Author Steve Coll Presents: Private Empire: Exxon Mobil and American Power

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

TIME: 11:30am - Bar opens; 12:15pm - Lunch; 1-2pm - Presentation and Q & A
PRICE: $10 Lecture only; $20 Members; $30 Non-members (includes lunch)
EVENT TYPE: Speaker Luncheon

In Private Empire: Exxon Mobil and American Power, Steve Coll investigates the largest and most powerful private corporation in the United States, revealing the true extent of its power. ExxonMobil’s annual revenues are larger than the economic activity in the great majority of countries. In many of the countries where it conducts business, ExxonMobil’s sway over politics and security is greater than that of the United States embassy. In Washington, ExxonMobil spends more money lobbying Congress and the White House than almost any other corporation. Yet despite its outsized influence, it is a black box. Private Empire pulls back the curtain, tracking the corporation’s recent history and its central role on the world stage, beginning with the Exxon Valdez accident in 1989 and leading to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

Steve Coll is President of New America Foundation, and a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine. Previously he spent 20 years as a foreign correspondent and senior editor at The Washington Post, serving as the paper’s managing editor from 1998 to 2004. He is the author of seven books. Mr. Coll’s professional awards include two Pulitzer Prizes.

The book will be available for purchase and signing.