
American Oligarchs
The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power
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Narrated by:
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Andrea Bernstein
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By:
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Andrea Bernstein
About this listen
A multigenerational saga of two families who rose from immigrant roots to the pinnacle of US power that tracks the unraveling of American democracy.
In American Oligarchs, award-winning investigative journalist Andrea Bernstein creates a vivid portrait of two emblematic American families. Their journey to the White House is a story of survival and loss, crime and betrayal, which stretches from the Gilded Age through Nazi-occupied Poland to the rising nationalism and inequality of the 21st century.
Drawing on hundreds of interviews and over 100,000 pages of documents, many previously unseen or long forgotten, Bernstein traces how the families grew rich on federal programs that bolstered the middle class, and then sheltered their wealth from tax collectors. Wielding half-truths, secrecy, and media manipulation, they blurred the lines between public and private interests, then leveraged political, prosecutorial, and judicial power to avoid legal consequences. At once intimate and sweeping, American Oligarchs reveals how these dynasties encouraged and profited from a system of political dark money that has pushed America to the precipice of oligarchy.
©2020 Andrea Bernstein (P)2020 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Anyone concerned about American democracy should read Andrea Bernstein’s devastating exposé of the Trump and Kushner families. With meticulous precision, she documents the pernicious effects of dynastic wealth and power, now threatening to turn the highest rungs of the US government into a corrupt oligarchy." (Jane Mayer, The New Yorker staff writer and New York Times best-selling author of Dark Money)
"A rich and highly readable compendium...Bernstein is an intrepid reporter." (William Cohan, New York Times Book Review)
"By building American Oligarchs around the Kushner and Trump family narratives, Bernstein offers readers a fresh perspective.... Readers who follow the news more casually will also find the epic family tales a compelling way to understand the myriad deals and ambitions that define the Kushners and Trumps." (David Kocieniewski, Bloomberg.com)
Journalism at its best... giving us hope
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Prequel to A Family of Villans Origin Story
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One of the best books to date on the Trumps
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Obviously well researched despite the many obstacles both families put up.
Everyone should read this book, regardless of political persuasion. Bernstein is known to be a fact based reporter with a long history reporting in the greater NYC region and provides important information to every citizen about who is running things and what can’t
Fabulous book with far reaching historical context
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I’m glad I didn’t.
Excellent content, sing song presentation.
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I would love to get a PowerPoint presentation of every underhanded deed over the decades described in this wonderful book to help offset social media claims by the cult followers of the luckiest cretins on earth.
Socialist Cretins
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Well written
Very True Account of Trump's White House
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Well researched and written
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This book left me sad and mad!
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The most thorough
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