Customer Reviews

Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Transformation of New York

5 star:		(6)
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3 star:		(3)
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The Power Broker (another prominent work on Moses) is a product of the 1970s pessimism concerning the death of the city, saying that Moses helped bring about the downfall experienced in 1974 when the book was published. In Ballon's book, we have the experience that 30 years of hindsight provides, and the tone is radically different Ballon and other essayists provide a more modern insight to Moses and his achievements. Do not be fooled, this is not a coffee table book, but almost a text book for urban planners on the practices employed by Moses. The book was inspired by the museum exhibits going on currently in New York City concerning Moses and his works, and is an excellent supplement to them. If you are interested in NYC, public works, or Urban History- this is a must buy, and will become more important as time wears on.
I also recommend The Power Broker and Moses' own book Public Works: A Dangerous Trade

Unfortunately, the essays are a bit of a drudge, but the book itself is definitive, and as a life long NY City resident I must admit - absolutely dazzling. Its less about Robert Moses, more about his hand over projects that involved countless talented Americans. Learn about highways never built, public parks on the grandest of scales, and how to clear a city slum via Title 1. You thought you knew NY City, and perhaps were even sure Manhattan was all you would ever need to know. This book shows the sophisticated development of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and The Bronx, as well as their more popular and over crowded, smaller brother. Simply amazing.

Now this man had POWER. It is amazing how much control he had over the building of infastructure in NYC, he was the first and last word. He was like a 20th century Baron Hausemann. This book is well written and scholarly and frankly just fascinating. I saw a documentary on Robert Moses one time and was just blown away at his hubris and power. His reign over NYC spanned several powerful mayors and to this day no person has ever had so much power of the cities infrastructure. Great book, highly recommended.

The book provides much information regarding the projects completed under Robert Moses' leadership.

Recent photographs illustrate eloquently how many of these works have aged well and are still assets to New York City.

The various thematic sections however are written by different authors and are not of equal interest. Tighter editing would have made for a truly great book!

I ordered this book knowing a bit about Robert Moses, but this book completed the picture of this very intelligent, driven and complex man. I felt it was not overly harsh or praising in it's assessment of him, but in the end I walked away with an incredible appreciation for all that he did. I had never realized how much he had accomplished over the course of his career. Perhaps it was the nature of those times, his arrogance or power he usurped, but in NYC today it would take 20 years to get just one of his projects done. And it would not possess the quality of design or craftsmanship his projects have.

...and as for the mid manhattan expressway that he proposed, but never built because of community opposition... I guarantee if it was built people would be saying now "imagine if they didn't let Robert Moses built this how awful it would be to get around town!"

