"The Power Broker," by Robert Caro

On its 50th anniversary, this hefty tome has been regularly suggested by members, and so we've worked it into our meeting schedule! Pulitzer Prize winner, Francis Parkman Prize winner, one of Modern Library's picks for The 100 Greatest Nonfiction Books of the 20th Century, Gold Medal winner from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and on and on.

Even what occurred surrounding this book's seven-year development and initial publication is a story unto itself. Revered by many who knew Moses, and despised by Moses himself, this seminal biography changed the political and urban-planning landscape of not just New York City and New York state, but the entire country, including direct praise for its influence from Tokyo to the Hague to Dubai. With a major focus on the New York Metropolitan Area, it is low-hanging fruit ripe to be read in our Big Apple book club.

*Just an extra note: You might want to devote extra time to this book. Initially clocking in at over 1,000,000 words, this is still the longest book our book club has read with a final count upon publication of 700,000 words. (The next-longest book we've read was Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, which stops just short of 562,000 words.) For a bit of relief, while you'll find the page count to be 1,246 pages, the last ~80 pages are notes. Hopefully you don't receive any bruises, sprains, or broken bones reading this one!

Regarding our location, if you need some extra landmark help, find your way to Belvedere Castle. Behind it you'll find two staircases diverging past fenced-in outdoor equipment. Take the left staircase, and keep bearing to the left after you get to the bottom of it.

Feel free to bring a blanket, chair, water, snacks, your friendly dog.

From Goodreads:

One of the most acclaimed books of our time, winner of both the Pulitzer and the Francis Parkman prizes, The Power Broker tells the hidden story behind the shaping (and mis-shaping) of twentieth-century New York (city and state) and makes public what few have known: that Robert Moses was, for almost half a century, the single most powerful man of our time in New York, the shaper not only of the city's politics but of its physical structure and the problems of urban decline that plague us today.

In revealing how Moses did it--how he developed his public authorities into a political machine that was virtually a fourth branch of government, one that could bring to their knees Governors and Mayors (from La Guardia to Lindsay) by mobilizing banks, contractors, labor unions, insurance firms, even the press and the Church, into an irresistible economic force--Robert Caro reveals how power works in all the cities of the United States. Moses built an empire and lived like an emperor. He personally conceived and completed public works costing 27 billion dollars--the greatest builder America (and probably the world) has ever known. Without ever having been elected to office, he dominated the men who were--even his most bitter enemy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, could not control him--until he finally encountered, in Nelson Rockefeller, the only man whose power (and ruthlessness in wielding it) equalled his own.