On Reading “The Power Broker”: Moses’ Response

Robert Caro Interview

I closed the 1246-page book (almost 100 pages of notes) with questions that I will pursue in a future essay. But I took strange comfort in knowing that Moses had lived long enough to read the book.

In 1974, to go along with publication of the book, long excerpts had appeared in four issues of the New Yorker. On August 26, 1974, Moses penned a 23-page typewritten reply that you can find here in its entirety:

Robert Moses’ Response to Robert Caro’s The Power Broker

And Caro’s (shorter) response:

Robert Caro’s Response to Robert Moses’ Response to Robert Caro’s The Power Broker

Letters to the editors do not get much rawer than this part of Caro’s response: “I cannot, for example, let pass his attempt to destroy his brother’s reputation in death as he did in life.”