The Power Broker

Robert A. Caro · 1974

Ask who pays for getting things done.

Big Idea

Caro uses Robert Moses’s career to examine how power can accumulate outside elections and reshape the lives of people with little control over it.

An appointed official can gain enormous influence through institutions and control of resources.

Parks, roads, and major projects become sources of continuing authority.

The machinery around decisions can matter as much as the official public debate.

A celebrated project can displace communities or make daily life harder for others.

Caro’s inquiry follows effects on people who cannot easily influence the decision.

Moses disputed the book; the account remains Caro’s researched interpretation, not an uncontested personal confession.

For a major project, ask who controls the decision, who receives the benefit, and who has little voice in its costs.

Measure power by its effects on those without it.