Private Empire ExxonMobil and American Power

<p><b>From twice-Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Steve Coll comes <i>Private Empire</i>, winner of the FT/GOLDMAN SACHS BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2012</b><br><br>The oil giant ExxonMobil makes more money annually than the GDP of most countries; has greater sway than US embassies abroad; and spends more on lobbying than any other corporation. Yet to outsiders it is a mystery. In <i>Private Empire</i>, award-winning reporter Steve Coll tells the truth about the world''s most powerful and shadowy company.<br><br>From the Exxon Valdez accident in 1989 to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, via Moscow, the swamps of the Niger Delta and the halls of Congress, he reveals a story of dictators, oligarchs, civil war, blackmail, secrecy and ruthlessness. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and newly declassified documents, this is a chilling portrait of unchecked power.<br><br><b>Reviews:</b><br><br>''Magisterial ... a revealing history of our time'' <b><i>New York Review of Books<br><br></i></b>''Meticulous, multi-angled and valuable ... Coll''s prose sweeps the earth like an Imax camera''<b> Dwight Garner, <i>The New York Times <br></i></b><br>''Jaw-dropping reading'' <b><i>Kirkus Reviews</i></b><br><br>''The definitive work on its subject ... at every stop there are vivid anecdotes, sharp insights and telling details'' <b>Ed Crooks, <i>Financial Times</i></b><br><br><b>About the author:</b><br><br>Steve Coll is the author of the New York Times bestseller <i>The Bin Ladens</i>. He is president of the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy institute headquartered in Washington, D.C., and a staff writer for The New Yorker. He won a Pulitzer prize for explanatory journalism while working at the Washingon Post. He is the author of six other books, including the bestseller <i>Ghost Wars</i>, which won him a second Pulitzer prize. He lives in Washington and New York.</p>