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Power, Inc. : Public and Private Rulers and How to Make Them Accountable
Who really runs America? The shocking new expose of the power brokers who control everybody and everything -- accountable to nobody!
659 pages, Hardcover
First published November 17, 1976
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April 20, 2025
I showed this book to one of my literate friends, and she immediately asked when it was published. I told her 1976, and she smirked. This was published a little after the Washington Post wrote their excellent exposé on the Watergate scandal, and perhaps Morton Mintz and Jerry Cohen also wanted to show to the world that they also had many exposés of their own.
Little can be said against their scholarship: many of their corroborative points are cited and quoted, and there’s a copious section of notes and references that could be found at the back of the book. The central point is that processes must be established to improve accountability in the government and in the corporations.
By 200 pages, I realized that many details were repetitive. The authors failed to realize that information overload detracts from the enjoyment and appreciation of the text, because the more data that one tries to cram into one’s brain, the more will also be forgotten. I simply skimmed and scanned my way through the rest of the text, and simply focused on the central points of the different chapters. That way, I could remember when the information was relevant to me. In one chapter regarding pharmaceutical companies, for instance, the authors revealed the delayed restriction and discontinuation of Panalba, which was an antibiotic combination of tetracycline and novobiocin. The problem was that novobiocin’s oral bioavailability was negligible – which meant that people were, in essence, only absorbing tetracycline. However, they also had to contend with the adverse effects of novobiocin, which was hypersensitivity. It took a much longer time before it was removed from the market, because it made money for Upjohn and the rigorous standards of pharmacovigilance nowadays were nonexistent then. The bottom line of that chapter, nevertheless, was still the necessity for accountability.
What would have made this book better?
If this book was instead published as four books that covered exposes in government, healthcare, corporations, and foreign policy, perhaps two will still remain forgotten, but at least one of them will endure. The trend toward non-fiction books nowadays is to cover a central topic over 250 pages, break down the topics to as laminar a flow as possible, and then cite the most pertinent references. Had this been done with the pharmaceutical exposes in this book, I would have rated this book a lot higher.
Ultimately, as a reader, I do not care about what Ralph Nader says. What I care about is a central topic buttressed by points bulwarked with verifiable references. Sadly, this isn’t offered by this book: for example, I really don’t care about Mossadegh’s replacement by the Shah Pahlavi if these are immersed in quotes upon quotes. Ultimately, the point was that America empowers autocrats if it protects their business interests, which was petroleum in this regard.
Having read many thick books over the course of my life, I think that I have enough patience to persist, even with challenging books. With Power, Inc., however, actually reading 800 pages is akin to reading an obsolete encyclopedia. It’s certainly informative, but it’s not quite relevant.
Little can be said against their scholarship: many of their corroborative points are cited and quoted, and there’s a copious section of notes and references that could be found at the back of the book. The central point is that processes must be established to improve accountability in the government and in the corporations.
By 200 pages, I realized that many details were repetitive. The authors failed to realize that information overload detracts from the enjoyment and appreciation of the text, because the more data that one tries to cram into one’s brain, the more will also be forgotten. I simply skimmed and scanned my way through the rest of the text, and simply focused on the central points of the different chapters. That way, I could remember when the information was relevant to me. In one chapter regarding pharmaceutical companies, for instance, the authors revealed the delayed restriction and discontinuation of Panalba, which was an antibiotic combination of tetracycline and novobiocin. The problem was that novobiocin’s oral bioavailability was negligible – which meant that people were, in essence, only absorbing tetracycline. However, they also had to contend with the adverse effects of novobiocin, which was hypersensitivity. It took a much longer time before it was removed from the market, because it made money for Upjohn and the rigorous standards of pharmacovigilance nowadays were nonexistent then. The bottom line of that chapter, nevertheless, was still the necessity for accountability.
What would have made this book better?
If this book was instead published as four books that covered exposes in government, healthcare, corporations, and foreign policy, perhaps two will still remain forgotten, but at least one of them will endure. The trend toward non-fiction books nowadays is to cover a central topic over 250 pages, break down the topics to as laminar a flow as possible, and then cite the most pertinent references. Had this been done with the pharmaceutical exposes in this book, I would have rated this book a lot higher.
Ultimately, as a reader, I do not care about what Ralph Nader says. What I care about is a central topic buttressed by points bulwarked with verifiable references. Sadly, this isn’t offered by this book: for example, I really don’t care about Mossadegh’s replacement by the Shah Pahlavi if these are immersed in quotes upon quotes. Ultimately, the point was that America empowers autocrats if it protects their business interests, which was petroleum in this regard.
Having read many thick books over the course of my life, I think that I have enough patience to persist, even with challenging books. With Power, Inc., however, actually reading 800 pages is akin to reading an obsolete encyclopedia. It’s certainly informative, but it’s not quite relevant.
Displaying 1 of 1 review