Daniel Schulman

The book does a fine job of recounting the lives and fortunes of the Koch family. But I came away feeling repulsed by the family itself and what they've done over the years. I should note that this was not a byproduct of any political disagreement with the well-explained and extensive political activities and financial support provided by some of the Koch family. Instead, I was pretty shocked at the amount of in-fighting, waste of time, energy, and money by the Koch brothers as they conduct legal battles against each other. Along the way, they basically destroy their own family. With all that the family had been given--a fortune beyond comprehension to most people, clearly superior intellectual capabilities, and rich opportunity afforded by living in the United States during their time--so much of their lives seems wasted for no good reason. Overall, definitely a downer, but my rating tries not to fault the author for recording a pathetic story.… (mehr)

The book takes a perspective on these ultra-rich brothers from a political perspective from the left of where they reside yet it does manage to reveal interesting aspects of their lives and motivations. There is no question the rich are quite different in many ways and these brothers are certainly no exception.

Along with the larger then life wealth they managed to acquire with birth and to expand greatly upon we get a heavy dose of the squabbles that surfaced between them and the political motivations. Large sums of money equated to political muscle and power are devoted to libertarian cause and in a sense social engineering. Though we see some impact from these efforts we also see that even the deepest pockets are not always enough, other than buying politicians along the way. The Koch brothers themselves will soon enough fade away but their money and political legacy will live on to some extent as part of the political process that is fueled by it.… (mehr)