The 50th Anniversary of “The Power Broker,” by Robert Caro - The New York Times

In his biography of a city bureaucrat, Robert Caro created a lasting portrait of American corruption by turning the craft of journalism into a pursuit of high art. Robert Caro, left, in 2007, and Robert Moses in 1958. Credit... Dima Gavrysh/Bloomberg, via Getty Images (Caro), Archive Photos, via Getty Images (Moses), Illustration by Ricardo Tomás Supported by By Sam Tanenhaus Sam Tanenhaus, a former editor of the Book Review, is the author of “Whittaker Chambers: A Biography” and the forthcoming “Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America.” Half a century after its publication, “The Power Broker,” Robert Caro’s epic biography of the urban planner and city-destroyer Robert Moses, needs no revival. From the moment it was published — to “almost unparalleled fanfare,” in the words of the Book Review’s reviewer, a professor of urban history — “The Power Broker” has never gone away. Its durability resembles that of Moses’ own prodigious creation, the redrawn arterial map of gr

In his biography of a city bureaucrat, Robert Caro created a lasting portrait of American corruption by turning the craft of journalism into a pursuit of high art. Robert Caro, left, in 2007, and Robert Moses in 1958. Credit... Dima Gavrysh/Bloomberg, via Getty Images (Caro), Archive Photos, via Getty Images (Moses), Illustration by Ricardo Tomás Supported by By Sam Tanenhaus Sam Tanenhaus, a former editor of the Book Review, is the author of “Whittaker Chambers: A Biography” and the forthcoming “Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America.” Half a century after its publication,