Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America

Until reading this book, I knew very little about Koch (pronounced Koke) Industries, founded by Fred Koch in 1940. After his sudden death in 1967, his son Charles succeeded him and remains chairman and CEO of what has since become one of the largest, most profitable, and most secretive corporations throughout the world. CKs personal net worth is now at least $60-billion, probably more.

Christopher Leonard spent more than seven years completing the research that generated the information and insights found in this lively narrative. He provides answers to questions such as these:

What is Charles Kochs business philosophy?
What have been the greatest influences on its development?
What are the nature and extent of Koch Industries corporate power?
How to succeed within the Koch organization?
What does Charles Koch view as the greatest threats to his and the companys success?
How has he managed to conceal so much information about himself and KI?
What to expect from Kochland and its leader in months and years to come?

These are among the passages of greatest interest and value to me, also listed to suggest the scope of Leonards coverage:

o Market Based Management (Pages 4, 7, 120, 152-153, 181, and 507-510)
o James Elroy (11-13, 19-21, and 130-133)
o FBI investigation of oil theft by KI (11-17, 26-27, and 242-144)
o Gaugers (15-16, 32-33, 45-49, 128-129, and 132-135)
o Ken Ballen (19-33 and 130-131)

o Charles Koch (28-33, 39-40, 192-193, 369-371,458-461, and 564-574)
o Pine Bend refinery (50-59)
o Bill Koch and his antagonism against CK (99-108, 108-112, 115-120, and 197-199)
o Koch University (120-129)
o Texas (121-141)

o W. Edwards Demings influence on CK (122-124)
o KIs acquisitions strategy (125-127, 198-199, and 224-225)
o KIs management of toxic pollutants (159-161 and 165-171)
o Ammonia (165-176 and 180-187)

o Georgia-Pacific (307-324, 328-335, 512-514)
o Republication positions re cap-and-trade legislation (393-394, 420-422, and 424-425, 442-445, and 451-457)
o Fracking (463-472 and 475-479)
o Border Adjustment Tax (542-551)
o Americans for Prosperity (546-551)

This is not a definitive biography of Charles Koch. Rather, Leonard offers a comprehensive, often compelling analysis of him as a quintessential CEO who has led Koch Industries during the last 50 years. KI is itself an exemplar of the modern global corporation, for better or worse. He and this privately-owned company are interdependentand representative of ongoing conflicts between free enterprise and governmental oversight.

In months and years to come, Christopher Leonard suggests, we can expect Charles Koch to do everything he can to ensure that the proper shape of Americans society [is] the shape of Kochland. He is in no hurry. He measures success on a very long timeline, on a scale of years, even decades. And his plan is still just in its early stages.

Stay tuned….

If you know nothing about business, Wall Street, where the Koch’s tangentially play, and Bill Koch’s lawsuit, then this book may pass as acceptable. It is written with a nice journalistic pace. If you are in business and have some sense of how big business works, then this book is simply interviews with 12 people who highlight 12 issues over 30 years, some of which are real and significant, that are supposed to highlight the history of a great business story and the man behind it. Complete failure. Like someone locked in the upper Westside of Manhattan, he presents WOW moments for the most basic business and Wall Street premises, saddles up on the usual tropes that suffocate democratic party debates and worse, fails utterly to present a view of Charles Koch. This is NOT a business biography and it is a poor job of a business history which should be fascinating. And there is NOTHING secret here – as much of the “dirt” seems to be pulled from public papers and public lawsuits. Even the working progressive would be better reading NY Times missives. That my $26 went to this and not to a Children’s charity is my shame of the year.

This is the most interesting book that I have read in years . It is very well organized to follow the industry and its major players over time, weaving the story into major issues of American history. The major players are described in a manner that keeps the history of Koch Industries very alive, never boring.(I am a female in my 80s.)

Chris 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. It’s all here: the brutal relentlessness of the 21st Century workplace; the crushing of labor; the cultish devotion to our billionaire class; the gutting of our regulatory state; the lawlessness of our business leaders; the warping of our politics; and the despoliation of the planet. Leonard’s book will take its place alongside Chernow’s “Titan” and Coll’s “Private Empire” as one of the great accounts of the rot at the heart of American capitalism.

Great book I have read a lot about the Koch brothers but this book details the secretive world of greed protected by legions of lawyers and loyalists. We have the facts we need action on rampant corporate greed. The Buddha thought greed was the worst sin of all.

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