![]() Not since Andrew Ross Sorkin’s landmark Too Big to Fail.have I said this about a book, but Kochland warrants it: If you’re in business, this is something you need to read. ![]() Each story illustrates one corner of a vast corporate empire. He does it by unspooling a series of granular set pieces and micronarratives, telling the stories of dozens of men and women inside and outside the company. But to a degree I’ve rarely seen, Leonard actually turns this lack of access into a strength. ![]() writing the history of a private company without full access is akin to scaling El Capitan without handholds. Tackling the biography of a secretive private company like Koch, which has little need to open itself to scrutiny, is a task of herculean difficulty. He appears to have had only limited access to Koch executives, including, it appears, a single interview with Charles Koch. Īlmost as notable, from a journalist’s point of view, is the degree to which Leonard succeeds without the kind of cooperation all authors seek. Leonard does not judge the Kochs he explains them. But what’s most impressive is its refreshing balance and evenhandedness. ![]() This is a massive, and massively reported, book. ![]()
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