Caro's "The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York", traces the rise of 'New York City's Master Builder' and the history of 20th-century New York.
"...Robert Moses' experience working for future governor of New York Al Smith in the New York State Assembly and future New York Mayor Jimmy Walker in the State Senate, taught him how power really worked, that he needed it to make his dreams of roads and bridges for the city reality and that ideals and principles had to be set aside if necessary to make them happen. By the 1930's, Moses earned a reputation as a creator of beautiful parks in both the city and state, and later long-sought projects including the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, but at the price of his earlier integrity.
"Moses was also seen as an unelected bureaucrat who, through his reputation for getting large construction projects done, amassed so much power over the years that the many elected officials whom he was supposedly responsive to instead became dependent on him.