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

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro. Fascinating book about Robert Moses’ rise to power in New York and how he managed to exert considerable influence over the city and state for decades despite never being elected to office. Caro is an exceptional author who manages to present a huge amount of information without it feeling dry.

Top three (sorry) Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism by Kathryn Tanner. A really good look at how capitalism has been expressed in our modern world, and how Christianity should not enable the worst excesses of capitalism. The Power Broker by Robert Caro. This one actually took me about 6 months between reading and Audible, because it is in some ways too detailed, but the naked use of power for maintaining power for a singular vision is illuminating. Even in an antagonistic biography, Moses leaps off the page as a bright, energetic, flawed human. I enjoyed this a lot. Rediscovering Scripture’s Vision for Women by Lucy Peppiat. A persuasive, intelligent, and solid look at how Christianity in America has taken many unfortunate turns away from reading Scripture as a document of equality and elevation, and toward a document of hierarchy and repression. I think Peppiat does a good job of discussing all theological avenues of thought and while clearly disfavoring some, not stooping to ridicule, caricature, or personal attack.

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro is a fascinating take on how power and corruption can manifest in modern era. Things Hidden Since The Foundation Of The World by Rene Girard explores through dialogues his theory of mimesis. Barely have made a dent into it and so am not sure if I’d recommend it yet but it’s had polarizing reviews.

The Origins of Political Order: From prehuman times to the French Revolution by Francis Fukuyama https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origins_of_Political_Ord... (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Origins_of_Political_Order) The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York By Robert Caro https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_Broker

"A People's History of the United Sates" by Howard Zinn. A decent history book, not exactly uplifting. Reading currently: "The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York" by Robert Caro. Absolutely loving it. That, and my usual climbing books.

The Power Broker is awesome. One of the finest books for understanding the 20th century. It's also fascinating to note that today we blame car culture on oil companies and selfish consumers. Turns out that the one of the people most responsible for creating America's car dependent culture was a progressive named Robert Moses ( with a lot of help from the NY Times). BTW, another great book on urban themes is City: Urbanism and its End, by Doug Rae.

This summer I've read/am reading/am planning to read: * The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (Robert Caro) * Options Volatility & Pricing: Advanced Trading Strategies and Techniques (Sheldon Natenberg) * Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (Edwin Burrows & Mike Wallace) * Egil's Saga (anonymous) * Invisible Cities (Italo Calvino) If you have any interest in the history of New York City at all, or if you're interested in seeing an incredibly well done character study, read "The Power Broker." Probably the best biography I've ever read... Ron Chernow's biographies of J. P. Morgan, Rockefeller, and Hamilton are all great, but Caro's on Robert Moses blew me away.