First published 2019
Christopher Leonard exposes the hidden workings of Koch Industries, one of America's largest private companies. The corporation generates more annual revenue than Goldman Sachs, Facebook, and US Steel combined. Koch products touch daily life through fertilizers in food production, chemicals in infrastructure, and synthetics in household goods like carpets and diapers. For fifty years, CEO Charles Koch operated this vast enterprise in complete secrecy while pursuing long-term profits. Leonard reveals Koch's business methods: patient capital allocation, learning from failures, and instilling free-market principles in employees. These tactics made Charles and his brother David wealthier than Bill Gates. Leonard connects Koch Industries to broader economic shifts including union decline, growing income inequality, delayed climate action, and corporate political influence. The book demonstrates how one company's strategies shaped modern American capitalism.
Genres: history, business, economics, non-fiction, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: hidden-history, investigative-journalism
Setting: America, United States
Period: 20th Century, 21st Century
704 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster