How the Koch Brothers Became America's Most Powerful and Private Dynasty
Grand Central Publishing
June 2014
On Sale: May 20, 2014
432 pages ISBN: 1455518735 EAN: 9781455518739 Kindle: B00EXTVS0K Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
"Like the Rockefellers and the Kennedys, the Kochs are one
of the most influential dynasties of the modern age, but
they have never been the subject of a major biography...
until now. Not long after the death of his father, Charles
Like the Rockefellers and the Kennedys, the Kochs are one of
the most influential dynasties of the modern age, but they
have never been the subject of a major biography... until
now.
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
now seems to be a large sum of money," Fred Koch cautioned.
"It may either be 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. Based on
hundreds of interviews with friends, relatives, business
associates, and many others, SONS OF WICHITA is the first major biography about this wealthy and
powerful family-warts and all.
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