The Power Broker by Robert Caro Finally Gets an Ebook for Its 50th Anniversary

Mar. 15, 2025

‘The Power Broker’ cover; Robert Caro.Photo:Courtesy Alfred A. Knopf; Eugene Gologursky/Getty

Courtesy Alfred A. Knopf; Eugene Gologursky/Getty

The 50th anniversary of Robert A. Caro’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography,The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, is being celebrated in a special way — and everyone who has been carrying the hefty tome around is about to rejoice.

‘The Power Broker’ cover.Courtesy Alfred A. Knopf

Courtesy Alfred A. Knopf

“I wanted it done because if you’ve learned some things about political power that you think are worth knowing, you’d like as many readers as possible to know them. And with so many readers now doing their reading digitally, an Ebook is essential," the American journalist added.

“Thankfully, technology advanced to a point that allowed linking of the notes, which should enhance the digital reading experience,” Caro — who is also known for his Lyndon Johnson biography — concluded.

The Power Broker, which its publisher calls an American classic, “reveals not only the saga of one man’s incredible accumulation of power but the story of his shaping (and misshaping) of 20th century New York.”

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“One of the Modern Library’s hundred greatest books of the 20th century, Robert Caro’s book makes public what few outsiders knew: that Robert Moses was the single most powerful man of his time in the City and in the State of New York,” the synopsis adds.

Former U.S. PresidentBarack Obamais among the fans of the book and even went as far as to say it helped shape his political career. “I think about Robert Caro and readingThe Power Brokerback when I was 22 years old and just being mesmerized, and I’m sure it helped to shape how I think about politics,” Obama said, according to the release.

Robert Caro pictured with ‘The Power Broker’ book in 2019.Eugene Gologursky/Getty

Eugene Gologursky/Getty

“One of the unique attributes of Robert Caro’sThe Power Brokerare his wonderfully nuanced notes," said Austin O’Malley, director of Ebook quality and backlist at Penguin Random House. “One piece we wanted to get right was linking Caro’s notes, where the author’s voice is present throughout the citations; we spent the better part of a year working on that. We know there’s an appetite for the Ebook — we’ve seen the requests — and it’s exciting to finally have this book accessible to readers in a digital format.”

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The opening of the Robert A. Caro Archive at theNew-York Historical Societyis also set to markThe Power Broker’s 50th anniversary with its launch on Sept. 16.

“Through more than 100 boxes of notes, manuscript drafts, scrapbooks, correspondence and other files, the Robert A. Caro Archive documents the work and process of a writer whose name is synonymous with dedicated research and whose books have garnered nearly every major literary honor, including two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Book Awards, three National Book Critics Circle Awards and the Francis Parkman Prize,” according to adescription on the museum’s website.

“His archive captures not only the subject matter of his research, but also its methodology, most notably his journalistic rigor when interviewing subjects,” it adds. “The Robert A. Caro Archive is an invaluable public resource that reflects a tireless mind and contains the seeds of countless stories waiting to be told.”

source: people.com