The Looting Machine Audiobook By Tom Burgis cover art

The Looting Machine

Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa's Wealth

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The Looting Machine

By: Tom Burgis
Narrated by: Dugald Bruce Lockhart
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An “impressive” (Wall Street Journal) exposé of twenty-first century individuals and companies who have become obscenely rich from the resource trade in Africa

Africa is the world’s poorest continent and, arguably, its richest. In The Looting Machine, Tom Burgis takes listeners on a gripping journey into the world of the magnates and militiamen, the despots and jet-setting executives who gorge on Africa’s vast stocks of oil, gas, metals, and precious stones. Combining deep reporting with an action-packed narrative, Burgis presents a blistering investigation of the plunder of a continent and the terrible human toll.

©2016 Tom Burgis (P)2025 PublicAffairs Africa Economic Conditions Economics International Relations Politics & Government Trades & Tariffs Middle East Capitalism Iran China

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Critic reviews

A Financial Times Best Book of the Year, 2015
“A great scrapbook of exploitation. It is written in a way that will appeal to the general reader, but still interest specialists...Burgis has the good sense not to present [the cruel contrast between individual poverty and national wealth] in an alarmist way, but with an understatement that is far more powerful...The Looting Machine is in part a means of self‑exoneration, a way of making amends to those he ultimately could not help...[In this book he] has done a service to some of the world’s poorest people.”—Financial Times
“A powerful new book.”—Nicholas Kristof, New York Times
“[An] impressive study… It is to Mr. Burgis's tremendous credit that he writes with such tenacity.”—Wall Street Journal
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This book is informative, but also a sad and demoralizing reality of the consequences of human greed.

A revealing look at corruption and its participants

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