Kochland

The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America

By: Christopher Leonard

Narrated by: Jacques Roy

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2019 * WINNER OF THE J ANTHONY LUKAS WORK-IN-PROGRESS AWARD * FINANCIAL TIMES’ BEST BOOKS OF 2019 * NPR FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2019 * FINALIST FOR THE FINACIAL TIMES/MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF 2019 * KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOKS OF 2019 * SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOKS OF 2019

“Superb…Among the best books ever written about an American corporation.” —Bryan Burrough, The New York Times Book Review

Just as Steve Coll told the story of globalization through ExxonMobil and Andrew Ross Sorkin told the story of Wall Street excess through Too Big to Fail, Christopher Leonard’s Kochland uses the extraordinary account of how one of the biggest private companies in the world grew to be that big to tell the story of modern corporate America.

The annual revenue of Koch Industries is bigger than that of Goldman Sachs, Facebook, and US Steel combined. Koch is everywhere: from the fertilizers that make our food to the chemicals that make our pipes to the synthetics that make our carpets and diapers to the Wall Street trading in all these commodities. But few people know much about Koch Industries and that’s because the billionaire Koch brothers have wanted it that way.

For five decades, CEO Charles Koch has kept Koch Industries quietly operating in deepest secrecy, with a view toward very, very long-term profits. He’s a genius businessman: patient with earnings, able to learn from his mistakes, determined that his employees develop a reverence for free-market ruthlessness, and a master disrupter. These strategies made him and his brother David together richer than Bill Gates.

But there’s another side to this story. If you want to understand how we killed the unions in this country, how we widened the income divide, stalled progress on climate change, and how our corporations bought the influence industry, all you have to do is read this book.

Seven years in the making, Kochland “is a dazzling feat of investigative reporting and epic narrative writing, a tour de force that takes the reader deep inside the rise of a vastly powerful family corporation that has come to influence American workers, markets, elections, and the very ideas debated in our public square. Leonard’s work is fair and meticulous, even as it reveals the Kochs as industrial Citizens Kane of our time” (Steve Coll, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Private Empire).

Critic reviews

"Business reporter Christopher Leonard's emphatic, decade-long investigative research has yielded an in-depth examination of the secretive privately held Wichita-based Koch Industries. Jacques Roy provides a masterful narration. . . . [His] low-key professorial tone eases the listener through a highly complex market-based business portrait. It would be challenging to find a clearer discussion of how dark money may wield profound influence on American politics." —AudioFile Magazine

“Superb… Among the best books ever written about an American corporation… Not since Andrew Ross Sorkin’s landmark Too Big to Fail (2009) have I said this about a book, but Kochland warrants it: If you’re in business, this is something you need to read.”
— Bryan Burrough, The New York Times Book Review

“Kochland is a dazzling feat of investigative reporting and epic narrative writing, a tour de force that takes the reader deep inside the rise of a vastly powerful family corporation that has come to influence American workers, markets, elections, and the very ideas debated in our public square. Leonard’s work is fair and meticulous, even as it reveals the Kochs as industrial Citizens Kane of our time.”
— Steve Coll, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Private Empire

“Leonard’s visionary, decade-spanning, and heart-rending investigation into the Koch Empire is indispensable not just for understanding the rise of corporate power in America, but for understanding America itself. Kochland will take its place alongside Chernow’s Titan and Coll’s Private Empire as one of the great accounts of American capitalism.”
— Jesse Eisinger, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Chickenshit Club

“A Robert Caro-like narrative of business and political power with a brilliant, ruthless, and fascinating monopolist at its center. Leonard devoted eight years to this gem of a book, seeking to understand the mysterious Charles Koch and the Goliath he has taken a half century to construct.”
— Ken Auletta, New York Times bestselling author of Googled

“Deeply and authoritatively reported... [Kochland] marshals a huge amount of information and uses it to help solve two enduring mysteries: how the Kochs got so rich, and how they used that fortune to buy off American action on climate change.”
— Jane Mayer, The New Yorker

“Impressive… A corporate history, lucidly told, about the enormous energy conglomerate that has inserted itself into nearly every aspect of daily life, raking in billions along the way.”
— The New York Times

“This is fast-paced business history. An episode about ammonia runoff at an oil refinery keeps you turning pages like a John Grisham thriller.”
— NPR.org

What lies underneath

Comprehensive review. Didn't spend much time on Frank and his wealth acquisition. Later chapters frightening. Climate change interference and Charles thinks he has a plan for society ???

Incredible - Modern American History

I bought this book as a general interest in finally learning something concrete about the Kochs, as all I've ever known previously was the political manipulation criticisms of broader social opinion. [I think I actually bought it as an order filler in a 2for1 sale, oddly enough..]
But I found this book to be incredibly relatable as someone in the oil gathering business that appreciates real-world / tangible asset businesses and investments. The story / author seems fair to spotlight both the incredible success/virtues of the Koch approach as well as the failures and persistent flaws, but I see no reason why a value investing Buffet fanatic wouldn't want to hear this story and find it extremely thought provoking. The political and philosophical angle smacks of a threatened-legacy aspect that reminds me of Ray Dalio and "The Fund", though much less so than the Buffet-value angle.
The length of the book is rewarding for maintaining interest without being too drawn out, and the variability in topics and changes in narrative style between sections make this a truly great audiobook that I really enjoyed. If nothing else, it serves as somewhat of an American history lesson as seen from the eyes of Wichita, Kansas - not a perspective you get to see very often...
Highly highly recommended listen 👍 👏 👌

Amazing!

I generally don’t write reviews but this one deserves one. It’s truly excellent and I highly recommend it. It will help you understand why we are where we are today.

deep dive into Kochland

this book is excellent and meticulously plots and analyzes how koch brothers rose to power!

Best business book in long time for me

Not a big fan of Kochland but thought book was informative balanced and thought provoking. Great overview and analysis of business in America by telling story of one company and man behind it.

exactly what I was looking for

loved it. I was expecting just an over look but it was in depth reporting.

Koch land and The Man that controls All

This book informs us of a man who took a family business and created an empire. Unlike most empire it has been developing, creating , growing in its business arms, its political ideologies and has been secretly converting America into what Charles Kock envisions it must be. You will learn of what it took to create such an empire and how it has wielded its power over American politics and converted America into Kockland …

Very well done

Not sure why this book isn’t more popular - it’s really good. Would definitely recommend it

Fascinating and enraging

The book highlights the people surrounding Koch and includes vignettes on failures as well as the many successes of Koch Industries. As a businessman, there’s no doubt that Charles Koch is a master at making money - regardless of the cost to society. The author also masterfully illustrates the destruction of American democracy by this billionaire activist and serves as a warning of what could come if it continues unchecked.

outstanding book, well worth your time

very well laid out heonicle of Koch Industries and the Koch brothers and how it all came to be