The Early History of Powerful Radio Galaxies

I briefly review the current status of observations of AGN-powered UV/optical light, starlight, dust and outflow phenomena in high-redshift powerful radio galaxies. The existing data are consistent with the hypothesis that powerful radio galaxies undergo a major episode of star formation at high redshift z>4 during which they form most of their stars, and subsequently evolve `passively', with the UV continuum emission in the z~1 galaxies being dominated by AGN-related processes rather than starlight from the underlying, aging population.