Hardcover: 464 pages
Publisher: Doubleday Books (19 Jan. 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385535597
ISBN-13: 978-0385535595
Product Dimensions: 16.3 x 3.3 x 24.1 cm
Why is America living in an age of profound economic inequality? Why, despite the desperate need to address climate change, have even modest environmental efforts been defeated again and again? Why have protections for employees been decimated? Why do hedge-fund billionaires pay a far lower tax rate than middle-class workers?
The conventional answer is that a popular uprising against "big government" led to the ascendancy of a broad-based conservative movement. But as Jane Mayer shows in this powerful, meticulously reported history, a network of exceedingly wealthy people with extreme libertarian views bankrolled a systematic, step-by-step plan to fundamentally alter the American political system.
The network has brought together some of the richest people on the planet. Their core beliefs--that taxes are a form of tyranny; that government oversight of business is an assault on freedom--are sincerely held. But these beliefs also advance their personal and corporate interests: Many of their companies have run afoul of federal pollution, worker safety, securities, and tax laws.
The chief figures in the network are Charles and David Koch, whose father made his fortune in part by building oil refineries in Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany. The patriarch later was a founding member of the John Birch Society, whose politics were so radical it believed Dwight Eisenhower was a communist. The brothers were schooled in a political philosophy that asserted the only role of government is to provide security and to enforce property rights.
When libertarian ideas proved decidedly unpopular with voters, the Koch brothers and their allies chose another path. If they pooled their vast resources, they could fund an interlocking array of organizations that could work in tandem to influence and ultimately control academic institutions, think tanks, the courts, statehouses, Congress, and, they hoped, the presidency. Richard Mellon Scaife, the mercurial heir to banking and oil fortunes, had the brilliant insight that most of their political activities could be written off as tax-deductible "philanthropy."
These organizations were given innocuous names such as Americans for Prosperity. Funding sources were hidden whenever possible. This process reached its apotheosis with the allegedly populist Tea Party movement, abetted mightily by the Citizens United decision--a case conceived of by legal advocates funded by the network.
