Synopsis
About Steve Coll
See more books from this AuthorLeaks, reserves, PACs, hydrofracking, bloated corporate profits and more: all pertinent concerns nicely handled by Coll in this engaging, hard-hitting work.
Read Full Review of Private Empire | See more reviews from Kirkus“Private Empire” is not as original and absorbing as Coll’s excellent Pulitzer Prize-winning “Ghost Wars,”...
Read Full Review of Private Empire | See more reviews from NY TimesMountains of facts are mined, crushed and consumed as narrative fuel. If Mr. Coll were a corporation, you would want to impose a carbon tax on him.
Read Full Review of Private Empire | See more reviews from NY Times...shows how changes in the world oil industry since the 1950s meant the company had to adapt to survive. But its power remains unchecked, making this thorough and accessible portrait of the secretive corporation fascinating and deeply disturbing.
Read Full Review of Private Empire | See more reviews from GuardianWhatever one's perspective, Coll's work is a thoroughly researched and finely written portrayal of a business whose activities have profound implications for us all.
Read Full Review of Private Empire | See more reviews from GuardianDespite these quibbles, the book assuredly does what it sets out to do: show the inner workings of one of the Western world’s most significant concentrations of unelected power.
Read Full Review of Private Empire | See more reviews from NY TimesThe author and his researchers are masterful at the encyclopedic, yet remind us that encyclopedias are inevitably summaries. Too often this is compilation without inner context, detail without meaningful depth.
Read Full Review of Private Empire | See more reviews from Globe and Mailhis reporter’s instincts to stick to the facts and let readers interpret their meaning is one weakness of this otherwise extraordinary book.
Read Full Review of Private Empireon the whole the book offers an admirably balanced analysis which allows us to make up our own minds about this most secretive of American corporations.
Read Full Review of Private EmpireIn Private Empire – a book that, no doubt, will be described as exhaustive in reviews – Coll all but avoids dry holes in his wildcatting expedition to drill down into the story of a company that operates in many respects as its own nation.
Read Full Review of Private EmpirePrivate Empire is not so much an indictment as a fascinating look into American business and politics. With each chapter as forceful as a New Yorker article, the book abounds in Dickensian characters.
Read Full Review of Private EmpireIf Private Empire has a major flaw, it’s that this wider context is too often left unexplored. The book is constructed like a series of interrelated magazine articles.
Read Full Review of Private EmpireColl is able to admire the professional skills and zeal within the corporation while simultaneously sometimes criticizing the ruthlessness and lawlessness that sometimes become apparent.
Read Full Review of Private EmpireColl's work will be a stunning description and dissection of a corporation's struggles to balance technical expertise with occasional forays into social engineering.
Read Full Review of Private EmpireExxonMobil’s business affects not only our consumption but our industries, geopolitical influence, health, environment, and human rights. Which makes Private Empire a brutally important book. Coll has forged the biography of “a corporate state within the American state,” as he so aptly calls it.
Read Full Review of Private EmpireSteve Coll puts it in “Private Empire,’’ his powerful portrait of a powerful economic force,
Read Full Review of Private EmpireMore often than not, Private Empire is a compelling and elucidatory work, though its disciplined, very ExxonMobil-esque adherence to rigor and propriety does make for some moments of reader fatigue. (Would a light sprinkling of personality-based gossip or insouciant asides have hurt?)
Read Full Review of Private EmpireColl employs language that’s plain, clear, and free of accusation. Though some of the details recounted across the sprawling narrative of Private Empire are outrageous, the reporting is deep and fair.
Read Full Review of Private EmpireColl's book is extremely well written and enjoyable to read. It provides a balanced, deeply researched examination of one of the world's largest and most powerful corporations and is highly recommended for anyone interested in learning more about Exxon Mobil and the geopolitical dynamics of the global oil industry.
Read Full Review of Private EmpireThe book travels the globe but rarely takes a moment to put all the pieces together. Private Empire is an engrossing account of one corporation, but in many ways it misses the chance to put the company into context. The detailed descriptions of events could easily be trimmed and concluded with contextual analysts.
Read Full Review of Private EmpireColl conducted hundreds of interviews to compile this exhaustive -- sometimes exhausting -- history of one of the world's most secretive companies.
Read Full Review of Private EmpirePrivate Empire never rises to greatness due to some architectural flaws...This results in a book with no momentum and not much glue. This is a long book about an oil company with remarkably little (unspilled) oil in it.
Read Full Review of Private EmpireBut if Coll is seeking to build an indictment against ExxonMobil, as seems to be his aim, he does not achieve it.
Read Full Review of Private EmpireAn aggregated and normalized score based on 256 user ratings from iDreamBooks & iTunes