The Power Broker: Was It Worth 1300 Pages
The Power Broker: Was It Worth 1300 PagesHistory & Civilization
kairenner-gh/slates
Last update 2 w. agoCreated on the 26th of April 2026

The Longest Book I Have Finished and Why It Was Worth It

The Power Broker is 1336 pages about Robert Moses, the urban planner who built New York over five decades and in doing so displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Robert Caro spent fourteen years researching it. Reading it requires a different kind of commitment than almost any other book I have finished. I read it over four months and took notes. The answer to whether it was worth the time is yes, but I understand the argument of every person who has not finished it.

1336Pages

4Months to Read

"

Power is not an end in itself. It is a tool that reveals the person who holds it.

"

Robert Caro

journey·4 Sections

Reading The Power Broker

Impact

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Section

Early MosesParks and parkwaysDisplacement chaptersPolitical decline12345
The irony of Moses's fall is operatic in scale
Robert Caro biographies finished
2/5

What Reading The Power Broker Actually Requires

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A reading schedule, because spontaneous sessions alone will not get you through

A basic map of New York City to understand the geographic arguments being made

Patience with chapters that seem tangential and then prove essential later

A willingness to be angry at someone who has been dead for over thirty years