31–40 of 48 posts
Reading Robert Caro was one of the great pleasures of my life, I can't recommend him highly enough. The only probem is that once you read him, you're spoiled. Nobody else really compares to his force of writing and depth of research.
A question I have is do you suggest his books to a non US audience ?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A question I have is do you suggest his books to a non US audience ?
...if so, which one would you start with?
The Power Broker is also excellent and absolutely worth reading, but in my view not quite as good as the LBJ series.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/nyregion/robert-caro-arch...
It was very important to him that they be accessible for further research:
Louise Mirrer, the president of the historical society, made a generous offer and said a few magical words that clinched the deal. At a dinner with the Caros a few nights later, she elaborated: The papers would be processed quickly, made part of a permanent, rotating Caro exhibit and be easily available to future scholars in a dedicated study area — a stipulation dear to a man who had been told too often in his research that so-and-so’s papers were unavailable.
I can't begin to imagine how much treasure there is to be found in there. Each of his mini-biographies (readers will know what I'm talking about)* probably have a book each worth of interviews and research behind them. I read once that he lamented the lack of any good books on Robert Moses's mentor, Belle Moskowitz; he might posthumously bring such a work to light. He had to cut his chapter on Jane Jacobs from the Power Broker. If that didn't make it, I can only imagine what else didn't. He's conducted thousands of interviews in his lifetime. There are large swaths of the history of government in 20th-Century America that will be preserved thanks to him.
* For the record, my personal favorite is Al Smith.
I'm a little less than halfway through The Power Broker. It's a riveting read, especially as a New Yorker (quite possibly living in housing built by him!). I suppose I haven't quite gotten to the part where Moses goes full corrupt. From what I've read so far, he seemed utterly vicious, sneaky and deceptive, but also ridiculously competent. Anybody who's had to sit in committees and meetings spinning their wheels, hea…
I'm curious: how annoyed are you friends at you for not being able to shut up about Robert Moses? I imagine covid is saving them from the brunt of that. For me, it lasted at least a couple of months after finishing the book.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps, although Zuckerberg never built Facebook in an attempt to help the public. Even the most hagiographic recounting still acknowledges that Facebook is a profit seeking endeavor. What's so interesting about Moses is the paradox of how someone so arrogant, so elitist indeed, can have done so much for the public.
For some of the public. But, for example, he deliberately made the overpasses on one of his expressways too low for buses to use, so that only people with cars could get to the beaches. This excluded the poor, and the black were mostly poor. So "done so much for the public" is... complicated. His elitism and exclusionism was literally cast in concrete.
"While bragging that he served in his many public jobs without compensation, he lived like a king and similarly enriched those individuals in public and private life who aided him."
For those who have read The Power Broker... how do you stand to hold it? I bought the paper book after reading another one of these threads on HN, but it's so large that it makes my hands sore to hold it (or my neck if I lay it on my lap to read). Since there's no ebook version, I wonder how you all manage to get through a tome like this.
Reading Robert Caro was one of the great pleasures of my life, I can't recommend him highly enough. The only probem is that once you read him, you're spoiled. Nobody else really compares to his force of writing and depth of research.
-James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson
-Carl Sandburgs 3 or 4 volume biography of Lincoln.
- Isaac Deutscher's massive biography of Trotsky.(The Prophet).
-Duff Cooper's Talleyrand.
-Tom Cliffs 3 volume biography of Lenin.
- William Taubman biographies of Khrushchev and Gorbachev.
-William Manchester biography of General MacArthur.(American Caesar)
-Barbara Tuchman biography of General Stilwell. (Stillwell and the American Experience in China.)
-Anthony Burgess, Biography of Shakespeare.
I'm a little less than halfway through The Power Broker. It's a riveting read, especially as a New Yorker (quite possibly living in housing built by him!). I suppose I haven't quite gotten to the part where Moses goes full corrupt. From what I've read so far, he seemed utterly vicious, sneaky and deceptive, but also ridiculously competent. Anybody who's had to sit in committees and meetings spinning their wheels, hea…
The triumph of Jones Beach is probably still fresh in your mind. But don't worry, you'll find plenty to dislike about him by the end. This a reason we try not to give people that much power. I'm curious: how annoyed are you friends at you for not being able to shut up about Robert Moses? I imagine covid is saving them from the brunt of that. For me, it lasted at least a couple of months after finishing the book.
For those who have read The Power Broker... how do you stand to hold it? I bought the paper book after reading another one of these threads on HN, but it's so large that it makes my hands sore to hold it (or my neck if I lay it on my lap to read). Since there's no ebook version, I wonder how you all manage to get through a tome like this.
I used an X-Acto knife to slice it into 3 volumes and rebound them.
I'm a little less than halfway through The Power Broker. It's a riveting read, especially as a New Yorker (quite possibly living in housing built by him!). I suppose I haven't quite gotten to the part where Moses goes full corrupt. From what I've read so far, he seemed utterly vicious, sneaky and deceptive, but also ridiculously competent. Anybody who's had to sit in committees and meetings spinning their wheels, hea…
The triumph of Jones Beach is probably still fresh in your mind. But don't worry, you'll find plenty to dislike about him by the end. This a reason we try not to give people that much power. I'm curious: how annoyed are you friends at you for not being able to shut up about Robert Moses? I imagine covid is saving them from the brunt of that. For me, it lasted at least a couple of months after finishing the book.