Al Smith’s lack of schooling contradicted Moses’ ideal of the educated public man

Evidence

Smith was the very antithesis of Moses’ ideal of a politician. Whether it was really true that he had never read a book all the way through, the story was plausible; not only had Smith never been to a university, he had never been to a high school—and he boasted about that fact. His remark on the floor of the State Assembly that his only degree was “FFM”—for the Fulton Fish Market, where he had worked as a boy—was already a legend. There seemed as little likelihood of a place for Bob Moses—for his dreams or for himself—on the state level as on the city. There seemed, in fact, to be no place anywhere for him to turn. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 386

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Al Smith despised the uncompromising idealist that Robert Moses once was — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 573; New York Governor Al Smith had no formal schooling beyond the fish market — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 386

Broader Connections

• Al Smith despised the uncompromising idealist that Robert Moses once was #expands (0.85) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 573