The Power Broker

The biography was written by Robert Caro, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author. Caro spent seven years meticulously researching and writing the book, originally intending it to be a much shorter profile for *Newsday*. His exhaustive research included conducting hundreds of interviews and delving deep into previously sealed municipal archives.

The book is a biography of Robert Moses, an urban planner and public official who shaped New York City's infrastructure for over forty years. Despite never being elected to public office, Moses held immense, unchecked power through various appointed commission roles. He built extensive parkways, bridges, and public housing projects, fundamentally altering the physical and social landscape of the city.

The book was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1974. It quickly became a critical sensation, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 1975. Its publication permanently cemented Robert Moses's legacy in the public eye as a polarizing, powerful, and often destructive figure.

Moses gained power by mastering the drafting of legislation, writing bills that granted him absolute control over newly formed public authorities like the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. By controlling massive revenue-generating infrastructure, he bypassed the traditional checks and balances of local government and elections. He manipulated mayors and governors, trading his ability to deliver federal funding and massive public works for political autonomy.