‘Kochland’ Measures the Reach of a Politically Influential Corporate Giant

Christopher Leonard's book Kochland was reviewed in the New York Times.

With great power comes a lot of publicity — not all of it wanted, as a new book about the secretive Koch Industries makes clear.

In Kochland, the business journalist Christopher Leonard adds to a growing shelf that includes Jane Mayer’s best-selling “Dark Money” and Daniel Schulman’s “Sons of Wichita.” Schulman focused on the Koch family story, while Mayer investigated the Koch-funded war chest for a conservative political agenda, including a stubborn denial of climate science. Leonard peers into the black box of the enormous energy conglomerate itself: “Kochland” is a corporate history, lucidly told.

Telling this story as well as “Kochland” does is harder than it looks, and not just for the obvious reasons. Yes, Koch Industries is one of the largest privately owned companies in the world; this means it isn’t beholden to the same transparency requirements of a publicly traded company, whose shareholders expect to see the books.