Wrestling With Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder And Transformed The American City (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
After 25 years of living in New York there's so much I don't know about the city. That's why I love reading books that illuminate its raucous history. The city I live in is an unexpected pleasure. I never would have imagined, for instance, that Brooklyn would have an arena, and yet we do, a five-minute subway ride from where I live. This book unspools, wonderfully, a conflict that shaped the city I love, a conflict that eventually helped shape into what it is, a collection of neighborhoods with their own personality. Jane Jacobs is a great New York City character, as is Robert Moses. As other reviewers have pointed out, Flint doesn't demonize Moses, as Robert Caro did, but it's still thrilling horror to consider his plans for a downtown expressway crossing at Broome Street, or a Midtown Expressway swooping in and out of skyscrapers. The story is told fluidly and comprehensively. Both characters are brought to life. The political machinations of the city are bared. One of the things I love most about this book is that it credits these great people with great actions, but it also shows the inevitable, inexorable forward crawl of the city, independent of government and business. The city is a living thing in Flint's hands. And since that's the way it is, that's a good thing, one of the many in this wonderful book. I highly recommend for anyone interested in the history of this great city. The earlier chapters of this book are a bit derivative and feel more like a report on Robert Caro's tremendous work THE POWER BROKER. It is understandable in a way given that Caro's book is the definitive biography on Moses and there is little else to reference, but there is something not quite right about the way that Flint narrates ... and I add my bias here for the historical research conducted by Caro who carefully cites his sources over this more novel-like narrative. It could just be a matter of taste for a particular style. What is rather disappointing is the "David and Goliath" recounting of this tale which clearly favors the underdog, a theme that is not generally disappointing, but this particular case is. The reason for this, as I conceive it, is that rather than presenting Moses in all his complexity, Flint reduces him to a standard villain especially to uphold a heroin his own narrative demonstrates is more complicated than his overall story-telling would suggest. For instance, he admits that the Jacobs were in the problematic position of gentrifying the neighborhood Jane Jacobs was glorifying, but never delves into what this means. A closer analysis of a number of different things would have been more productive (this last example is just one of those things that should have been looked at closely). Maybe Flint's aim was simply to tell a readable story, but considering that it feels as though his book is a bit of an addendum to Caro's, it just didn't compare for me.
What do You think about Wrestling With Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder And Transformed The American City (2009)?
Short, but fascinating, account of Jane Jacobs' struggles with master-planner, Bob Moses.
—jessica
had to read it for class, definitely a good read!
—sara
Dad recommended it and lent me his copy......
—kayls