I received a used copy {in excellent condition} and tore thru it immeadiately. The pictures showing the panorama of Commissioner Mose's accomplishments were stunning. The roads, bridges,giant swimming pools and other building projects completed {and not completed} were examined in detail in how they were funded/ built and the subsequent history - all excentlly presented. But this is not a "coffee table book of pictures - its overall text is crisply written, informative and does a good job in contrasting its 2011 positive revisonist views of Robert Moses {which I am totally in agreement with} "vis a vie" Robert Caro's now debatable views of Mr Moses that he wrote about so eloquently 40 years ago - chronicling a much different time frame and era. That chapter - Robert Moses and the Rise of New York "The Power Broker in Perspective"is an excellent overview on this controversial issue. New York City in 2011 is a still in a world class city. Why ? This book reveals a more positive view of the greatness of Robert Moses's accomplishments based on the 2011 lens /vision are still the 21st century backbone of the N.Y.C. metropolitian area without which N.Y.C. would not had been provided its basic infrastructure to continue to be a 21st century world class city. To a great extent this book debunks the R. Caro theory that Commissioner Moses was an all powerfull "steamroller" flattening everything in his path. In many instances he had to "fight like hell" to get projects built and he also lost quite a few battles along the way. This book's reasoning is weakest where R.Caro's "The Power Broker" is strongest - it has very little to say {or disputes} about how R.Moses twisted and bent the whole NYC and NY State political system to his will as Mr Caro brillantly describes in the chapter titled "Leading Out the Regiment" which [in my opinion is the best thing in Caro's entire book. AND YET given the NYC, NYS and Federal government and politcal and funding realities in his era or how else would Commissioner Moses been able to accomplish so much ? It half- heartedly tries to mute Commissioner Moses social, racial arrogance and prejudice but it does not really succeed. Robert Moses in these areas was a despiciable human being - no question about it. The chapter on Urban Renewal/Title One is {in my opinion} the best things in this book as it brilliantly disects the issues, problems, pitfalls, successes and problems that Commissoner Moses had to overcome to make N.Y.C Urban Renewal in an overall context - very successfull. But as Mr. Caro understated in " The Power Broker" {which remains true to this day} - Large cities are still trying to find ways to "get things done" in regards to initiating and completing large municiple and highway projects in a reasonable amount of time within a democratic process and setting. To date in 2011, we still {at least in New York City } haven't yet found a way to do so. Since 1974, N.Y.C. have added 15 YES !! 15 miles of new highways to what Commissoner Moses built prior to 1974. Since 1975, the population of N.Y.C has increased by over 1.5 million people and the surrounding metropolitan areas by millions more ! The roads, bridges parks, beaches and housing that were created during the Moses era {1924-1968} are supporting millions of additional citizens and tourists undreamed of when they were conceived and built. Without Robert Moses vision, guts, genius AND ruthless, relentless drive it is doubtfull that any but a tiny fraction of this infrastructure that he planned and built between 1924 and 1968 that supports Americas greatest city and adjacent metropolitian areas would exist. Why was Commissoner Moses essential or if you dislike him "a necessary evil"? Just take the example of the rebuilding of the World Trade Center - over 10 years of political infighting with everyone at every political level be it city, state, local and grassroots level wanting to "spit in the soup" and FINALLY - a beginning to rebuild has finally gotten underway !! Or had he died in 1936 - what would the city look like and how much of N.Y.C's current infrastructure would not have been built ? This book even more so than R. Caro's book makes one thing abundantly clear - without Robert Mose's, planning genius and financial wherewithall to "GET THE MONEY" to be able to build ANYTHING coupled with his astonishing vision - there would be no Long Island Parks System or Beaches, no state or city park systems, no intergrated system of highways and bridges to link New York City's five {5} boro's, no Lincoln Center, no Jones or Orchard Beaches Etc Etc Etc. Being coldly and soberly realistic, the people that Moses displaced in the 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s from neighborhood's/ apartment buildings chronicled in "The Power Broker" are mostly dead and gone BUT in 2011 Robert Mose's highways, bridges, beaches, parks and other building projects from his highways, beaches, 100.000 + housing authority apartments to the world famous Lincoln Center Complex are still in use by 10's of millions of city residents and vistors from all over the world and {if mankind survives the 21st century} R. Moses handi-work will continue to be used by 100's of millions of people for generations to come. When you accomplish as much as Mr. Moses did in his life the arrogance and ego-mania he displayed is understandable if not very nice. For the Robert Moses and his legacy - "The ends did justify the means" AND "the needs of the many out weighed the needs of the few". This excellent book validates that as time marches on the legacy of Robert Moses and his vision / accomplishments are going to look better and better to more and more of us until the current crop of power brokers figure out how to "GET THINGS DONE !!! This book is an outstanding achievement that goes a long way to balance the 40 + years of liberal "Nimby's" and the accumulated residue of "The Power Broker" dislike, disdain and derision of Robert Moses and his legacy. A five {5} star book - Highly recommended.

ROBERT MOSES AND THE MODERN CITY: THE TRANSFORMATION OF NEW YORK, which offers a new look at legendary architect Robert Moses, who reshaped the skyline of New York City. Readers familiar with New York will readily recognize some of his major contributions from the Lincoln Center to the Cross Bronx Expressway - so it's surprising to note this is the first major publication since the 1974 biography THE POWER BROKER appeared - and ROBERT MOSES AND THE MODERN CITY: THE TRANSFORMATION OF NEW YORK comes packed with photos that his biography doesn't provide. Far from hastening the demise of New York, this book shows how his works strengthened the central city and brought it into modern times, altering road systems and creating an urban design plan to foster changes. Plenty of detailed history surround the photos and descriptions of each project's special challenges, making this a top pick not just for New York libraries, but for any college-level art or urban planning collection.

In 1974 Robert Caro published his damaging account of the public works of Robert Moses in the city of New York. It is a brilliant biography of Big Bob the Builder. Caro stressed the outright evils of the Moses way of planning, his belief in auto mobility in contrast to mass transport, the slum clearance projects which evicted lower income residents, his hostility to the needs of black New Yorkers, his abuse of power. But this perspective needs reassessment. Hilary Ballon and Kenneth T. Jackson collected eight short essays in a nice book titled `Robert Moses and the Modern City'. The essays provide a revised perspective on Robert Moses. Robert Moses did modernize the urban infrastructure of New York, no one will ever have the same impact. But even Big Bob the Builder had to act within a system a constraints. Moses fashioned his image of the power broker, but he didn't possess superpower. He fought other powers, other bureaucratic stakeholders, the federal government with its rules and laws. In fact, Robert Moses had the capacity to think big. He tried to preserve the middle class for New York, he fought dispersal and he promoted the inclusion of cultural and educational institutions within the city. This reappraisal of the public works of Robert Moses is a welcome contribution to the debate about the rise or fall of New York.
Luuk Oost

Ballon & Jackson have put together a very useful documentation of the amazing works built in New York under Robert Moses. It is mainly narrative and a documentation, but where it gets into the more subjective business of assessment it is balanced and reasonable. The book is an excellent counterpoint to Robert Caro's "The Power Broker" which although eloquent and informative is a horribly slanted view of the man and of the issues.

Peter Samuel editor TOLLROADSnews.com Maryland

If you like NYC you must read it. If you don't like it...read it too!