The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York is a 1974 biography of Robert Moses by Robert Caro. The book focuses on the creation and use of power in New York local and state politics, as witnessed through Moses's use of unelected positions to design and implement dozens of highways and bridges, sometimes at great cost to the communities he nominally served. It has been repeatedly named one of the best biographies of the 20th century, and has been highly influential on city planners and politicians throughout the United States. The book won a Pulitzer Prize in 1975.
Cover art of The Power Broker since publication
Robert Moses was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid-20th century. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influential people in the history of New York City and New York State. The grand scale of his infrastructure projects and his philosophy of urban development influenced a generation of engineers, architects, and urban planners across the United States.
Moses in 1939 with a model of his proposed Battery Bridge
Part of the Triborough Bridge (left) with Astoria Park and its pool in the center
The headquarters of the United Nations in New York City, viewed from the East River. The Secretariat Building is on the left and the General Assembly Building is the low structure to the right of the tower. This set of buildings straddles the FDR Drive, another of Moses's creations.
View of the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair as seen from the observation towers of the New York State pavilion. The Fair's symbol, the Unisphere, is the central image.