The acquisition of power transformed Moses’ character into overt arrogance

Evidence

For once Bob Moses came into possession of power, it began to perform its harsh alchemy on his character, altering its contours, eating away at some traits, allowing others to enlarge. … His mother had always displayed—as a Madison House trustee and as a wife—a conviction of her own infallibility and a predisposition to impose her will on others, an unwillingness to listen to others, a burning impatience to see her solutions to problems implemented, to Get Things Done. Moses’ imagination seemed most easily fired, as his mother’s had been, by physical problems and physical solutions, problems that could be solved by construction, by the shaping of concrete and steel. And the resemblance in traits between mother and son went beyond that. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 1066

Moses had a taste of power now, and he liked the taste—so obviously that, to some observers, it seemed as if he liked the taste in and for itself. Keen-eyed little Reuben Lazarus, who had been brought to Albany from the Old Neighborhood as an Assembly page when Smith was Assembly Speaker and had already become one of the most knowledgeable men in the capitol on the intricacies of bill drafting, remembers that “when I first used to see Moses in Albany, before he had any power, he was a striking figure, dark and handsome, tall and gangly, striding down the corridors with those long strides of his, but he was withdrawn, he was within himself. But then, when Smith brought him up there, he began to be, quite suddenly and quite noticeably, a lot more arrogant, stiff-necked and self-assertive.” Belle Moskowitz’s son, Carlos Israels, noticed the same transformation when Moses visited the Moskowitzes. “Now he attitudinized when he talked. He would lean back, cross his knees and hold his pipe in an affected attitude.” — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 619

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the classic ‘power corrupts’ literature and connects to chapter 3’s note that ‘Power is an addictive drug’ found in earlier chapters. — connects to: Robert Moses’ arrogance and force of will were inherited from his mother and grandmother — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 160; Moses needed to display superiority more than he wanted power. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 1858; At home the domineering public Moses deferred to his wife and daughters. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 2559 (+10 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 1066; Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 619
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source