Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right

We try not to wade into the partisan waters here at 800-CEO-READ (at least publically) too much, but Jane Mayer's new book Dark Money is too fascinating not to at least touch upon.

We tend to write about the nuts-and-bolts aspects of business life, whether operational, developmental, cultural, or psychological. But business life will also always be tied to the political, to the nuts-and-bolts of our ongoing experiment in self-government, and that experiment is being heavily influenced by big money and deeply held beliefs—particularly, Jane Mayer tells us, the money and beliefs of the Koch brothers and the political networks they've built over the course of four decades. The Kochs, of course, would likely defend their actions in the name of free speech, and I'm sure they believe strongly that what they're doing, they are doing for the good of the country. (We covered the release of Charles Koch's book, Good Profit, in this channel when it was released last October if you're interested.) Not everyone agrees, to put it lightly.

The discussions that happen at the intersection of business and politics, what is in the public interest and how that gets defined and fought for in the political and business arena are fascinating to us here at 800-CEO-READ. What Jane Mayer does in Dark Money adds a great deal to that conversation.

To give you a taste of the book, here is an interview she did with Steve Inskeep of NPR.