Surveilled 90 - The Power Behind the Works: Robert Caro’s “Working”
The Power Behind the Works: Robert Caro’s “Working”
Working, Robert Caro, 2019
I first became aware of Robert Caro when we lived in the US and Master of the Senate came out. It seemed like an impressive work, but somehow too specialised to convince me to read it.
Decades later, I also saw that Caro had published a memoir of sorts, delving into his way of working, but I never had a sufficiently strong motive to pick it up. Until I saw yet another recommendation recently, this one from Craig Mod, and decided to give it a try.
In contrast to his other books, Working is mercifully short, but Caro nonetheless provides a fascinating glimpse into the effort and sacrifice that went into writing his monumental tomes. Perhaps not surprisingly, it also turns out to be great marketing for those very books. I'm now quite keen to read The Power Broker, for example.
Although Caro's subjects appear borderline esoteric, Working makes clear that his books are really getting at universal truths, in this particular instance the accumulation and wielding of political power. Even, or maybe especially, outside of the framework of popular elections. For example, Robert Moses, the subject of The Power Broker, was never elected, but effected momentous change in New York through his chairmanship of no less than twelve innocent-sounding government authorities, such as the “Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority” or the “New York City Park Commission”:
Robert Moses had never been elected to anything. And yet Robert Moses had held power for forty-four years, between 1924 and 1968, through the administrations of five mayors and six governors, and, in the fields in which he chose to exercise it, his power was so enormous that no mayor or governor contested it.
This invisible political power is not innocuous or abstract, it directly affects individuals’ lives, as the residents who were displaced and saw their homes demolished to make way for his projects will attest. In an increasingly complex and contentious world, it becomes all the more important to be aware of these dynamics.
To build his expressways, he evicted from their homes 250,000 persons, in the process ripping out the centers of a score of neighbourhoods, many of them friendly, vibrant communities that had made the city a home to its people. To build his non-highway public works, he evicted perhaps 250,000 more.
As such, Caro’s books are relevant far beyond the narrow boundaries of their subject matter. They should appeal to anyone interested in how the way we live now came to be shaped through the decisions of politicians who knew how to acquire and wield power.
In Working, Caro also highlights the importance of holding this power to account, and what it takes to do so, often involving a significant amount of personal sacrifice. A lament about a bygone era, when newsrooms took this role more seriously, lurks beneath the surface without ever really piercing through.
Altogether, even without having read any of the works he became famous for, Working reads like Caro's "director's commentary." The end result not only serves to heighten interest in his main body of work, but also makes for an enlightening read in itself.
Noteworthy links
Hugely interesting critical analysis of the information processing metaphor to understand our intelligence - not very useful, as it turns out, but very apt to deceive us as to the potential of artificial intelligence. Link (aeon.co)
TIL: there is no all-encompassing conceptual explanation of why airplanes stay in the air. 😮 Link (Scientific American). Related, it seems that “business class” should be renamed “leisure class”. Link (FT $)
Francis Ford Coppola’s notes for The Godfather are a work of art in themselves. Link (Noted on Substack)
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