Friends in High Places
The Bechtel Story: The Most Secret Corporation and How It Engineered the World
Published on 8. April 1989
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-0-345-36044-1 (ISBN)
Description
"Riveting . . . exemplifies how business works by exploiting personal connections."-Businessweek
The Bechtel Group is a private company that shuns the limelight, yet it is one of the prime movers-and-shakers in the global economic arena. Founded by self-made millionaire Warren A. Bechtel as a risk-taking construction and engineering firm, the multibillion-dollar, multinational conglomerate is responsible for constructing the Hoover Dam, laying the Alaskan oil pipeline, and building half of the world's nuclear power plants, for starters.
But Bechtel did not complete these ambitious projects on its own; it did so with the help of such "friends" as Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Dwight Eisenhower, and former employees George Shultz and Caspar Weinberger.
Bechtel's access to high-ranking government officials is unparalleled in the private sector. And with that access comes the temptation to accept favors and influence policy. Business journalist Laton McCartney combines painstaking research and powerful reporting to tell here, for the first time, the explosive inside story of what really goes on at the company that changed the face of the globe.
"McCartney has made an important contribution to understanding a powerful U.S. corporation and American business history."-The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Bechtel Group is a private company that shuns the limelight, yet it is one of the prime movers-and-shakers in the global economic arena. Founded by self-made millionaire Warren A. Bechtel as a risk-taking construction and engineering firm, the multibillion-dollar, multinational conglomerate is responsible for constructing the Hoover Dam, laying the Alaskan oil pipeline, and building half of the world's nuclear power plants, for starters.
But Bechtel did not complete these ambitious projects on its own; it did so with the help of such "friends" as Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Dwight Eisenhower, and former employees George Shultz and Caspar Weinberger.
Bechtel's access to high-ranking government officials is unparalleled in the private sector. And with that access comes the temptation to accept favors and influence policy. Business journalist Laton McCartney combines painstaking research and powerful reporting to tell here, for the first time, the explosive inside story of what really goes on at the company that changed the face of the globe.
"McCartney has made an important contribution to understanding a powerful U.S. corporation and American business history."-The Philadelphia Inquirer
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Random House USA Inc
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 230 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
467 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-345-36044-1 (9780345360441)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Laton McCartney is the author of the national bestseller Friends in High Places: The Bechtel Story–The Most Secret Corporation and How It Engineered the World, The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country, and Across the Great Divide: Robert Stuart and the Discovery of the Oregon Trail. McCartney has written extensively on business, finance, and politics for many national magazines. He and his wife, Nancy, divide their time between Wyoming and New York City.