Robert Caro's The Power Broker at 50

New-York Historical Society

September 6, 2024 - February 2, 2025

Exhibition details from the NYHS website:

This special installation celebrates the 50th anniversary of the publication of Robert A. Caro's The Power Broker, the monumental work that has been called “surely the greatest book ever written about a city.” This groundbreaking book made known for the first time how Robert Moses, over more than four decades and without ever being elected to public office, amassed power so immense that with it, he shaped New York. The installation explores the story behind the book: how Caro uncovered the falseness behind the image that Moses had so carefully cultivated, and that the press and public believed, to reveal the extent of Moses’ power and the heartbreaking human cost behind his public works.

Robert Caro's The Power Broker at 50 includes selections from the Robert A. Caro Archive, opening concurrently with the installation. Visitors will see—from research material to manuscript drafts—Jones Beach, the Cross-Bronx Expressway, and Moses himself through Caro’s lens and lifelong mission to illuminate the times and the great forces that shape them. Curated by Meredith Mann, curator of manuscripts and archival collections

Exhibitions at New-York Historical are made possible by Dr. Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar Tang, the Saunders Trust for American History, the Evelyn & Seymour Neuman Fund, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. WNET is the media sponsor.

Robert Moses’s Jersey City connection: Did you know that Moses, at the end of his life, was married at Jersey City’s St. Aedan’s Roman Catholic Church?