 | |
| Author | Daniel Schulman |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Political convictions |
| Publisher | Grand Central Publishing |
Publication date | May 2014 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 432 |
Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America's Most Powerful and Private Dynasty (2014) is a non-fiction book written by the American journalist Daniel Schulman about the wealthy Koch family and their political activities. [1]
The book is an overview of the Koch family, particularly the relationship between the brothers Frederick R. Koch, Charles Koch, David Koch and Bill Koch. It focuses on the later rivalry between the Koch brothers, their personal lives, and political activities.
The book was well received by critics, particularly for its nonpartisan approach to the political activities of the Koch brothers, as well as Schulman's use of research and interviews with individuals close to the Kochs' to source the information within the book. [2] [3] Matea Gold of The Washington Post described the book as "fair-minded and inquisitive" but noted that it "sometimes veers into gratuitous details." [4] Nicholas Leman of The New York Times wrote that "Schulman has ably assembled everything known about the Kochs into a single, straightforward, understandable account, marred by occasional lapses into cheesy wording". [5]
Koch Industries, Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate corporation based in Wichita, Kansas, and is the second-largest privately held company in the United States, after Cargill. Its subsidiaries are involved in the manufacturing, refining, and distribution of petroleum, chemicals, energy, fiber, intermediates and polymers, minerals, fertilizer, pulp and paper, chemical technology equipment, cloud computing, finance, raw materials trading, and investments. Koch owns Flint Hills Resources, Georgia-Pacific, Guardian Industries, Infor, Invista, KBX, Koch Ag & Energy Solutions, Koch Engineered Solutions, Koch Investments Group, Koch Minerals & Trading, and Molex. The firm employs 122,000 people in 60 countries, with about half of its business in the United States.
Edward Irving Koch was an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, film critic, and television personality. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and was mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989.
The Koch family foundations are a group of charitable foundations in the United States associated with the family of Fred C. Koch. The most prominent of these are the Charles Koch Foundation and the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation, created by Charles Koch and David Koch, two sons of Fred C. Koch who own the majority of Koch Industries, an oil, gas, paper, and chemical conglomerate which is the US's second-largest privately held company. Charles' and David's foundations have provided millions of dollars to a variety of organizations, including libertarian and conservative think tanks. Areas of funding include think tanks, political advocacy, climate change denial, higher education scholarships, cancer research, arts, and science.
David Hamilton Koch was an American businessman, political activist, philanthropist, and chemical engineer. In 1970, he joined the family business: Koch Industries, the second largest privately held company in the United States. He became president of the subsidiary Koch Engineering in 1979 and became a co-owner of Koch Industries in 1983. Koch served as an executive vice president of Koch Industries until he retired due to health issues in 2018.
Daniel Robert Glickman is an American politician, lawyer, lobbyist, and nonprofit leader. He served as the United States secretary of agriculture from 1995 until 2001 in the Clinton administration. He previously represented Kansas's 4th congressional district as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives for 18 years.
William Ingraham Koch is an American billionaire businessman, sailor, and collector. His boat was the winner of the America's Cup in 1992. Forbes estimated Koch's net worth at $1.8 billion in 2019, from oil and other investments.
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), founded in 2004, is a libertarian conservative political advocacy group in the United States affiliated with brothers Charles Koch and the late David Koch. As the Koch family's primary political advocacy group, it is one of the most influential American conservative organizations.
Samuel Alfred Crow was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Kansas.
The 60 Plus American Association of Senior Citizens is an American conservative advocacy group founded in 1992 and based in Alexandria, Virginia. Its stated purpose is to promote solutions to seniors' issues that are grounded in free markets, less government, and less taxes. The organization is pro-Republican Party. The organization is known for its advocacy for the privatization of Social Security and senior citizen health programs, as well as its opposition to the estate tax. The organization has been funded by Charles and David Koch. Although the organization did have ties to Koch family in the past, they say that there have been no contributions from anyone in the Koch network for well over a decade.
Frederick Robinson Koch was an American collector and philanthropist, the eldest of the four sons born to American industrialist Fred Chase Koch, founder of what is now Koch Industries, and Mary Clementine Koch.
Fred Chase Koch was an American chemical engineer and entrepreneur who founded the oil refinery firm that later became Koch Industries, a privately held company which—under the principal ownership and leadership of Koch's sons Charles and David—would be listed by Forbes as the second-largest privately held company in the United States in 2015.
The Koch family is an American family engaged in business, best known for their political activities and their control of Koch Industries, the 2nd largest privately owned company in the United States. The family business was started by Fred C. Koch, who developed a new cracking method for the refinement of heavy crude oil into gasoline. Fred's four sons litigated against each other over their interests in the business during the 1980s and 1990s.
Charles G. and David H. Koch (1940–2019), sometimes referred to as the Koch brothers, have become famous for their financial and political influence in United States politics with a libertarian, more so, right-libertarian or American-style libertarian political stance. From around 2004 to 2019, with "foresight and perseverance", the brothers organized like-minded wealthy libertarian-oriented conservatives, spent hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money to build an "integrated" and "stealth" network of think tanks, foundations, "grassroots" movements, academic programs, advocacy and legal groups to "destroy the prevalent statist paradigm" reshape public opinion to favor minimal government. As of mid 2018, the media has been encouraged to refer to the "Koch network" rather than the "Koch brothers".
Charles de Ganahl Koch is an American billionaire businessman. As of November 2023, he was ranked as the 22nd richest man in the world on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with an estimated net worth of $60 billion. Koch has been co-owner, chairman, and chief executive officer of Koch Industries since 1967, while his late brother David Koch served as executive vice president. Charles and David each owned 42% of the conglomerate. The brothers inherited the business from their father, Fred C. Koch, then expanded the business. Koch Industries is the largest privately held company by revenue in the United States, according to Forbes.
The Government Accountability Institute (GAI) is a conservative think tank located in Tallahassee, Florida. GAI was founded in 2012 by Peter Schweizer and Steve Bannon with funding from Robert Mercer and family. Schweizer serves as the group's president.
Kenneth Paul Vogel is an American journalist and author who currently reports for The New York Times. From 2007 to 2017, he was the founding chief investigative reporter at Politico. In June 2017, he joined the Washington Bureau of The New York Times as a reporter covering conflicts of interest, lobbying, and money in politics.
Daniel Schulman is an American author and journalist. He is a senior editor at the Washington, D.C. bureau of Mother Jones. In 2014, he wrote the book Sons of Wichita, a biography of the Koch family. In 2015, Schulman, along with David Corn, released a story in Mother Jones questioning whether Bill O'Reilly's story about his coverage of the Falklands War was accurate.
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right is a 2016 non-fiction book written by American investigative journalist Jane Mayer. The book focuses on a network of extremely wealthy conservative Republicans, foremost among them Charles and David Koch, who have together funded an array of organizations that work in tandem to influence academic institutions, think tanks, the courts, statehouses, Congress, and the American presidency for their own benefit. Mayer particularly discusses the Koch family and their political activities, along with Richard Mellon Scaife, John M. Olin, the Bradley brothers, as well as the DeVos and Coors families and their related foundations.
Charles Chase Koch, is an American businessman and the son of Charles Koch, the co-owner, CEO, and chairman of Koch Industries. Koch directs the venture capital company Koch Disruptive Technologies, and is a leading figure in Koch Industries and the family's philanthropic activities.
Brandon Whipple is an American politician and academic serving as mayor of Wichita, Kansas. He previously served as a Democratic member of the Kansas House of Representatives representing the 96th district, which included part of south Wichita and was the Ranking Minority member on the Higher Education Budget committee.
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