1940's Lifestyles and Social Trends | Moses, Robert 1888-1981

URBAN PLANNER AND ADMINISTRATOR

Master Builder.

Robert Moses did more than anyone else in the twentieth century to shape the landscape of New York City. He built parks, playgrounds, and swimming pools all over the city and linked the five boroughs with a system of highways, bridges, and tunnels. He also planned a statewide system of parks for New York State.

Early Years.

Robert Moses was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and raised in Manhattan. After earning bachelor's degrees from Yale University (1909) and Oxford University (1911), he did graduate work at Oxford (M.A., 1913) and Columbia University (Ph.D., 1914).

Administrative Reform.

Moses's first position was in the New York City Bureau of Municipal Research, where he took on the task of administrative reform. He worked there from 1913 until the United States entered World War I in 1918, when he went to work with the U.S. Shipping...