The Profiteers
Bechtel and the Men Who Built the World
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Narrated by:
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Bernadette Dunne
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By:
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Sally Denton
About this listen
From the best-selling coauthor of The Money and the Power, the inside story of the Bechtel family and the empire they've controlled since the construction of the Hoover Dam.
The tale of the Bechtel family dynasty is a classic American business story. It begins with Warren A. "Dad" Bechtel, who led a consortium that constructed the Hoover Dam. From that auspicious start, the family and its eponymous company would go on to build the world, from the construction of airports in Hong Kong and Doha to pipelines and tunnels in Alaska and Europe to mining and energy operations around the globe. Today Bechtel is one of the largest privately held corporations in the world, enriched and empowered by a long history of government contracts and the privatization of public works, made possible by an unprecedented revolving door between its San Francisco headquarters and Washington. Bechtel executives John McCone, Caspar Weinberger, and George P. Shultz segued from leadership at the company to positions as director of the CIA, secretary of defense, and secretary of state, respectively.
Like all stories of empire building, the rise of Bechtel presents a complex and riveting narrative. In The Profiteers, Sally Denton exposes Bechtel's secret world and one of the biggest business and political stories of our time.
©2016 Sally Denton (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Best introduction to the Democrat party in 2019
- By Larry on 06-12-19
By: David Horowitz, and others
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The Looting Machine
- Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa's Wealth
- By: Tom Burgis
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The trade in oil, gas, gems, metals, and rare earth minerals wreaks havoc in Africa. During the years when Brazil, India, China, and the other "emerging markets" have transformed their economies, Africa's resource states remained tethered to the bottom of the industrial supply chain. While Africa accounts for about 30 percent of the world's reserves of hydrocarbons and minerals and 14 percent of the world's population, its share of global manufacturing stood in 2011 exactly where it stood in 2000: at 1 percent.
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Frightening, Fascinating, Fatiguing
- By Scott on 07-29-18
By: Tom Burgis
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The Deep State
- The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government
- By: Mike Lofgren
- Narrated by: Brian O'Neill
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Mike Lofgren is back with a book perfectly pitched for the frenzied circus of the primaries. His argument this time is that for all of the backstabbing and money grubbing of the campaign season, the politicians we elect have as little ability to shift policy as Communist party apparatchiks. Welcome to Mike Lofgren's Washington, DC - a This Town where the political theater that is endlessly tweeted and blogged about has nothing to do with actual decision making.
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Almost good, but profoundly misunderstands economics and very biased towards Democrats
- By Nina Prevot on 04-08-16
By: Mike Lofgren
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Trickle Down Tyranny
- Crushing Obama's Dreams of a Socialist America
- By: Michael Savage
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Trickle Down Tyranny is the single book you need to stop Obama's emerging dictatorship before we lose all of our constitutional, God-given rights. These pages show you the dangerous laws and powergrabs of the Obama administration… and what we can do to stop this leftist gang from seizing another term in office. Obama is transforming us into a second-class nation, with communists and Islamists given free rein to expand their power.
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Brings Clarity to the Obama charade.
- By Mrs. Stolle on 04-05-12
By: Michael Savage
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The New Tsar
- The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin
- By: Steven Lee Myers
- Narrated by: René Ruiz
- Length: 22 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The epic tale of the rise to power of Russia's current president—the only complete biography in English–that fully captures his emergence from shrouded obscurity and deprivation to become one of the most consequential and complicated leaders in modern history, by the former New York Times Moscow bureau chief.
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A retelling of facts without much added info
- By A. M. on 03-07-16
By: Steven Lee Myers
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Saudi, Inc.
- The Arabian Kingdom's Pursuit of Profit and Power
- By: Ellen R. Wald PhD
- Narrated by: Paul Ansdell
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Over more than a century, fed by ambition and oil wealth, al Saud (as the royal family is known) has come from having next to nothing to ruling as absolute monarchs. Their story starts with Saudi Arabia's founder, the lowly refugee Abdul Aziz, embarking on a daring gambit to reconquer his family's ancestral home: the mud-walled city of Riyadh. And it ends with al Saud's most ambitious move yet: taking Aramco, the multinational business that has made them the wealthiest family in the world, public.
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Excellent modern history of Saudi Arabia
- By Rob Hafen on 05-31-18
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The Shock Doctrine
- The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
- By: Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Jennifer Wiltsie
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Abridged
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In her groundbreaking reporting, Naomi Klein introduced the term "disaster capitalism." Whether covering Baghdad after the U.S. occupation, Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami, or New Orleans post-Katrina, she witnessed something remarkably similar. People still reeling from catastrophe were being hit again, this time with economic "shock treatment," losing their land and homes to rapid-fire corporate makeovers. The Shock Doctrine retells the story of the most dominant ideology of our time, Milton Friedman's free market economic revolution.
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If It's Bad for Humanity, It's Good for Business
- By Nelson Alexander on 09-29-07
By: Naomi Klein
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Pay Any Price
- Greed, Power, and Endless War
- By: James Risen
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever since 9/11 America has fought an endless war on terror, seeking enemies everywhere and never promising peace. In Pay Any Price, James Risen reveals an extraordinary litany of the hidden costs of that war: from squandered and stolen dollars, to outrageous abuses of power, to wars on normalcy, decency, and truth. In the name of fighting terrorism, our government has done things every bit as shameful as its historic wartime abuses - and until this audiobook, it has worked very hard to cover them up.
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If you care about our liberties, read this book.
