In 1974, Robert Caro published The Power Broker, a critical biography of Robert Mosess dictatorial tenure as the master builder of mid-century New York. Moses profoundly transformed New Yorks urban fabric and transportation system, producing the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, the Westside Highway, the Cross-Bronx Expressway, the Lincoln Center, the UN headquarters, Shea Stadium, Jones Beach State Park and many other projects. However, The Power Broker did lasting damage to his public image and today he remains one of the most controversial figures in city planning history. On August 26, 1974, Moses issued a turgid 23-page statement denouncing Caros work as full of mistakes, unsupported charges, nasty baseless personalities, and random haymakers. Mosess original typewritten statement survives today as a grainy photocopy in the New York City Parks Department archive. To better preserve and disseminate it, I have extracted and transcribed its text using optical character recognition and edited the result to correct errors. Here I compile my transcription of Mosess statement, alongside Caros reply to it.
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