welcome to george packer. >> thank you. thank you all. i am happy to have beaten the traffic. >> george drove out and nobody gave him the back road map. so, here he is. bob caro, who many of you know because he is one of us and lives out here. as you well know, he has written extraordinary adjective busting biographies. for his biographies for it -- and lyndon johnson, he twice won the national critics circle award for best non-fiction book of the year and has gotten virtually every other major literary honor, including the national book award, gold medal for biography from the american academy of arts and letters and on and on and on. i would love to beat them all but i would rather give to our subject in a minute. his first book was of course " the power broker" robert moses, and the fall of new york. the modern library called it one of the 100 greatest nonfiction books of the 20th century. i would say, echoing the words of many, many before me and still to come, that it is the single best book about a city and certainly our city, new y

welcome to george packer. >> thank you. [applause] >> i'm glad to have beaten the traffic. >> george drove out from brooklyn and nobody gave him the back road map. bob carroll, who many of you know because he is one of us and lives out here, as you well know, has written truly adjective-busting biographees. his biographies of robert moses and lyndon johnson he twice won the pulitzer prize for biography. he has gone virtually every other married -- every other major literary honor, including the national book award, a gold medal of biography of the national academy of arts and letters and on and on. i would love to read the mall but i would rather get to our subject in a minute. his first book was "the power broker -- robert moses and the fall of dark." the modern library called one of the 100 greatest nonfiction books of the 20th-century. i would say achillea the words of many before me and still to come that is the single best book about our city, new york city, that you would ever read. to research the years of lyndon john

george packer has written about some of the most inhospitable countries. he received press club awards. one was about the reconstruction of iraq. the other about the civil war. he is the author of the "village in waiting." he also wrote "blood of the liberals." it is about american liberalism and the 20th century. he has written two novels. he served in the peace corps and is currently working on a book about "institutional decline in america." welcome. >> thank you. [applause] i am glad to have beaten the traffic in hampton. >> george drove out from brooklyn and nobody gave him the back road map. here he is. bob caro, who many of you know because he is one of us and lives here, as you well know, has written an extraordinarily biographees. he twice won the pulitzer prize for biographies and the critics circle award for best non- fiction work of the year and has gotten basically otheevery other literary honors. i would love to read them all but i would rather get to our subject. his first book was the"the power broker." i would say it echoed the words of ma