Robert Caro on Robert Moses SD

Randall's Island Park Alliance
Pulitzer Prize Winner, Robert Caro, discusses "The Power Broker" - his biography of Robert Moses!

[@mgoldman60]

Robert Caro has gotten a lot more humorous over the years. He was pretty serious and intense in the early 80s when the first Johnson book came out.

[@Cheepchipsable]

He has made some money, so he can relax a bit. Just watched a 90's interview where he sold his first home and moved into an apartment to bankroll his first book that took him years. He was being interviewed about his first Lyndon Johnson book, and he was quite guarded in most of his responses, very cautious not to say anything he though he couldn't verify.

[@mck1972]

I am currently reading, ' The Power Broker '. What comes through crystal clear in this book is that Moses was an absolutely Ruthless, Remorseless, Amoral, Power-Hungry, Egomaniacal, Arrogant, SOB! What also comes through crystal clear, is that Moses got results...

[@Bozewani]

Moses only cared one thing as long as he fulfilled his megalomaniacal visions but New York did become a modern city because of his projects

[@darrenpat182]

New York was nearly bankrupted in the 1970s largely because of his projects

[@mck1972]

He also loathed Public Transportation so much (Buses, Trains, Subways, Etc.), that tragically, the lack of resources devoted severely retarded the Quality and Safety of NY's Mass Transit System for decades to come...

[@agoo7581]

He nearly bankrupted and created an infrastructure that skyrocketed poverty, crime, and pollution in the city which was only undone through large progressive reform in the 90s. Moses "got results" in the same way that Hitler "got results".

[@mck1972]

@@agoo7581 , Moses was certainly no Saint, but let's be careful of making comparisons to Hitler.

[@vincentcaliendo6402]

Wow what a great talk, love to hear his insights and first hand accounts of RM.

[@geojohnson7608]

Moses was the definition of the Evil Genius. Complete

[@ripred42]

Right down to the evil lair on an island

[@GREGGXYZ]

Does Robert Moses office still exist with the corridor and all the models of all the projects? Do they give guided tours of the building?

[@freedomfries6618]

What sticks with me, more than anything else in the book, was the terrible way Moses treated his brother.

[@zekecontreras4055]

True, apparently because of a young lady that the Moses brothers competed for.

[@stevenwolfe7101]

When I grew up, Robert Moses was popularly considered a "hero" for having all the highways surrounding New York built. With the passage of time, the image began to change and with the Caro book it changed dramatically. The multiple volumes on LBJ had a similar effect upon me. On the one hand, on the issue of civil rights, he accomplished more than any of his predecessors did. He could accomplish this because he was a Southerner and politically very powerful. But what I weigh against this is the prolonging of the Vietnam was and the lies that surrounded that aspect of our foreign policy. That he could be blunt, gross, and obscene only meant he did the same thing as did his predecessor but with no grace or elegance and with less selectivity in his choice of women.

[@pjg_77]

Edward Norton & Joe “DMT Rogan bought me here #LookIntoIt

[@TomWilson-jp3tl]

DMY? Have you ever tried it? I think not. You would not sound so derogatory as it has relieved many from having depression and taking those seriously oppressive drugs to “relieve” (read relive) it!

[@justbrowsingtheweb7791]

this is interesting but the sound is too low

[@pedrod.7576]

20:49 I was doubletaking and thinking I had dropped something here, lmao.

[@busterbiloxi3833]

Great accent. He says "tawk" instead of "talk".

[@agoo7581]

Congratulations on just now discovering what a "New York Accent" in the year 2020.

[@mannken1]

Authentic articulate New Yawker. Could listen all day long.

[@stevensica89]

@@agoo7581 Don't forget: Lawng Guyland.

[@williammorris584]

Make that “towak”.

[@timothylines3867]

the second and third AV. bridge?

[@Kristofur77]

Instead of calling him a racist, maybe he was trying to encourage people to better themselves to buy vehicles, so they can use the roads and not rely on public transportation. White people are poor too, you make it sound like he only challenged poor non-white people

[@darrenreid801]

Sound alike for Robert Forster.

[@sybildavis463]

Just as a reminder, here is one of Robert Moses' rebuttal paragraphs to Robert Caro in 1974: The critics and second guessers say we were sometimes rude, arbitrary and highhanded. Maybe so, but suppose we had waited. Critics are ex post facto prophets who can tell how everything should have been done at a time when they were in diapers, in rompers or invisible. We ditch-diggers do our best to live up to our oaths of office with the slender talents vouchsafed us. We enjoy our work. We accept its drawbacks without whining. We expect neither full understanding by the Caros and Knopfs, nor unqualified popular acclaim by The New Yorker. I would suggest Caro's complete conviction about Moses' "racism" is open to debate. I would also suggest that had Caro done a seven year investigation of Fred Trump and his record as a "builder" rather than Robert Moses back in the 70's both our country and the world at large might have several million more people alive today who otherwise died in great pain and agony UNNECESSARILY. Moses was indeed a flawed individual, but he was a Saint compared to the Sewage which typifies (for the most part) the "brand" known as Trump!

[@mck1972]

It is certainly true that Hindsight is 20/20, and that we cannot credibly judge the Past, using the standards of the Present. However-Most of Caro's critiques of Moses were based on the conduct that Moses himself used at the time: I.e.: Using, ' Eminent Domain ', to procure land from those who lacked the resources to resist, and keeping secret files on political enemies, real, imagined, or even potential. Nor is it Caro's job to research every figure in New York History, and compare/contrast them to Moses-Regardless of how strongly you personally appear to disapprove of them.

[@dante6563]

@@mck1972 We can certainly judge his past actions using the standards of the present for the simple fact there were people from all walks of life directly opposing his projects and pointing out how foolish and car-centric they were.

[@mck1972]

@@dante6563 , IF in fact there were those making such judgments about Moses At That Time, then they were judging him by the standards of their present-Not ours.

[@dante6563]

@@mck1972 THEY WERE because in the book he wrote, many people were trying to convince Moses of alternatives and people were protesting his actions.

[@mck1972]

@Dante Right-By the standards of THEIR Present-Not OURS! So what are we debating here?