Robert Caro's The Power Broker at 50 | The New York Historical

At the age of thirty-five, Robert Moses had power. And no sooner did he have it than he showed how he was going to use it.

The Parade of the Power Brokers had, to anyone interested in the nuances of true power in New York State, been a good show. It was to be the last Robert Moses ever produced. The imperial guard would never charge for him again.

During his decades of power, the public works decisions that determined the city’s shape were made on the basis not of democratic but of economic considerations. During most of his reign—the post-La Guardia portion of it—the city’s people had no real voice at all in determining the city’s future.

THE LITTLE FLOWER was mastering New York City as no mayor since Peter Stuyvesant had mastered it.

In road-building in and around New York, he had a dictator’s powers. And he used them.