The Profiteers

Bechtel and the Men Who Built the World

By: Sally Denton

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne

From the best-selling coauthor of The Money and the Power, the inside story of the Bechtel family and the empire they've controlled since the construction of the Hoover Dam.

The tale of the Bechtel family dynasty is a classic American business story. It begins with Warren A. "Dad" Bechtel, who led a consortium that constructed the Hoover Dam. From that auspicious start, the family and its eponymous company would go on to build the world, from the construction of airports in Hong Kong and Doha to pipelines and tunnels in Alaska and Europe to mining and energy operations around the globe. Today Bechtel is one of the largest privately held corporations in the world, enriched and empowered by a long history of government contracts and the privatization of public works, made possible by an unprecedented revolving door between its San Francisco headquarters and Washington. Bechtel executives John McCone, Caspar Weinberger, and George P. Shultz segued from leadership at the company to positions as director of the CIA, secretary of defense, and secretary of state, respectively.

Like all stories of empire building, the rise of Bechtel presents a complex and riveting narrative. In The Profiteers, Sally Denton exposes Bechtel's secret world and one of the biggest business and political stories of our time.

©2016 Sally Denton (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

surprising...loved the narrator !!

I enjoyed finding out how the Bechtals sets involved...it certainly was not shared with the public at the time it was happening.....

Your Liberal Bias is showing

The book is very well researched and facts intensive. However, the author is extremely bias toward the left. I was glad to have listened, but I wish she had not forced political viewpoints instead of allowing the reader to come to their own conclusions.

Surprisingly good

It brings together politics, international affairs and just how much big business is involved. Answers questions as to why government seems to act really stupid sometimes and why and what is behind some past news headlines that never made sense.

It’s easy to make large companies look “evil”

The problem with this book is that the individual issues would need significant investigation. The beginning history sounds interesting but then the later parts are phoned in. What sounds bad sometimes is because when projects close down a lot of things have to stop or be transitioned to other work. With government related work this is particularly obvious because a huge number of things (and people) are impacted. The problem with this book is that by the time it ends you forget that “why” is never addressed. Why the heck would a 30yr old be put in charge if a company (for instance) and not immediately have a management lead insurrection or break up? Why did they “do” “bad things” at LLNL and NNSA? We know they sound bad but what was the deal? 53000 people do what they need to do to get paid - not for loyalty so why isn’t this and Enron or at least Western Electric?

Bias and innuendo

The author was able to shine light on a very reclusive company, with a number of flattering and unflattering stories, and some broad historical accounting.

But, there is a clear political and philosophical bias, which emerges from the first pages. While some of these biases are deserved, on the basis of the company’s actions and the history as described, there are some that stretch belief and appear to be cheap shots directed at various people involved in the company.

Persistent themes of anti-Semitism, conspiratorial motives and actions, and graft abound. On the basis of the information contained in the book, I’m not sure that the case for leveling these accusations was deserved.