I enjoyed reading about Caro's writing. I know that a long, long book can indeed be terrific; just sometimes (well, nearly always)need an outside push to get at it. One thing that strikes me is that it's good to be reminded that humans (male ones, anyway) have always done all they can to remain rich and powerful (and I go right back to Achilles and Agamemnon). I really enjoyed your list of all that has been going on while Caro is writing about LBJ.
Thanks -- a lot has happened in the last 50 years, and but all that time Caro has being doing just one thing! (Hopefully with the occasional vacation.) The nature of power, or at least some kinds of power, is what's really fascinating in Caro's books. Moses and LBJ are incredible characters and unlike anyone else I've ever read about.
Struggling to finish this book (and I'm listening to it on Audible) not so much for the writing (although it is incredibly repetitive at times) but because Robert Moses has become so utterly repellent (I have reached the 1960's). Loved Caro's Passage of Power which was fascinating.
Yeah, once he reaches peak appalling the main draw is waiting to see how he's brought down. It's also fun to see all his usual tricks failing completely when he runs the World's Fair. There were bits of the book (and some of it was the repetition) where I was thinking, "Yeah, this is definitely your first book, isn't it?" but sometimes the repetition was useful just to keep track of everything.
It might help that after 50 years there’s now an e-book version! Presumably you have to buy a physical copy as well to show off on your bookshelf, but you can get that after you’ve finished, along with the “I finished the Power Broker” coffee mug.
One of those giant books that people have in their shelves for years because they think is so intimidating, until they finally grab it and regret kicks in because they feel they should have read it earlier. Thank God for Kindle.
Yeah, I probably should have started by telling regular readers, "This is not fiction, and it's not about science," but I'm not fond of when Substack articles start with a little chatty hello explainer. Just get on with it!
Thanks for this, Mark. You have sparked my interest in this book. I grew up on Long Island in the 1950s-60s, and my life was certainly enriched by being able to access the state parks and beaches that Moses created and to use the (truck-free) garden-lined highways (State Parkways, they are still called) that I was told were also Moses’ doing. When I compare those things to the amount of planning (zero) that has gone into everything else built on Long Island since then, I thank Moses for what he did to make the place live-able. But of course all of this also enabled the huge eastwards expansion of the NYC suburbs over what had been fertile farmland and Gatsby-like country estates. People in those suburbs used to talk about Moses with a mixture of gratitude and awe, since his reputation for getting what he wanted was certainly well known.
Oh, this book is perfect for you, and I would be very interested to hear what you think. Caro has said that his main motivation was the realisation of how much power Moses had, and no-one knew how he got it, but I don't know what his feeling was about Moses when he started. Much like what you wrote, Moses was generally popular with the public ("the Parks guy!"). That's not quite the feeling you have by the end of the book...
I enjoyed reading about Caro's writing. I know that a long, long book can indeed be terrific; just sometimes (well, nearly always)need an outside push to get at it. One thing that strikes me is that it's good to be reminded that humans (male ones, anyway) have always done all they can to remain rich and powerful (and I go right back to Achilles and Agamemnon). I really enjoyed your list of all that has been going on while Caro is writing about LBJ.
Thanks -- a lot has happened in the last 50 years, and but all that time Caro has being doing just one thing! (Hopefully with the occasional vacation.) The nature of power, or at least some kinds of power, is what's really fascinating in Caro's books. Moses and LBJ are incredible characters and unlike anyone else I've ever read about.
Struggling to finish this book (and I'm listening to it on Audible) not so much for the writing (although it is incredibly repetitive at times) but because Robert Moses has become so utterly repellent (I have reached the 1960's). Loved Caro's Passage of Power which was fascinating.
Yeah, once he reaches peak appalling the main draw is waiting to see how he's brought down. It's also fun to see all his usual tricks failing completely when he runs the World's Fair. There were bits of the book (and some of it was the repetition) where I was thinking, "Yeah, this is definitely your first book, isn't it?" but sometimes the repetition was useful just to keep track of everything.
Now you have done it…I will have to spend the next months reading this engaging book!
It might help that after 50 years there’s now an e-book version! Presumably you have to buy a physical copy as well to show off on your bookshelf, but you can get that after you’ve finished, along with the “I finished the Power Broker” coffee mug.
One of those giant books that people have in their shelves for years because they think is so intimidating, until they finally grab it and regret kicks in because they feel they should have read it earlier. Thank God for Kindle.
Finding a comfortable way to hold the book was one of the peculiar challenges of reading it! The e-book version only came out last year. There's a NYT article about it (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/12/books/ebook-robert-caro-the-power-broker.html), but it's behind a paywall.
well the first paragraph hooked me and then it took a complete turn! very interesting
Yeah, I probably should have started by telling regular readers, "This is not fiction, and it's not about science," but I'm not fond of when Substack articles start with a little chatty hello explainer. Just get on with it!
Thanks for this, Mark. You have sparked my interest in this book. I grew up on Long Island in the 1950s-60s, and my life was certainly enriched by being able to access the state parks and beaches that Moses created and to use the (truck-free) garden-lined highways (State Parkways, they are still called) that I was told were also Moses’ doing. When I compare those things to the amount of planning (zero) that has gone into everything else built on Long Island since then, I thank Moses for what he did to make the place live-able. But of course all of this also enabled the huge eastwards expansion of the NYC suburbs over what had been fertile farmland and Gatsby-like country estates. People in those suburbs used to talk about Moses with a mixture of gratitude and awe, since his reputation for getting what he wanted was certainly well known.
Oh, this book is perfect for you, and I would be very interested to hear what you think. Caro has said that his main motivation was the realisation of how much power Moses had, and no-one knew how he got it, but I don't know what his feeling was about Moses when he started. Much like what you wrote, Moses was generally popular with the public ("the Parks guy!"). That's not quite the feeling you have by the end of the book...