  | Book Details Title: American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power |
Book DescriptionReview “Anyone concerned about American democracy should read Andrea Bernstein’s devastating exposé of the Trump and Kushner families. With meticulous precision, she documents the pernicious effects of dynastic wealth and power, now threatening to turn the highest rungs of the US government into a corrupt oligarchy.” – Jane Mayer, The New Yorker staff writer and New York Times best-selling author of Dark Money“A sweeping story of two American families, which shows that both the Trumps and the Kushners made their fortunes―often with government money. How did these ‘self-made men’ really get made? With donations, favors, intimidation and other people’s money. Nobody really beats city hall. The winners buy it, as Bernstein shows.” – David Fahrenthold, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist at the Washington Post“Riveting! Andrea Bernstein deftly tracks the history of the Trump and Kushner families from their roots through their immigration to the United States and their progression up through the socioeconomic ranks. American Oligarchs is comprehensive, brilliantly written, filled with detail and suspense―it reads like a financial thriller.” – A. M. Homes, prize-winning author of Days of Awe and This Book Will Save Your Life“Andrea Bernstein masterfully chronicles the sordid narrative that is the American reality. What elevates her book isn’t just her gobsmacking tale of these two families; it’s that she illuminates the contours of the system that brought us their corrupt reign.” – Franklin Foer, staff writer at the Atlantic and author of World Without Mind“Bernstein…offers a precise and damning dissection of the systems of power that have gotten us where we are now…[American Oligarchs] is a work of great reporting.” – Tayla Zax, Forward“A rich and highly readable compendium…Bernstein is an intrepid reporter.” – William Cohan, New York Times Book Review“By building American Oligarchs around the Kushner and Trump family narratives, Bernstein offers readers a fresh perspective…. Readers who follow the news more casually will also find the epic family tales a compelling way to understand the myriad deals and ambitions that define the Kushners and Trumps.” – David Kocieniewski, Bloomberg.com“A meticulous deep dive.” – Lloyd Green, Guardian Read more About the Author Andrea Bernstein is the Peabody Award–winning cohost of the acclaimed WNYC/ProPublica podcast Trump, Inc., which won the prestigious 2019 Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University award. In addition to broadcast appearances on outlets including PBS NewsHour, CNN, and Fresh Air, her work has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times, the Washington Post, New York, and on NPR. Read more Customers Review: “American Oligarchs”, by Andrea Bernstein, is exactly what it’s subtitle says it is. It’s the story of the Kushner and Trump families, and the marriage that brought them together. Bernstein does a superb job at writing a book that basically gives the families’ histories without too much silent sighing-at-what’s going on with these people? Neither family is on the up-and-up, though the Kushners may be (may be) slightly less heinous than the Trumps. Charlie Kushner’s still on his first wife, and that family should be commended for surviving the Holocaust and making the most the “Goldene Medina” they found here in postWW2 America.There’s not much new in Bernstein’s book about the Trumps. The usual rumors about how money was made are there and the writing is pretty non-sensational. (Given what it could be…) Most readers of the book will read it for the Kushner parts because they’re actually the most interesting. Ol’ Charlie might still be on Wife #1, but I wonder if she chose to visit him in jail when he was there for blackmailing his sister and brother in law? Picture a crime including a prostitute, a hot-sheet motel in rural New Jersey, and photographs. At this attempt at extortion of his nearest-and-dearest, Kushner spent 1 year in an Air Force base lockup in Alabama. His son, Jared, visited him every weekend for his term. I guess family Thanksgivings aren’t overly congenial in the Kushner family…At any rate, Andrea Bernstein’s book is filled with little gems like Charlie’s attempt at extortion and why the Kushners aren’t exactly best buds with Chris Christie…I really enjoyed Bernstein’s book. It was well written and filled with juicy goings on by repulsive people. Just my favorite type of book.
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53 reviews