Private Empire

ExxonMobil and American Power

By: Steve Coll

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

Length: 24 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Steve Coll investigates the largest and most powerful private corporation in the United States, revealing the true extent of its power. ExxonMobil’s annual revenues are larger than the economic activity in the great majority of countries. In many of the countries where it conducts business, ExxonMobil’s sway over politics and security is greater than that of the United States embassy. In Washington, ExxonMobil spends more money lobbying Congress and the White House than almost any other corporation. Yet despite its outsized influence, it is a black box.

Private Empire pulls back the curtain, tracking the corporation’s recent history and its central role on the world stage, beginning with the Exxon Valdez accident in 1989 and leading to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The action spans the globe, moving from Moscow, to impoverished African capitals, Indonesia, and elsewhere in heart-stopping scenes that feature kidnapping cases, civil wars, and high-stakes struggles at the Kremlin.

At home, Coll goes inside ExxonMobil’s K Street office and corporation headquarters in Irving, Texas, where top executives in the “God Pod” (as employees call it) oversee an extraordinary corporate culture of discipline and secrecy.

The narrative is driven by larger-than-life characters, including corporate legend Lee “Iron Ass” Raymond, ExxonMobil’s chief executive until 2005. A close friend of Dick Cheney’s, Raymond was both the most successful and effective oil executive of his era and an unabashed skeptic about climate change and government regulation. This position proved difficult to maintain in the face of new science and political change, and Raymond’s successor, current ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson, broke with Raymond’s programs in an effort to reset ExxonMobil’s public image. The larger cast includes countless world leaders, plutocrats, dictators, guerrillas, and corporate scientists who are part of ExxonMobil’s colossal story.

The first hard-hitting examination of ExxonMobil, Private Empire is the masterful result of Coll’s indefatigable reporting. He draws here on more than 400 interviews, field reporting from the halls of Congress to the oil-laden swamps of the Niger Delta, more than 1,000 pages of previously classified U.S. documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, heretofore unexamined court records, and many other sources. A penetrating, newsbreaking study, Private Empire is a defining portrait of ExxonMobil and the place of Big Oil in American politics and foreign policy.

©2012 Steve Coll (P)2012 Penguin

Critic reviews

"ExxonMobil has met its match in Coll, an elegant writer and dogged reporter… extraordinary...monumental." (The Washington Post)

"Fascinating.... Private Empire is a book meticulously prepared as if for trial, a lawyerly accumulation of information that lets the facts speak for themselves...a compelling and elucidatory work." (BLOOMBERG)

"Private Empire is meticulous, multi-angled and valuable.... Mr. Coll’s prose sweeps the earth like an Imax camera." (Dwight Garner, The New York Times)

it was an easy read. I learned something new.

the narration was very good. I would recommend this book to someone. I enjoyed it a lot.

Untold history

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I really enjoyed listening to this perspective of the oil conglomerates. I found the parts about foreign policies and how they effected countries particularly informative. It was a bit on the long side for listening and I really had to space it out. Dry at times, but very educational.

Not Coll's Best

What did you like best about Private Empire? What did you like least?

Steve Coll is a fantastic writer and clearly takes no shortcuts in his research. I've read all his previous works (multiple times, actually) and each truly fascinating, memorable, and a pleasure to dive into. Not so much the case with Private Empire, however, as there is simply no "there, there." I have to assume that Coll formulated his theory about Exxon being this big bad corporate entity, started writing, and got too far along before realizing there wasn't really anything scandalous to be said. Anecdotes about Exxon's "obsession with safety" and commissioning of academic studies favorable to their business (a practice used by pretty much every company out there which has the money to do so) are treated as "revelations," made to seem more scandalous than they are. I suppose if you were to read/listen to this book in a judgmental tone it would have a greater impact, but otherwise don't expect more than a couple hundred pages of fluff and filler.

Would you ever listen to anything by Steve Coll again?

Yes, this is his one book that hasn't been truly excellent so I think he deserves another shot. I'm sure whatever he writes next will be great.

Which scene was your favorite?

The conservative culture, engendered by a top-down managerial approach, was interesting to learn about. The relationship between Lee Raymond and Dick Cheney is also fascinating.

What did you take away from Private Empire that you can apply to your work?

Some people view certain practices considered standard at companies as "evil," so be careful.

Oil is here to stay - learn about it

Oil is a very dirty business. The stuff is dirty when it comes out of the ground. Exxon's business locations are dirty and out of the way. Sure, every business has its dirty little secrets, but the oil industry affects all of us. A rather long book does not seem so long because the industry is very complicated. Two-sided arguments throughout show that morality can trump business and sometimes business trumps morality.

Interesting, but focuses too much on the oil spill

Very interesting topic. Unfortunately, for my interests, there are too many pages spent on details of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and not enough on Exxon Mobiles Washington efforts, Middle East efforts and interesting early history since Rockefeller.

Informative

though a broad and difficult topic, Steve Coll brings the same deft research as he did to Afghanistan in "Ghost Wars". This book informs, but doesn't go into analysis.

Exxon is probably the best oil co, but faces massive existential risks due to its business

Exxon the best oil company but it is riddled by the massive risks it must enter in the countries it operates in. Even if it wasn’t oil, operating in fragile countries means everyone is fighting over a pile of money from the resource extraction.

glad this got published

Well i wouldn't be if i was driving a 79 white Cadillac Eldorado convertible with cowhide seats and horns on the hood with trunk full of cash!

These dirty pigs had it coming. not that they still don't own our government; but at least we know the details.

Good job steve, wherever your hiding.

Mandatory reading for 2017

This book should be considered mandatory reading for anyone interested in US history and/or our current government administration.

Even handed, well researched, and well done.

I had some trepidation about getting this book as it is about that big boogeyman of oil Exxon-Mobil. Nor was I familiar with Coll's writing or journalism either, so that was not something that I could lean on to support a purchase. This book was purchased more or less on whim and a fancy of wanting to know more about oil, energy, and energy policy. I was concerned that this book would be too narrowly focused on Exxon-Mobil and not really inclusive of the industry or energy policy as a whole. I was relieved to find that this was not the case. It is a good primer for both energy policy and the oil industry. The book was illuminating and well done. And by the end I had a respect for Exxon-Mobil that I would have NEVER, EVER thought possible.