The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York

In classical drama, a Greek chorus is a group of performers who comment on the main action of the play through song, dance, or spoken dialogue. They are a collective voice representing societal norms, values, and emotions, often providing insight, reflection, or commentary on the events unfolding onstage. In The Power Broker, Caro performs this function. The Introduction to the book establishes this dynamic, in which Caro outlines the rise and fall of Moses as though his story were a Greek tragedy. Moses, an arrogant and totalitarian figure, imposed himself on the world around him until the same qualities that drove him to such heights— his egotism, his desire, his drive—caused his downfall. Caro carefully sketches Moses as a hubristic figure, someone domineering who dragged himself up to immense heights, only to fall just as dramatically. The contrasting anecdotes in the Introduction help to establish this: The same man who failed to leverage his resignation from the swim team performed the same trick on the mayor of New York and succeeded because he developed the power and gravitas needed to influence one of the most powerful public officials in the world. Moses, Caro makes clear from the introduction, is not a good man. He is, however, a fascinating dramatic figure. His story emphasizes The Addictive Nature of Power and the extent of Corruption in New York City Politics. Through the broad sketches outlined in the introduction, Caro establishes himself as the Greek chorus who will lead the audience through this long, complex morality play.

Two of the biggest influences on Moses’s life were his grandmother and mother. These two strong, strongminded Jewish women were, in the late 19th century, determined to impose themselves on a society that does not consider them equal. As such, these early chapters introduce the theme of Antisemitism and Jewish Marginalization in New York, which remained relevant throughout Moses’s life. Whether because they were women or because they were Jewish, Moses’s mother and grandmother were ostracized from the centers of power that denied entry to almost everyone except white, protestant men. Moses, therefore, grew up in the shadow of impressive but alienated women. He witnessed firsthand how two of the most influential and intelligent people in his life were deliberately excluded from power due to their demographics. From this position, Moses determined that he would not be held back because of his ethnicity. While his forebears were proud of their Jewish heritage, he noted how it affected the way they were treated by society, and he is also discriminated against because he is Jewish. His careful scrutiny of antisemitism made him distance himself from his heritage in later life because he was determined to have no limitations imposed on his power.

One of the most instructive periods in Moses’s life was the time he spent in England. The United States is a relatively youthful country, and in Britain, Moses was introduced to thousands of years of highly structured class systems and their influence on society. His time in Britain—and particularly studying English universities—reinforces his prejudiced belief that wealthy, white people were naturally better at governing and deserved power over others. Moses convinced himself that the British were correct and that the ruling class of any respective society was there by rights. This is a central irony in The Power Broker, as this belief system marginalized Moses’s family, yet he still believed he could count himself among the elite in a white supremacist hierarchy. As such, Moses did not draw greater lessons about societal inequality from his experiences with antisemitism. While he abandoned his desire to recreate the hierarchies of the British social class system in America, his prejudices against poor and working-class people (and against people of color, informed by British imperialist attitudes) endured for the rest of his life.