WHAT TO KNOW “The Power Broker,” the acclaimed book about master builder Robert Moses and his impact on New York City, Long Island and the rest of the state was published 50 years ago this month.

It strikes me that 50 years after the publication of a book that marked Moses as a power-hungry tyrant, a man who bulldozed neighborhoods to impose his will, here was Caro, marveling at his genius.

Caro and I talk about Johnson, but we mostly talk about Robert Moses and the 1,296-page book Caro wrote, documenting how Moses accumulated and dispensed power. He's thinking decades ahead of ...