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Article: Put the politics back into political science.
- Article from:
- The Washington Monthly
- Article date:
- September 1, 1985
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1985 Washington Monthly Company. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"I remember all these mathematical formulas," Robert Caro recalls of his coursework as a Neiman Fellow at Harvard University. "Equations. Equations. They kept getting longer and longer. All of a sudden I looked at my notebook and said, 'This is all wrong. This isn't how highways get built.'"
Caro is explaining how he came to write The Power Broker, his penetrating study of Robert Moses, the former New York City highway czar who drew much of the map for that metropolis.
Previously a reporter at Newsday, Caro knew how highways got build; it was when Robert Moses wanted them built. His decision to tell the story resulted in a prize-winning account of ...