Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Robert Caro, one of great writers of our time, discusses with Stacy Schiff the art of biography on the 50th anniversary of his monumental first book, The Power Broker.
Tolstoy. Shakespeare. Not many biographers earn such comparisons. Robert Caro does. Hailed as “a modern Machiavelli's Prince" (The Guardian) and “one of the best nonfiction books in English” (The Sunday Times), The Power Broker was an instant classic of political biography and narrative prose. Told at the scale of an epic, following the political rise and fall of Robert Moses, it unveils the shocking story behind the man who built — and nearly destroyed — modern New York.
Exhaustively researched, unflinchingly reported, masterfully composed, it changed the way readers interpreted political power, shedding new light on the nature of cities — profoundly impacting the work of journalists, city leaders, and American presidents. It also changed American literature and popular culture, influencing a wide range of writers and artists.
In this special event, hear Caro and Schiff discuss the making of a literary masterpiece — his meticulous and singular approach to biography, how Robert Moses’ influence on the workings of the city is felt in New York to this day, the writers who shaped his prose and taught him how to tell a story, how he taught historians and journalists to think of their work as literature, and more.
“A monumental work.” — Time
“I think about Robert Caro and reading The Power Broker back when I was 22 years old and just being mesmerized, and I'm sure it helped to shape how I think about politics.” — President Barack Obama
“Surely the greatest book ever written about a city.” —David Halberstam
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