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Summary: WHO'S ROBERT MOSES?
Review: Robert Moses dominated NYC. Mr.s Caro's Book tells how. THIS BOOK IS A MUST FOR ALL POLITICAL JUNKIES. No stone is left unturned is this telling biography. No tidbit left to random chance. I read this great BIG book for weeks and was taken back in time to early new york city. I came to understand how NYC works. I realized that their is such a thing as unsatisfied greed. Their's nothing some people won't do for power and more power and Robert Moses was one of those people. Instructive also in the transformation of Robert Moses from young Idealist to ruthless Dominator. Instructive on how public works programs work. City politics shown as it really is. Alexis Tocueville would be stunned be America's failure of democracy. I know I was. A great, great book.
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Summary: It is impossible to overstate how good this book is.
Review: I too read this book shortly after it came out. At the time, I had just graduated from college and was working at a series of odd jobs while I tried to figure out what to do with my life. I happened upon this book and was swept away. By any measure, it sets a standard that few writers can hope to equal (and Caro himself may go the rest of his career without ever writing another book as good as this first effort). Whether read as a work of biography about a larger-than-life, repellantly fascinating character, an engrossing history of New York, or a penetrating critique of politics and urban planning, you will eat this book up. "In New York City, in the postwar era, the discretionary power resided principally in Robert Moses, and like filings to a magnet -- or, more precisely, like flies to a sugar bowl -- the corrupters, the men who possessed influence over the city's political or governmental apparatus and who were willing to sell that influence for money, were attracted to Moses, and to the seemingly bottomless sugar bowl for which he possessed the only spoon. And Moses did not send them away disappointed." (p. 718) If you like to read, it simply doesn't get any better than this. I've never read anything like it.
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Summary: Robert Moses as Darth Vader
Review: I read Caro's sweeping biographical masterpiece when it first came out in hardcover back in the 1970s. I was swept away by it. I recommended it to all then, and still do. Growing up in NYC, I was taught that Moses was the perfect civil servant, selflessly dedicated to improving the standard of living of New Yorkers through massive public works projects. Caro's book adds more than a bit of detail and a whole new perspective to the schoolboy myth. Reflecting on the book, and Caro's recent New Yorker article (describing his interviews with RM and his perceptions of the man) it struck me how much RM, like the movies' Darth Vader, started out with the best of intentions. But somewhere along the line, he lost his way. His monomaniacal devotion to building incredibly large and complex public works made him lose sight of their short term and long term impact on the people those projects were to serve. In the end RM was guilefully and pitifully stripped of his powers by Nelson Rockefeller, who was no Luke Skywalker. Unlike Darth Vader however, RM was never redeemed. Read this and Caro's ongoing biography of Lyndon Johnson. All highly recommended.
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Summary: Must read book on politics and power
Review: Robert Caro has written an absolutely fascinating and engaging biography of RobertMoses. While many Americans have never heardof Moses, his influence for over 50 years inNew York City and elsewhere remains felt today.Although massize in size and scope -- much likeMoses himself -- Caro's book reads like a novel. A must for anyone interested in cities,politics, or power
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Summary: Take a deep breath and invest the time
Review: There is no way around it - this book requires a very real investment of time. But what a payoff! In addition to having a really thick book to put on your shelf to impress your friends, this is one of the greatest biographies over written.
Caro has chosen a truly unique character to profile. Robert Moses is unlike any other person I've encountered in my reading. The man backed down the Governor of New York and the President of the United States from a non-elected position in New York City government. In addition, Moses dominated every mayor of New York and he politics of the city itself for almost 40 years. No wonder the book is so long.
In addition, the book can't help but be a biography of modern New York City. So much of the city bears the fingerprints of Robert Moses that learning about the man necessarily teaches you a lot about how the city became what it is today.
A must-read for fans of biography, stories of power, and New York City.
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Summary: brilliant
Review: but 77 reviews is enough!
I just want to reiterate- should you believe this book is overly biased and makes a caricature of the man, watch the "New York" PBS series too see him make a caricature of himself!
Montgomery Burns would envy his public relations style! Sure it would have been interesting to read a little more background, to get an idea of how the man developed into such a ruthless powermonger who saw dollars and legacy, not humans. But this is still an amazing and well written portrayal of not just a man, but of the forces that created the only landscape some of us have ever known.
Some could say the negative was stressed too much. But the legacy of Mose's highways makes me think of the Sopranos episode where Tony visits Italy, and the senile Italian boss can only fondly recall of his visit to New York 'Ma-jor DEE-gan! Cross-Bronx ExpressWAY!'. The episode ends with the men leaving the beautiful coast of Naples, only to drive down endless streches of grey roads. - Mose's Legacy.
