focusing on the man who was both the cause and the victim of the betrayal, a powerful bureaucrat little known outside of metropolitan New York, Robert Moses.The book details Moses' slow rise to power as an idealistic Wilsonian Democrat fighting the entrenched power of corrupt Tammany Hall politics, his novel approach to parks planning (he virtually invented the "parkway," for example), his massive public works (among them the Triborough Bridge and all of New York City's expressways), and his inevitable decline and fall after he refused to relinquish power in old age. As time wore on Moses became less and less the man of the people and more and more the man of the system of his own creation, and that system was the toll-gathering mechanism of New York's bridges and tunnels. He invented that peculiar institution, the "authority" (as in Port "Authority" or Tennessee Valley "Authority") that is neither wholly governmental nor wholly private, and so lacks the restraints of either; Moses' cash cows kept him in power and gave him an antidemocratic arrogance that is truly breathtaking and, one hopes, will never be duplicated. This book isn't just for New Yorkers or for those who wonder why New York's roadways are so confusingly laid out. America's other big cities are New York writ small--they went to New York at the height of Moses' power and emulated his methods! That helps us understand the mania for building our now hopelessly overcrowded expressways and devaluing public transportation, whose lack we are just now trying to address by building expensive light-rail and commuter-train systems that should have been in place for decades. This is an extremely long book and extremely "wonky" in terms of policy discussion but gripping reading nonetheless. It also set the tone for further political biogaphy/psycho-biography, by both Caro and other writers. The depth of research in this book is simply amazing.
Rating:
Summary: The Single Best Urban History; A Masterpiece!
Review: The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York is perhaps the most brilliantly written, most brilliantly researched treatment of the modern history of the greatest city in the world. The role of Robert Moses, in the development of New York City, is expertly and accurately portrayed by the author. Moses does not emerge a hero in this book, nor should he, but his story is a compelling one. This book is without doubt a "must-read."
Rating:
Summary: Believe it or not it could have been a lot longer
Review: I read this book as required reading for a political science undergrad course (yes he was a tough professor). We were required to finish the book in eight weeks and then take a mid-term based solely on the text of the book. The initial grumbelings by the students in the course were audible until Dr. Seeny told us that the book had been cut in half by the editors. Yes,this 1100 page book with over a million words had started out at over 2 million words. I have read with interest some of the reviews that indicate Caro could have done more with less, however after reading this book as well as both his masterpieces on Johnson I am left wanting for more. I would welcome the opportunity to read the full un-edited version of this book. I am also anxiously waiting his third volume on Johnson.
Rating:
Summary: Everyone should read The Power Broker.
Review: Perhaps the best book I've ever read. Caro makes many great accomplishments, showing us 1) how the game of politics was played in 20th century New York 2)how Moses' accomplishments that everyone praised negatively affected New York and 3)the prices of getting things done. All of this encompassed in a 1164 page book that manages to be a continuous page turner. This invaluable resource will make you love, hate, respect,and pity the man who did so much for New York and who, previous to Caro, did not get the attention he deserved.
Rating:
Summary: Getting things done.
Review: How do you get things done, in an environment which was virtually designed from the ground up to make it impossible? Robert Moses knows, better than anyone has known before or since. This is a much more balanced work than the other reviews will tell you; Robert Caro is as unstinting in his admiration for the genius behind Jones Beach as he is with his sympathy for the victims of his vindictiveness. And, in the end, while many of Moses' works probably shouldn't have been built, we have the spectacle of a city in desperate need of more grand projects, but profoundly unable to do anything about it. You see, only Moses could push them through. Do you want to deal with the Man Who Gets things Done, or do you just not want things to be done at all? It's a terrible choice. This is a truly compelling work, gripping through its entire 1200-odd page length. I recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Formidable
Review: This is an impressive and, despite its length, readable and engrossing book. It shows a man whose only concern was power, but could be seen, and wanted to be seen, as a benevolent public figure, WHICH IS SO OFTEN THE CASE WITH PUBLIC FIGURES. Moses was a bully, and a dominator, and I relish SO MUCH that he was alive when this book was published! For once Moses got kicked in the teeth, after a lifetime of kicking everyone else in the teeth. I regret profoundly that LBJ wasn't/isn't alive to read how Caro has revealed him to be the crooked bully that he was, on his first two LBJ bio volumes. But Moses was alive when THE POWER BROKER was published, and he HATED it. (Caro wrote an article in "The New Yorker" when this bio was re-issued in the late 90's, about how Moses reacted. I don't know the exact issue it was in, but anyone who liked this bio should consider tracking that article by Caro down). This book is a perfect example of how and why the scum, rather than the cream, of society, so often rises to the top. Caro does hype things a bit in spots, which makes a passage here and there seem contrived. But he brings life to his writing most of the time, without it being contrived, and that's why this book is, mostly, so riveting. He spares us from the dry, academic writing, that so many other biographers inflict upon us.
Rating: 
Summary: Too many words . . .
Review: With all the acclaim given this book, I feel a little like the king complaining to Mozart that his masterpiece has "too many notes." But that, in fact, seems to be true. I got the impression that Caro's research was so exhausting, that he felt he simply had to write into the book everything he learned (many arcane facts he even repeated several times). The book is unnecessarily long. That said, the other reviewers are correct, the book is a graduate school course in what power does to humanity. I am glad to have read the book, but will not do it again until an abridged version is published. Spielberg ought to do THIS movie about Moses, "The Prince of New York".
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