This is 99% invisible.

I'm Roman Mars.

In 1974, two very significant things happened if you are a fan of 99% invisible.

Number one is that I was born.

And number two, the Power Broker by Robert Caro

was published.

I learned about the Power Broker when I first started to cover cities and infrastructure on the radio.

This massive book that's about 1,200 pages long is the most important and complete explanation of how cities are formed, how neighborhoods are destroyed,

bridges are erected, roads are laid down, parks are designed, fortunes are made, lives are ruined, and power is amassed.

It is the biography of Robert Moses, a man who is said to have built more structures and moved

more earth than anyone in human history.

And he did it all without ever holding elected office.

Outside of New York City, Robert Moses wasn't exceptionally well known.

Inside of New York, he was mostly uncritised by the

media and was simply the man who built all those nice parks. But Robert Caro's book, The Power Broker,

which is subtitled,

Robert Moses and the fall of New York, changed all that.

It is a tour to force of journalism, history, and biography.

I also think it is really fun to read and is strongly in contention for the best book ever written.

The problem is, as I mentioned, it is 12 hundred pages long. As best-selling and as influential as it is,

I wouldn't be surprised if you had an unopened copy sitting on your bookshelf right now.

But that is a crime because this book needs to be read or at least

...