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The cover of Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power

Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power

Steve Coll

How did ExxonMobil become the most profitable company in the United States, and what has its power meant for politics?

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At a glance

Author
Steve Coll

Why read it

  • You will understand how a private company came to hold a better credit rating than the United States government
  • You will weigh the argument that corporations now hold a growing share of American economic and political power
  • You will see the choices an oil company faces in war zones and dictatorships, from Aceh's rebels to Equatorial Guinea's rulers

Who it is for

  • A voter wondering how big companies shape energy policy
  • An investor who wants the inside story of an oil major
  • A student of business and politics in Washington

Contents

  1. Author’s Note
  2. Selected Cast of Characters
  3. Prologue. “I’m Going to the White House on This”
  4. PART ONE: THE END OF EASY OIL
  5. One. “One Right Answer”
  6. Two. “Iron Ass”
  7. Three. “Is the Earth Really Warming?”
  8. Four. “Do You Really Want Us as an Enemy?”
  9. Five. “Unknown Injury”
  10. Six. “E.G. Month!”
  11. Seven. “The Camel and the Jackal”
  12. Eight. “We Target Oil Companies”
  13. Nine. “Real Men—They Discover Oil”
  14. Ten. “It’s Not Quite as Bad as It Sounds”
  15. Eleven. “The Haifa Pipeline”
  16. Twelve. “How High Can We Fly?”
  17. Thirteen. “Assisted Regime Change”
  18. Fourteen. “Informed Influentials”
  19. PART TWO: THE RISK CYCLE
  20. Fifteen. “On My Honor”
  21. Sixteen. “Chad Can Live Without Oil”
  22. Seventeen. “I Pray for Exxon”
  23. Eighteen. “We Will Need Witnesses”
  24. Nineteen. “The Cash Waterfall”
  25. Twenty. “Moonshine”
  26. Twenty-one. “Can’t the C.I.A. and the Navy Solve This Problem?”
  27. Twenty-two. “A Person Would Have to Eat More Than 3,400 Rubber Ducks”
  28. Twenty-three. “We Must End the Age of Oil”
  29. Twenty-four. “Are We Out? Or In?”
  30. Twenty-five. “It’s Not My Money to Tithe”
  31. Twenty-six. “We’re Confident You Can Book the Reserves”
  32. Twenty-seven. “One Plus One Has Got to Equal Three”
  33. Twenty-eight. “It Just Happened”

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