I learned a great deal from this well-written book about the history of lobbying and the pernicious influence of money in politics. One often hears of its dangers but the authors, Brody and Luke Mullins, help put flesh on the bones. They offer an inside baseball look at the personal lives of several of the most influential lobbyists while helping us to understand the broader implications of their efforts.
Unfortunately, I’m unable to give this a five-star rating. The reason has to do with the authors’ obvious political and social biases, though the book presents as an otherwise objective account of the history of money in U.S. politics.
And while I share the authors’ disdain for the outsized infusion of corporate/Big Business/millionaire-billionaire money into modern-day politics, they seem to go out of their way to take sides. One wonders if this reflects an unconscious “media bubble” mindset or simply their need to maintain street cred among fellow elitist journalists in Manhattan and inside the Beltway.