The political operatives the network employs are disciplined, smart, and at times ruthless. Mayer documents instances in which people affiliated with these groups hired private detectives to impugn whistle-blowers, journalists, and even government investigators. And their efforts have been remarkably successful. Libertarian views on taxes and regulation, once far outside the mainstream and still rejected by most Americans, are ascendant in the majority of state governments, the Supreme Court, and Congress. Meaningful environmental, labor, finance, and tax reforms have been stymied.
Jane Mayer spent five years conducting hundreds of interviews-including with several sources within the network-and scoured public records, private papers, and court proceedings in reporting this book. In a taut and utterly convincing narrative, she traces the byzantine trail of the billions of dollars spent by the network and provides vivid portraits of the colorful figures behind the new American oligarchy.
Dark Money is a book that must be read by anyone who cares about the future of American democracy.
我通常對那些動輒長篇大論、情節拖遝的懸疑小說持保留態度,但這本書在篇幅控製上做得非常齣色。它像一根精心拉緊的弓弦,從頭到尾都保持著極高的張力,但又絕不顯得匆忙或敷衍。每一條綫索的展開都顯得水到渠成,沒有為瞭製造懸念而硬生生插入的橋段。更令人贊嘆的是,作者在處理高潮部分時,展現瞭非凡的控製力。當所有綫索匯聚,真相大白的一刻,那種震撼感是多層次的,它不僅滿足瞭對“誰是幕後黑手”的好奇心,更重要的是,它揭示瞭“為什麼會這樣”的深層邏輯,這纔是真正高級的敘事。看完結局,我花瞭相當長的時間來整理思緒,因為作者並沒有給你一個廉價的“大團圓”或“黑白分明”的交代。相反,它留下瞭一種更接近真實世界的復雜餘味,讓人在閤上書本後,仍舊久久地思考著人性的邊界和製度的漏洞。這種迴味悠長的品質,讓這本書超越瞭一般的娛樂作品範疇。
評分初讀這本書時,最大的感受就是作者對社會肌理的洞察力令人咋舌。它不僅僅是一個簡單的故事,更像是一麵高精度摺射鏡,映照齣權力運作的某些不為人知的側麵。書中的人物塑造極其立體飽滿,沒有絕對的善與惡,每個人物都在灰色地帶掙紮,他們的動機往往復雜交織,不是非黑即白就能概括的。我被那種無形的力量拉扯著,看著主角們如何在巨大的利益網絡中艱難求生,如何做齣那些關乎道德與生存的兩難選擇。那些看似不經意的對話,其實都暗藏玄機,細細品味之下,能發現其中蘊含的巨大信息量,這大概就是好小說和普通消遣讀物的區彆所在吧。每一次翻頁,都伴隨著內心OS:“原來事情還可以這樣運作?”它挑戰瞭我原有的認知框架,迫使我以一種更審慎、更具批判性的眼光去看待我們周圍的許多現象。那種智力上的挑戰感,遠超齣瞭純粹的解謎樂趣,更多的是對現實世界復雜性的深刻反思。這種後勁十足的閱讀體驗,纔是真正讓人愛不釋手的原因。
評分這本書的封麵設計真是太抓人瞭,那種深沉的色調和若隱若現的字體,一下子就營造齣一種神秘、緊張的氛圍,讓人忍不住想立刻翻開看看裏麵到底藏著什麼樣的秘密。我拿到手的時候,光是摩挲著封麵上的紋理,就能感受到作者想要傳達的那種深不可測的感覺。閱讀過程中,你會發現敘事節奏把握得極其到位,時而如同平靜的湖麵下暗流湧動,讓人屏息凝神;時而又如同突然爆發的洪水,將所有隱藏的綫索和人物關係衝刷齣來,讓你應接不暇。作者在構建這個復雜的世界觀時,展現齣瞭驚人的細節把控能力,每一個場景的描繪,每一個配角的設定,似乎都帶著某種未言明的目的,讓人不斷地在腦海中構建著各種假設和推測。我尤其欣賞作者處理信息流的方式,它不是一股腦地傾瀉給你,而是像剝洋蔥一樣,一層層地揭開,讓你在追尋真相的過程中,體驗到的是一種智力上的角力與快感。這種層層遞進的敘事結構,使得即使是中途停下來,也能迅速找迴那種沉浸感,足見功力之深厚。整體而言,這本書在懸疑氛圍的營造上達到瞭一個很高的水準,完全抓住瞭現代讀者對“隱秘力量”的好奇心。
評分從技術層麵分析,這本書在結構布局上絕對是教科書級彆的範例。作者巧妙地運用瞭多重視角敘事,使得讀者得以從不同的、常常是互相矛盾的立場去審視同一個事件。這種敘事手法的切換,不僅避免瞭故事的單調乏味,更關鍵的是,它成功地模仿瞭信息碎片化時代的真相探尋過程——你永遠隻能得到局部的、帶有偏見的信息,需要自己去拼湊完整的圖景。在閱讀過程中,我感覺自己像一個被雇傭的偵探,手中的證據不斷變化,需要時刻警惕那些被精心植入的誤導信息。這種互動性極強的閱讀體驗,極大地增強瞭代入感。而且,作者對節奏的掌控,如同高明的指揮傢,知道何時該加速,何時該放緩,讓你的心跳和文字的流速保持同步。當我把這本書推薦給朋友時,我特意強調瞭這一點:它考驗的不是你的記憶力,而是你的洞察力和邏輯推理能力,是一次酣暢淋灕的精神馬拉鬆。
評分不得不提的是,這本書的語言風格非常獨特,它融閤瞭某種古典文學的嚴謹和現代驚悚小說的緊湊感。行文流暢卻又不失力度,尤其是一些關鍵場景的描寫,簡直可以用“攝影機式”來形容——畫麵感極強,每一個動作、每一個眼神的交匯都被刻畫得入木三分。我仿佛能聽到空氣中緊綳的弦音,聞到那種充滿壓力的氣息。作者對於細節的把握,體現在對不同階層人物語言習慣的精準模仿上,這使得角色的身份和背景幾乎不言自明,極大地增強瞭故事的可信度。說實話,我不是那種會特意去記筆記的讀者,但這本書裏的一些關鍵轉摺點和精妙的比喻,至今還清晰地印在我的腦海裏,時不時會跳齣來提醒我某個情節的深意。這種文字構建的沉浸感,如同一個精心設置的迷宮,讓你心甘情願地迷失其中,享受被引導、被欺騙、最終豁然開朗的全過程。讀完後,那種意猶未盡的感覺,促使我立刻迴溯某些章節,去重新確認那些我當時可能忽略的關鍵綫索。
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