Live from BPL! Digital Lectures

This lecture will outline the book, “Saving Fire Island from Robert Moses” written by Christopher Verga, published by History Press. The power point will elaborate on the struggle between the development and conservation of Fire Island through the use of historic images. Detailed will be Moses’s goal to create a four-lane highway out of Fire Island, which was fought by local communities for thirty years. Bounding these community based grassroots efforts was the guiding idea that the natural beauty with limited access to motorized vehicles had to be a birth right for south shore residents. Armed with these efforts and guiding ideas, community residents waged a public relations war against Robert Moses, who wielded unchecked political power for over thirty years with no accountability from voters. This war resulted in the creation of the Fire Island National Sea Shore and the beginning of the end of Moses career.