If every reader holds a fascination for an unlikely subject, mine is urban planning—which is why the recommendations I've received to read The Power Broker over the years are legion. I finally picked it up and slowly made my way through its 1344 pages, which have frequently been described as a tour de force of biography, history, and journalism. In these pages I learned how I had no idea what I didn't know, and that my own experience moving through New York City, the United States, and even some cities of the world had been decidedly impacted by this man who never held elected office and yet built more infrastructure and structures than anyone who's ever lived—and influenced the building of many more. I'm so glad I finally read this: I was expecting something akin to Witold Rybczynski's A Clearing in the Distance about Frederick Law Olmsted and the building of America (and NYC parks) in the 19th Century, and was surprised to discover it felt much more like Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, a Lincoln biography that lingers on the question of how history would be different both then and today had Lincoln survived to lead his country through the Reconstruction era. Here Caro poses an inversion of that question, asking how New York City might be better—that is, more equitable, accessible, and beautiful—had Moses not held the power to shape the landscape and infrastructure from the crucial years of 1924 to 1968 in ways that today are irreversible.
