Moses’s mother Bella ordered every detail of her sons’ lives

Evidence

Bella was strict with her children. Running a taut house, she ordered every aspect of their lives. Their advice was not solicited—even about their own clothes. Once, opening a closet to get their tuxedos for a party, they found that the dress suits had disappeared and new ones had been hung in their places. When they inquired, Old Annie explained that their mother had decided that the old ones were no longer “suitable.” On one visit to Brooks Brothers, Paul asked for a green cap; his mother ordered a red one—for no reason that he could see except that he had asked for green. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 150

Categorization

• XREF: Material on controlling maternal households connects to the broader pattern of how dominant personalities emerge — relevant to Moses’s own later obsessive control, and to the shaping of other dictatorial figures in the reader’s shelf.