There is one thing that I found surprisingly lacking - mention of the influence (and as I remember from history in college, major financial kickbacks) of auto manufacturers. That, as in all cities in the U.S., it was not vision, but dollars from Ford and G.M. that initiated our absurd worship of car 'freedom'.
I only hope that Portland can serve as a model to how urban blight can be reversed. Hopefully the rebuilding of a grand Penn Station in Manhattan is the beginning to an urban renewal in New York. Maybe this time urban renewal will be inclusive?
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Summary: Flawed Genius
Review: This masterwork shows two equally compelling sides of Robert Moses.
Robert Moses as a young man truly was a visionary. His vision of the workings of a modern metropolis today defines virtually every major city in this country. The twentieth century American city is the vision Robert Moses foresaw in 1918.
His roads, bridges, and parks defined New York, and many are works of genius. His engineering skills cannot be overstated. His master plan for New York government operations swept public service from provincial graft to public accountability. His knowledge and use of how to use all this power allowed Robert Moses to "Get Things Done" on a scale never witnessed before or since. Robert Moses was the first truly urban 20th century man.
But...the dark side of Robert Moses is also faithfully discussed here. His arrogance and vindictiveness are also unfortunately legendary. Presidents and Governors feared him, Mayors took orders from him...and Moses used this power to benefit...Robert Moses. This book deals openly about the heartbreak brought to so many people by Robert Moses. Some parts of this book are very sad indeed.
What contrasts! Do we remember him for all of his great works, for his undeniable genius...or do we remember him for all the people he crushed along the way? I think perhaps we remember him for both of these reasons.
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Summary: Majestic
Review: Robert Moses never held public office during the roughly 40 year span of his career, but he has more to do with the shape of New York City and its surrounding environment than any man who ever lived. Moses preferred to work behind the scenes, often in secrecy, wielding a overwhelming power established through his knowledge, personal determination, and by using fair amount of intimidation.
Caro's ambitious and extensive biography examines the play between Moses' prodigious intelligence and his lust for arbitrary power. He documents how the people both gained and lost by consequence of the plans and whims this extraordinary man. Moses was responsible for great parks, beaches, and highways. One the other hand he's responsible for massive traffic snarls, destruction of neighborhoods, and the slumming of the inner city.
This book is not just the story of one man, but is the story of a great American city and how that city became great. Contained in this book is the story of Jones Beach, Riverside Park, the Cross Bronx Expressway, the Verrazano-Narrows bridge, the World's Fair, among other great projects.
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Summary: a brief comment on other reader reviews
Review: I echo all the well-deserved praise written here by other readers. This book is one of the great works of fiction of our time.
However, I disagree with reviewers who feel Caro concentrated too heavily on the negative side of Moses's legacy. Caro actually took great pains to praise Moses's genius, especially before it was corrupted by his rampant quest for power. The section on Jones Beach is a great example of this; the chapter on how Moses raised the funds to build the West Side Highway (Henry Hudson Parkway) is another.
Caro also celebrates Moses's outsized personality, energy and drive. Although the author disapproves with much of how Moses used his genius, Caro knows a genius when he sees one.
If the view of Moses is not balanced 50-50 between positive and negative, that's because the author believes Moses's legacy to New York was overwhelming negative. As a lifelong New Yorker, I can only agree.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant, but imbalanced
Review:
Although this book is over 1300 pages, Caro does an extraordinary job chronicling the life of Robert Moses. This book is a real page turner and you can't help but be inspired and repulsed by what Robert Moses did.
This book's main flaw is its relentlessly negative view of Robert Moses. It is true that Moses permanently altered the relationship between New York City and the suburbs. He destroyed vital neighborhoods and undermined the stability of surrounding areas. However, it is a mistake to say (as Caro does) that Moses was the sole cause of what happened afterwards. Suburbanization (and urban renewal, but that's another topic!) after the Second World War was encouraged by all levels of government. To put it another way, if Moses hadn't built the highways (and cleared the "slums"), someone else would have.
In reality, the long-term stability of American cities was undermined by VA mortgages (often cheaper than renting), red lining, cheap oil and the interstate highways. Common wisdom says that the race riots "caused" suburbanization. The truth is that suburbanization was already far advanced in 1965; the riots merely sped up the process. Incidentally, 1965 was the year of the Watts riots, the first major urban disturbance in the 1960s. Despite the anti-Moses bias of this book, I'm still giving it four stars because it is such a good read! For a more detailed examination of New York's problems in the late 20th Century, I suggest "Geography of Nowhere" by James Howard Kunstler, "The Ungovernable City" by Vincent Cannato, "The Assassination of New York" by Robert Fitch, and the 1961 classic "The Life and Death of American Cities" by Jane Jacobs.
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