Dark Money, Jane Mayer
Dark Money, Jane Mayer
54 Rating(s)
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Dark Money
The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right

Bestseller

Author: Jane Mayer

Narrator: Kirsten Potter

Unabridged: 16 hr 55 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/19/2016

Synopsis

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR • A groundbreaking exposé of the American oligarchs using their fortunes to dominate the nation’s political agenda, from “one of the very few utterly invaluable journalists this country has” (Esquire)

“Dark Money is more than just a work of political journalism—it’s a vital portrait of a nation that, as perhaps never before, is being shaped by a few very rich, very conservative businessmen.”—San Francisco Chronicle

WINNER: New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism • FINALIST: National Book Critics Circle Award, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, PEN/Jean Stein Book Award; Shortlisted for the Lukas Prize

Why is America living in an age of profound and widening economic inequality? Why do billionaire candidates and contributors dominate our elections? Why have even modest attempts to address climate change been defeated again and again? Why do hedge-fund billionaires pay a far lower tax rate than middle-class workers?

In this riveting and indelible feat of reporting, Jane Mayer illuminates the history of an elite cadre of plutocrats—headed by the Kochs, the Scaifes, the Olins, and the Bradleys—who have bankrolled a systematic plan to fundamentally alter the American political system. Through vivid portraits of these secretive figures and their carefully concealed agendas, Mayer traces a byzantine trail of billions of dollars spent by the network and reveals a staggering conglomeration of think tanks, academic institutions, media groups, courthouses, and government allies that have fallen under their sphere of influence.

Drawing from hundreds of exclusive interviews, as well as extensive scrutiny of public records, private papers, and court proceedings, Dark Money is an essential book for anyone who cares about the future of American democracy.

About The Author

Jane Mayer is an award-winning staff writer for The New Yorker and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dark Money and The Dark Side, for which she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her books have been named to multiple New York Times Top 10 Books of the Year lists, selected as National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award finalists, and won the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, the Goldsmith Book Prize, and New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, among many other accolades. She also coauthored Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984–1988, with Doyle McManus, and Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas, with Jill Abramson. Mayer lives in Washington, D.C.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Will on January 15, 2025

We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both. - Louis D. BrandeisIt has been a consistent element of modern life in the USA that the public polls as more progressive than our elected officials. Given that in a democrac......more

Goodreads review by Mario the lone bookwolf on June 19, 2021

Oligarchies aren´t just a thing in dictatorships or fringe puppet democracies, but the real deal in the US and most of Europe too. One of the best meta analysis of how neofeudalism, neocolonialism, and the notorious neoliberalism, what a fraud, could become the driving forces of the 20th and 21st ce......more

Goodreads review by Esil on March 27, 2016

I'm not American, but my reaction to Dark Money is that everyone in the US -- and elsewhere for that matter -- who has any interest in politics must read it. For reasons related to my busy life and not the quality of the book, I listened to the audio of Dark Money sporadically over several weeks. Bu......more

Goodreads review by Bradley on February 24, 2021

I am utterly astounded. Not surprised, mind you. But I am utterly astounded. It feels like there are no books written any more that rely on real investigative journalism. But this is one, and it has meticulous, astounding scope. It's one thing to point out the flaws in your opposition. Those kinds of......more

Goodreads review by Trish on April 10, 2016

It will not be surprise to anyone who has been paying attention that for the past twenty years our political system has been awash in special interest money. Mayer tells us it is forty years. What Mayer does in this detailed accounting is to elucidate the sources of that money and the routes it take......more

Quotes

ONE OF NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF 2016

A Washington Post Notable Book of 2016

"Mayer is. . . a writer whose reporting can leave a reader breathless. . . . I urge you to read Dark Money."
—Bill Moyers

"Jane Mayer's Dark Money is utterly brilliant and chilling — no matter how much you think you already know. . . . Read it!"
—Naomi Klein, bestselling author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism and This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate 

“Jane Mayer’s Dark Money. . . is absolutely necessary reading for anyone who wants to make sense of our politics. Lay aside the endless punditry about Donald’s belligerence or Hillary’s ambition; Mayer is telling the epic story of America in our time. It is a triumph of investigative reporting, perhaps not surprising for a journalist who has won most of the awards her profession has to offer.... She’s a pro, and she’s given the world a full accounting of what had been a shadowy and largely unseen force. . . . Remarkable.”
—The New York Review of Books

"The book is written in straightforward and largely unemotional prose, but it reads as if conceived in quiet anger. Mayer believes that the Koch brothers and a small number of allied plutocrats have essentially hijacked American democracy, using their money not just to compete with their political adversaries, but to drown them out. . . . Dark Money emerges as an impressively reported and well-documented work. . . . The importance of Dark Money [flows] from its scope and perspective. . . . It is not easy to uncover the inner workings of an essentially secretive political establishment. Mayer has come as close to doing it as anyone is likely to come anytime soon. . . . She makes a formidable argument.”
­—From the cover of the New York Times Book Review
 
“Revelatory. . .persuasive, timely and necessary. . . . Only the most thoroughly documented, compendious account could do justice to the Kochs’ bizarre and Byzantine family history and the scale and scope of their influence.”
­—The New York Times

Awards

  • Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism
  • National Book Critics Circle Awards
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