![]() 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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