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The Wolves of K Street
The Secret History of How Big Money Took Over Big Government
By Brody Mullins and Luke Mullins
Table of Contents
About The Book
A dazzling and infuriating portrait of fifty years of corporate influence in Washington, The Wolves of K Street is a “not-so-guilty pleasure” (The New York Times): irresistibly dramatic, spectacularly timely, explosive in its revelations, and impossible to put down.
In the 1970s, Washington’s center of power began to shift away from elected officials in big marble buildings to a handful of savvy, handsomely paid operators who didn’t answer to any fixed constituency. The cigar-chomping son of an influential congressman, an illustrious political fixer with a weakness for modern art, a Watergate-era dirty trickster, the city’s favorite cocktail party host—these were the sort of men who now ran Washington.
Over four decades, they’d chart new ways to turn their clients’ cash into political leverage, abandoning favor-trading in smoke-filled rooms for increasingly sophisticated tactics, such as “shadow lobbying,” where underground campaigns sparked seemingly organic public outcries to pressure lawmakers into taking actions that would ultimately benefit corporate interests rather than ordinary citizens. With billions of dollars at play, these lobbying dynasties enshrined in Washington a pro-business consensus that would guide the country’s political leaders—Democrats and Republicans alike. A good lobbyist could ghostwrite a bill or even secretly kill a piece of legislation supported by the president, both houses of Congress, and a majority of Americans.
Yet nothing lasts forever. Amid a populist backlash to the soaring inequality these influence peddlers helped usher in, DC’s pro-business alliance suddenly began to fray. And while the lobbying establishment would continue to invent new ways to influence Washington, the men who’d built K Street would soon find themselves under legal scrutiny, on the verge of financial collapse or worse. One would turn up dead behind the eighteenth green of an exclusive golf club, with a $1,500 bottle of wine at his feed and bullet in his head.
An “absorbing” (The Atlantic), “engrossing” and “meticulously researched” tale (The Guardian)—brought to life with “novelistic detail” and “considerable narrative skill” (The New York Times)—The Wolves of K Street is essential reading for anyone looking to understand how corporate interests are undermining American democracy.
In the 1970s, Washington’s center of power began to shift away from elected officials in big marble buildings to a handful of savvy, handsomely paid operators who didn’t answer to any fixed constituency. The cigar-chomping son of an influential congressman, an illustrious political fixer with a weakness for modern art, a Watergate-era dirty trickster, the city’s favorite cocktail party host—these were the sort of men who now ran Washington.
Over four decades, they’d chart new ways to turn their clients’ cash into political leverage, abandoning favor-trading in smoke-filled rooms for increasingly sophisticated tactics, such as “shadow lobbying,” where underground campaigns sparked seemingly organic public outcries to pressure lawmakers into taking actions that would ultimately benefit corporate interests rather than ordinary citizens. With billions of dollars at play, these lobbying dynasties enshrined in Washington a pro-business consensus that would guide the country’s political leaders—Democrats and Republicans alike. A good lobbyist could ghostwrite a bill or even secretly kill a piece of legislation supported by the president, both houses of Congress, and a majority of Americans.
Yet nothing lasts forever. Amid a populist backlash to the soaring inequality these influence peddlers helped usher in, DC’s pro-business alliance suddenly began to fray. And while the lobbying establishment would continue to invent new ways to influence Washington, the men who’d built K Street would soon find themselves under legal scrutiny, on the verge of financial collapse or worse. One would turn up dead behind the eighteenth green of an exclusive golf club, with a $1,500 bottle of wine at his feed and bullet in his head.
An “absorbing” (The Atlantic), “engrossing” and “meticulously researched” tale (The Guardian)—brought to life with “novelistic detail” and “considerable narrative skill” (The New York Times)—The Wolves of K Street is essential reading for anyone looking to understand how corporate interests are undermining American democracy.
About The Authors
Tom Williams
Brody Mullins is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter. He spent nearly two decades covering the intersection of business and politics for The Wall Street Journal.
Tom Williams
Luke Mullins is a contributing writer at Politico magazine, where he covers the people and institutions that control Washington’s levers of power.
Product Details
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 7, 2024)
- Length: 624 pages
- ISBN13: 9781982120610
Raves and Reviews
“An instant classic—deeply reported, powerfully told and profoundly important. It’s one of the best books I've read on Washington in many years.”
—Peter Baker, New York Times bestselling author of The Man Who Ran Washington
“A not-so-guilty pleasure…. The Mullins brothers cleverly set up their story as a mystery… with considerable narrative skill and novelistic detail.”
—James B. Stewart, The New York Times
“A vivid, brilliantly told tale that unfolds like a novel, this is the most potent portrait of the Washington swamp you will read.”
—Ken Auletta, New York Times bestselling author of Googled
“If you want to understand how American democracy went off the rails, all you need to do is read this book.”
—Christopher Leonard, New York Times bestselling author of The Lords of Easy Money
“Absorbing.... This is the deep state.”
—Franklin Foer, The Atlantic
“Engrossing…. Smoothly written, meticulously researched, The Wolves of K Street informs and mesmerizes.”
—The Guardian
“A fast-paced deep dive into a world of greed and ambition, inhabited by a uniquely fascinating group of wheelers and dealers. The Wolves of K Street is a history of not only how money and power have influenced American politics, but how the work of lobbyists touches the lives of every American.”
—Kate Andersen Brower, New York Times bestselling author of The Residence
“One of the most amazing developments in modern American politics is how Donald Trump’s Republican Party seems to have supplanted FDR’s Democratic Party as the political home of the ‘working man.’ … Anyone who wants to understand this transformation should read Brody and Luke Mullins’s new book.”
—The Washington Free Beacon
“However nefarious you think the lobbying industry is in Washington, Brody and Luke Mullins have news: It’s worse. Not even during the Roaring Twenties and the Gilded Age did corporate American wield so much influence. In their deeply reported, compelling new book, the Mullins brothers track how that happened, and the disastrous consequences.”
—Susan Page, New York Times bestselling author of The Matriarch
“This is nothing less than the definitive history of how corporate lobbyists took over Washington. The Mullins brothers have brought us the story of how Washington really works—and for whom.”
—Jonathan Martin, New York Times bestselling coauthor of This Will Not Pass
Resources and Downloads
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- Author Photo (jpg): Brody Mullins Tom Williams(0.1 MB)
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- Author Photo (jpg): Luke Mullins Tom Williams(0.1 MB)
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