BOOK #1 - This epic 1200-page tome is hands-down one of the most fascinating and, believe it or not, exciting books I’ve ever read. Caro turns the crafting of legislation and the construction of highways into a tense high-wire act. His portrayal of Moses and Moses’ impact on New York City is somehow simultaneously inspiring and devastating.
I’m not saying anything that hasn’t already been said about this book. But it definitely earns its reputation as one of the best non-fiction books ever written.
Huge thanks to Anthony for recommending this book — it’s one of the best I’ve ever read. The superficial takeaway in the years since the book’s publication seems to have been “Moses was a monster”, but that interpretation unfairly flattens the detailed and nuanced portrait Caro paints. Moses was a genuine genius; but rather than a painting or a symphony, the subject of his creative work was a physical city where millions of people lived. When a great director gets hubristic, he makes a bad movie; when Moses got hubristic, he destroyed the fabric of the city.
It’s Caro’s examination of the mechanics of power, though, that’s the most fascinating. Moses didn’t get things done by forcing his will on people like some feudal lord; rather, he gained his power by giving people — unions, politicians, newspapers editors, and voters — exactly what they wanted, until what he wanted became what they wanted, and so that, if you wanted to fight him, you were also fighting every person in the State of New York. The most dangerous forces in society aren’t the powers that twist our arms; they’re the powers that flatter us, put money in our pockets and thereby persuade us to agree.
All of that, and it remains one of the most readable books I’ve ever read; those 1200 pages fly by. I’ve never felt like I’ve understood so much about such an interesting human being so well. Really, it’s a book that deserves its reputation in every way, and I can’t recommend it more highly to anyone with even a passing interest in New York City or American urban life.
