3 ms·

Only in San Francisco ;) Now, talking about some real power, if there was a real emperor in the U.S., it was a New York's public servant - Robert Moses.

hkmurakami 12y ago
I hear that "The Power Broker", a biography of Moses and winner of the Pulitzer in 1974, is a fantastic read :) http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Broker-Robert-Moses/dp/0394720245 http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Broker-Robert-Moses/dp/03947... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_Broker http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_Broker
- jfb 12y ago
  Yes, it is. I read it in a public policy seminar my freshman year in school and it's had a huge effect on how I understand politics and power. In some ways, I like it better than the magisterial "Years of Lyndon Johnson". Highly, highly recommended.
- thaumasiotes 12y ago
  Well, great. A 1300-page book available for under $15 plus international shipping... or as an audiobook, 66 hours long ( but free shipping!) for... $70? Something has gone deeply wrong in the market here. If only there were some way to convey three and a half pounds of information across the ocean in less than a month and for a reasonable price. :( Ironically, it seems to be easy to buy an ebook of cliffs notes to this one.
  - saraid216 12y ago
    If you're going to sully the Caro read with Cliff's Notes, you may as well just read the Wikipedia page.
    - thaumasiotes 12y ago
      Obviously I'm not going to. I'm complaining that while the book itself is ludicrously difficult to buy, getting the cliffs notes is easy.
      - michaelt 12y ago
        Where are you trying to get it shipped to? I see paperbacks of the Caro book with free delivery on Amazon US, DE, UK and JP.
      - venus 12y ago
        Ludicrously difficult? I just ordered it for AUD$32.19 delivered, to Australia, in two or three clicks.
  - icebraining 12y ago
    It's a book from 1975, so there's no digital version, and it's probably not worth the time to make an ebook for the sales it gets.
    - mattzito 12y ago
      I actually emailed the publisher about this, as the power broker is one of my favorite books (but totally impractical to carry around). I got a response saying that they would love to do an ebook version of TPB, but Robert Caro won't allow them to do that - he even refuses to submit his writing digitally, instead writing everything by hand, then typing it up with a typewriter, which is then retyped by a typist at the publisher into Word.
    - thaumasiotes 12y ago
      I've read plenty of older books in ebook form; they're riddled with obvious OCR errors but perfectly intelligible. Making an ebook from a paper book, as far as I know, involves no more than putting it into a special-purpose shredder that separates and scans the pages, and since those already exist, the cost of doing so is extremely low. IP issues are something else again.

hkmurakami 12y ago

I hear that "The Power Broker", a biography of Moses and winner of the Pulitzer in 1974, is a fantastic read :) http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Broker-Robert-Moses/dp/0394720245 http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Broker-Robert-Moses/dp/03947... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_Broker http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_Broker

jfb 12y ago
Yes, it is. I read it in a public policy seminar my freshman year in school and it's had a huge effect on how I understand politics and power. In some ways, I like it better than the magisterial "Years of Lyndon Johnson". Highly, highly recommended.
thaumasiotes 12y ago
Well, great. A 1300-page book available for under $15 plus international shipping... or as an audiobook, 66 hours long ( but free shipping!) for... $70? Something has gone deeply wrong in the market here. If only there were some way to convey three and a half pounds of information across the ocean in less than a month and for a reasonable price. :( Ironically, it seems to be easy to buy an ebook of cliffs notes to this one.
- saraid216 12y ago
  If you're going to sully the Caro read with Cliff's Notes, you may as well just read the Wikipedia page.
  - thaumasiotes 12y ago
    Obviously I'm not going to. I'm complaining that while the book itself is ludicrously difficult to buy, getting the cliffs notes is easy.
    - michaelt 12y ago
      Where are you trying to get it shipped to? I see paperbacks of the Caro book with free delivery on Amazon US, DE, UK and JP.
    - venus 12y ago
      Ludicrously difficult? I just ordered it for AUD$32.19 delivered, to Australia, in two or three clicks.
- icebraining 12y ago
  It's a book from 1975, so there's no digital version, and it's probably not worth the time to make an ebook for the sales it gets.
  - mattzito 12y ago
    I actually emailed the publisher about this, as the power broker is one of my favorite books (but totally impractical to carry around). I got a response saying that they would love to do an ebook version of TPB, but Robert Caro won't allow them to do that - he even refuses to submit his writing digitally, instead writing everything by hand, then typing it up with a typewriter, which is then retyped by a typist at the publisher into Word.
  - thaumasiotes 12y ago
    I've read plenty of older books in ebook form; they're riddled with obvious OCR errors but perfectly intelligible. Making an ebook from a paper book, as far as I know, involves no more than putting it into a special-purpose shredder that separates and scans the pages, and since those already exist, the cost of doing so is extremely low. IP issues are something else again.