Dark Money
How a Secretive Group of Billionaires Is Trying to Buy Political Control in the US
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- £11.99
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- £11.99
Publisher Description
Why is America living in an age of profound economic inequality? Why, despite the desperate need to address climate change, have even modest environmental efforts been defeated again and again? Why have protections for employees been decimated? Why do hedge-fund billionaires pay a far lower tax rate than middle-class workers?
The conventional answer is that a popular uprising against ‘big government’ led to the rise of a broad-based conservative movement. But as Jane Mayer shows in this powerful, meticulously reported history, a network of exceedingly wealthy people with extreme libertarian views also played a key role by bankrolling a systematic, step-by-step plan to fundamentally alter the American political system.
Jane Mayer spent five years conducting hundreds of interviews-including with several sources within the network-and scoured public records, private papers, and court proceedings in reporting this book. In a taut and utterly convincing narrative, she traces the byzantine trail of the billions of dollars spent by the network and provides vivid portraits of the colourful figures behind the new American oligarchy.
Dark Money is a book that must be read by anyone who cares about the future of American democracy.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Journalist Jane Mayer’s book is a remarkable feat: a scintillating family drama and dystopian political saga that happens to be completely true. Dark Money is the jaw-dropping story of the Koch family’s seven decades of American political influence and the network of moneyed, right-wing ideologues who use their fortunes and corporate profits to buy the government that suits their needs. Meticulously researched and superbly written, this book is essential reading for anyone who lives in—or hopes to fully understand—today’s United States.