- By John L. Moncrief on 11-02-14
By: James Risen
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The Best Worst President
- What the Right Gets Wrong About Barack Obama
- By: Mark Hannah
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Political analyst and Democratic campaign veteran Mark Hannah gives Barack Obama the victory lap he deserves in this compendium that takes the president's critics head-on and celebrates the president's many underappreciated triumphs.
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Thought-provoking
- By Jean on 07-11-16
By: Mark Hannah
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The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom
- America and China, 1776 to the Present
- By: John Pomfret
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 30 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Our relationship with China remains one of the most complex and rapidly evolving and is perhaps one of the most important to our nation's future. Here, John Pomfret, the author of the best-selling Chinese Lessons, takes us deep into these two countries' shared history and illuminates in vibrant, stunning detail every major event, relationship, and ongoing development that has affected diplomacy between these two booming, influential nations.
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Indispensable for understanding the US China relationship
- By D. Keith on 03-12-17
By: John Pomfret
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The Hundred-Year Marathon
- China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower
- By: Michael Pillsbury
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the US government's leading China experts reveals the hidden strategy fueling that country's rise - and how Americans have been seduced into helping China overtake us as the world's leading superpower.
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Fascinating perspective.
- By Rocky Mackintosh on 01-05-17
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The Sorrows of Empire
- Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic
- By: Chalmers Johnson
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Recalling the classic warnings against militarism, from George Washington's farewell address to Dwight Eisenhower's denunciation of the military-industrial complex, Johnson explores the trend of militarism that is bankrupting the United States and creating conditions for a new century of virulent blowback.
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A must read.
- By Thomas on 02-07-15
By: Chalmers Johnson
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Hitler's American Friends
- The Third Reich's Supporters in the United States
- By: Bradley W. Hart
- Narrated by: Chris Ciulla
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Hitler's American Friends, by Bradley W. Hart, is an audiobook examining the strange terrain of Nazi sympathizers, nonintervention campaigners, and other voices in America who advocated on behalf of Nazi Germany in the years before World War II. Americans who remember World War II reminisce about how it brought the country together. The less-popular truth behind this warm nostalgia: Until the attack on Pearl Harbor, America was deeply, dangerously divided.
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Excellent Information
- By Laura on 05-09-19
By: Bradley W. Hart
What listeners say about The Profiteers
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Sharon
- 07-22-16
surprising...loved the narrator !!
I enjoyed finding out how the Bechtals sets involved...it certainly was not shared with the public at the time it was happening.....
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- Christopher Kane
- 10-06-20
Bias and innuendo
The author was able to shine light on a very reclusive company, with a number of flattering and unflattering stories, and some broad historical accounting.
But, there is a clear political and philosophical bias, which emerges from the first pages. While some of these biases are deserved, on the basis of the company’s actions and the history as described, there are some that stretch belief and appear to be cheap shots directed at various people involved in the company.
Persistent themes of anti-Semitism, conspiratorial motives and actions, and graft abound. On the basis of the information contained in the book, I’m not sure that the case for leveling these accusations was deserved.
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- R. Winchester
- 04-29-21
It’s easy to make large companies look “evil”
The problem with this book is that the individual issues would need significant investigation. The beginning history sounds interesting but then the later parts are phoned in. What sounds bad sometimes is because when projects close down a lot of things have to stop or be transitioned to other work. With government related work this is particularly obvious because a huge number of things (and people) are impacted. The problem with this book is that by the time it ends you forget that “why” is never addressed. Why the heck would a 30yr old be put in charge if a company (for instance) and not immediately have a management lead insurrection or break up? Why did they “do” “bad things” at LLNL and NNSA? We know they sound bad but what was the deal? 53000 people do what they need to do to get paid - not for loyalty so why isn’t this and Enron or at least Western Electric?
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- R
- 07-24-22
Surprisingly good
It brings together politics, international affairs and just how much big business is involved. Answers questions as to why government seems to act really stupid sometimes and why and what is behind some past news headlines that never made sense.
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- TruthInAdvertising
- 07-31-16
A Real History of Modern Power & Politics
This is one of those rare tomes that provides a lense into an entire epoch, through a focus on one historical figure: in this case, the entire Bechtel dynasty. While the other books attempt to chronicle the rise of a family, The Profiteers tells us about the rise of American power in the 20th century, and to the present day. Fascinating at many levels, a Must Read.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Dale Sarver
- 05-22-22
an interesting story but highly biased
this is a hit piece on Bechter. there is a lot of interesting and historical information but it is presented in a highly biases way. this would be a very good story if presented in a more objective manner. nonetheless I enjoyed it.
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- Rafael Perez
- 01-09-24
interesting how a business took over government.
fascinating story of a company that was able to re create itself many different ways. how a company kept its pulse on government. how a company monopolized different Industries with the help of the government.
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- Anonymous User
- 03-29-18
Your Liberal Bias is showing
The book is very well researched and facts intensive. However, the author is extremely bias toward the left. I was glad to have listened, but I wish she had not forced political viewpoints instead of allowing the reader to come to their own conclusions.
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10 people found this helpful
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- t
- 06-20-21
Just the facts
Many reviews state the author presents bias; however, my interpretation of the author's tone is one of neutrality–she is presenting only facts.
RE: the reviews concerning political entanglement–
Yes, this is difficult to follow, but again, the author is presenting only facts, there is no leaning in any political direction.
The author has done a wonderful job of researching a very private company and presenting a clear image of how it became entwined with the government. Worth the time investment.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Quick2Comment
- 12-09-20
Paid full price for 3/4 of a good book
The first 3/4ths of the book are a good story about how Bechtel came to be what it is today. The last 1/4th is a bunch of political gobbledygook that doesn’t make much sense and does a horrible job of explaining how it pertains to Bechtel post late 1990’s.
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