The Power Broker

Why it’s on the list: Caro’s study of Robert Moses — how one unelected official reshaped New York for forty years — as the definitive case study in how durable power is actually accumulated and spent.

Where I heard about it

• Spotted at Pioneer Book, Provo — May 2024 (Books photo album)

• Spotted at Barnes & Noble at Fashion Place, Murray — November 2024 (Books photo album)

• A perennial recommendation — the canonical pairing for any serious reading on who really builds cities, recommended again and again in city-building and institutional-power conversations.

• A reply to @moseskagan — in the thread under his question “What historical fiction should I read next?” (April 2025). The full set of replies is on What historical fiction should I… (tweet).

• A reply to @WillManidis — in the thread under his question “what is the single best book you can read that will explain an entire industry?” (June 2025). The full set of replies is on what is the single best book… (tweet).

• Tyler Cosgrove (@tylercosgrove) — on his list of 25 books he offered to send to Jared Kushner (October 2025).

• On Patrick Collison’s Bookshelf — Patrick Collison’s catalog of the physical books he owns (unflagged). Saved in Kyle’s April 19th, 2020 Roam daily note.

Connections

• City Building — Moses is the archetype (and cautionary tale) of the master-planner mode of building cities.
• The New City — contrast: top-down infrastructure power vs. emergent / designed-anew urbanism.
• Walt Disney and the Promise of Progress City — two opposing visions of who shapes the built environment and to what end.
• What historical fiction should I… (tweet) — recommendation #2: named in this crowd-sourced thread.
• what is the single best book… (tweet) — recommendation #3: named in this crowd-sourced thread.