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stevenyenzer's review
3.0
Great reading for anyone interested in the intersection between capitalism and American diplomacy. Coll does a great job of avoiding the corporate worship of many similar books while also not making this a straight-up hatchet job. I wish Coll had spent more time on ExxonMobil's earlier history, but what's here is great.
aregberg's review
1.0
The content was very interesting, however the structure of the book just killed it. The link between individual chapters was obscure or non-existent. The anecdotes were not arranged temporally or according to any obvious set of themes. It made it very difficult to stay engaged with the material. Steve Coll could use a good editor to help him arrange his admittedly very good ideas.
petemathenge's review
4.0
The further I read through Steve Coll's impressive book, I kept thinking how hard it must have been to put together. We all "know" about XOM, and we all probably have a reflexive opinion about them. Writing a serious thematic work about Exxon and corporate power? Thats not an easy thing to so and Coll has written a first rate corporate history. Without being an angry leftist he paints a clear picture of the increasing power and reach of the company, even after it's Republican godfathers have left the scene. There is no such thing as Peak Oil, and this very rich company is only getting richer and more powerful. It is a powerful warning about how quickly one large company can amass power and deploy that power ruthlessly. Courts, governments, what are those when you're XOM? A good book to read alongside Piketty's 'Capital'.
ubermensch84's review
5.0
This book confirmed I would read anything by Coll. As a journalist, he is at the very top of his craft.
skiracechick's review
5.0
This book is a beast. Fortunately, it’s actually very interesting. Each chapter reads like a story in the history of ExxonMobil, and many of them build upon each other. Since the book came out in 2012, I’m very curious about what’s been going on with ExxonMobil since then. If I get motivated (assuming they’re all as beastly as this book), I’d love to check out more by this author.