Sons of Wichita : how the Koch brothers became America's most powerful and private dynasty

The Resource Sons of Wichita : how the Koch brothers became America's most powerful and private dynasty

Label

Sons of Wichita : how the Koch brothers became America's most powerful and private dynasty

Title remainder

how the Koch brothers became America's most powerful and private dynasty

Statement of responsibility

by Daniel Schulman

Language

eng

Summary

Not long after the death of his father, Charles Koch, then in his early 30s, discovered a letter the family patriarch had written to his sons. "You will receive what seems now to be a large sum of money, " Fred Koch cautioned. "It may be either a blessing or a curse." Fred's legacy would become a blessing and a curse to his four sons--Frederick, Charles, and fraternal twins David and Bill--who in the ensuing decades fought bitterly over their birthright, the oil and cattle-ranching empire their father left behind in 1967. Against a backdrop of scorched-earth legal skirmishes, Charles and David built Koch Industries into one of the largest private corporations in the world--bigger than Boeing and Disney--and they rose to become two of the wealthiest men on the planet. Influenced by the sentiments of their father, who was present at the birth of the John Birch Society, Charles and David have spent decades trying to remake the American political landscape and mainline their libertarian views into the national bloodstream. They now control a machine that is a center of gravity within the Republican Party. To their supporters, they are liberating America from the scourge of Big Government. To their detractors, they are political "contract killers, " as David Axelrod, President Barack Obama's chief strategist, put it during the 2012 campaign. Bill, meanwhile, built a multi-billion-dollar energy empire all his own, and earned notoriety as an America's Cup-winning yachtsman, a flamboyant playboy, and as a litigious collector of fine wine and Western memorabilia. Frederick lived an intensely private life as an arts patron, refurbishing a series of historic homes and estates. Sons of Wichita traces the complicated lives and legacies of these four tycoons, as well as their business, social, and political ambitions. No matter where you fall on the ideological spectrum, the Kochs are one of the most influential dynasties of our era, but so little is publicly known about this family, their origins, how they make their money, and how they live their lives

Cataloging source

BLACP

Dewey number

338.7/6092273
B

Form of composition

not applicable

Format of music

not applicable

LC call number

HC102.5.K65

LC item number

S38 2014ab

Literary text for sound recordings

biography

Music parts

not applicable

PerformerNote

Read by Allen O'Reilly

Transposition and arrangement

not applicable

Context

Context of Sons of Wichita : how the Koch brothers became America's most powerful and private dynasty

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