Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer
by Edward Jay Epstein
List Price:
Our Price: $5.27
You Save: $10.68 (67%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Edward Jay EpsteinEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1999-09-09
ISBN: 0786706775
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Book Reviews of Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer
Book Review: Interesting, but author was insufficiently discriminating about his sources
Summary: 3 Stars
There exists an unusually wide breadth of opinions about Armand Hammer -- he almost won the Nobel Peace Prize, and is revered by those who have benefited from his charitable endeavors, yet is excoriated by the political right. The latter group became particularly vocal in the United States around 2000, as Hammer's ties to Al Gore's father became fodder for talk-radio rumor mongering in that year's presidential election.
Dossier is the only biography of Hammer to have had access to both the U.S. government's records on the man, made available under the Freedom of Information Act after he died, and Soviet records, made available after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. It is therefore the only book that comes close to explaining the nature of Hammer's ties to the Soviet Union. (In the early 1920s, he set up some companies that were used as channels by the Soviets for financing secret operations abroad).
Unfortunately, Epstein was not satisfied with these records, and turns to some really marginal sources to sex up the story. The book contains a number of particularly shocking accusations that, if you follow through the footnotes, all come from a woman who claims to have been Hammer's mistress, decades ago. Take for example Epstein's rendition of the well-known 1920 conviction of Hammer's father for manslaughter. Hammer's father had performed an abortion after which the woman had died. Among those who testified at the trial were the woman's maid, who had been present when the operation took place. Every other source on Hammer treats this as the start of Hammer's business career -- with his father incarcerated, Hammer had to take the reins of the family business.
Epstein, on the other hand, writes that it was the 21-year-old *Hammer himself* who had committed the abortion, not his father, and that he had allowed his father to go to jail for the crime. Epstein bases this remarkable claim on the 1990s recollection of a woman who claimed to have been Hammer's mistress in the 1950s, and who said that Hammer confessed to this crime (along with a string of other appalling things) to her. He ignores the fact that much more credible contemporary witnesses testified to the contrary.
Repeatedly in the book, Epstein takes credit for "discovering" things that have been widely known for decades, and which are discussed in detail in previous Hammer biographies. Meanwhile, his discussion of Hammer's 70-year-long business career is cursory.
If you do read the book, be sure to check the footnotes on any novel claim; some of the sources are really weak. See Weinberg's biography of Hammer for a much better treatment of everything except the early Soviet material.
Summary of Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer
The meticulously documented expos? of a celebrated American philanthropist - and traitor - that reads like a classic thriller. New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year Winner of the Financial Times Book Award The dossier on Hammer tells another story. With unprecedented access to the files of both American and Soviet intelligence agencies as well as Hammer's own secretly taped conversations, investigative author Edward Jay Epstein lays bare the appalling fraud, unconscionable corruption, international treachery, and personal betrayal that indict beyond doubt this ruthlessly manipulative opportunist who courted American presidents and conspired with every Soviet leader from Lenin to Gorbachev. "A morbidly fascinating compound of ambition, greed, unscrupulousness, and power hunger . . . It is hard to imagine a sharper picture of how a tycoon is both born and made and how the power game is played." - New York Times Book Review "What a story! . . . Read this extraordinary book." - Wall Street Journal "An arrestingly written and brilliantly researched biography" - Washington Post "Compelling" - Vanity Fair "A chilling book" - Forbes
It comes as little surprise that Armand Hammer, the chairman and tyrant of Occidental Petroleum who molded himself into a modern Medici, was a philanderer, a sycophant to American Presidents and Soviet leaders alike, and an avid art collector who cared not a fig for art. The surprises in this absorbing biography by Edward Jay Epstein, with Armand Hammer, come from long-buried sources: that Hammer financed Soviet espionage in the United States, that he forced his long-time mistress to change her appearance and her identity to throw his wife off the track, and that Hammer was neither an astute businessman nor anything near the billionaire he portrayed himself as. Hammer's secret history, and his repellent yet fascinating character, deserve the exhaustive, acerbic treatment Epstein provides.
General Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Chemistry books that read like novels!
German Industry and Global Enterprise: BASF: The History of a Companyby Werner Abelshauser, Wolfgang von Hippel, Jeffrey Allan Johnson, Raymond G. Stokes
Cambridge University Press; Published: 2003-11-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $73.50
Price in other shops:
Relativity: The Special and the General Theory--A Clear Explanation that Anyone Can Understandby Albert Einstein
Wings Books; Published: 1988-10-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.18
Price in other shops:
Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammerby Edward Jay Epstein
Da Capo Press; Published: 1999-09-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.27
Price in other shops:
The Proteus Effect: Stem Cells and Their Promise for Medicineby Ann B. Parson
Joseph Henry Press; Published: 2004-09-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.09
Price in other shops:
Inventing the 20th Century: 100 Inventions That Shaped the Worldby Stephen Dulken
NYU Press; Published: 2000-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.95
Price in other shops:
Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progressby Douglas G. Brinkley
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2004-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops:
Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Colorby Philip Ball
University Of Chicago Press; Published: 2003-04-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.99
Price in other shops:
Color: A Natural History of the Paletteby Victoria Finlay
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2003-12-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.93
Price in other shops:
Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacherby Richard P. Feynman
Addison-Wesley Publishing; Published: 1994-11-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.79
Price in other shops:
Rising Tide : Lessons from 165 Years of Brand Building at Procter & Gambleby Davis Dyer, Frederick Dalzell, Rowena Olegario
Harvard Business School Press; Published: 2004-05-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.99
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Anglo-American Establishmentby Quigley Carroll
G. S. G. & Associates, Incorporated; Published: 1981-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.00
The Quality Handbook for Health Care Organizations: A Manager's Guide to Tools and Programs (J-B AHA Press)by Yosef, PhD Dlugacz, Andrea, RN, MPA Restifo, Alice, PhD Greenwood
Jossey-Bass; Published: 2004-04-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $41.74
Price in other shops:
The House of Rothschild: Volume 2: The World's Banker: 1849-1999by Niall Ferguson
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2000-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.94
Price in other shops:
House of Rothschild : Money's Prophets: 1798-1848by Niall Ferguson
Published: 1999-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.75
Price in other shops:
Stealing Time : Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Collapse of AOL Time Warnerby Alec Klein
Published: 2003-05-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.67
Price in other shops:
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.by Ron Chernow
Vintage; Published: 2004-03-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.05
Price in other shops:
Perot: An Unauthorized Biographyby Todd Mason
McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing; Published: 1990-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.51
Price in other shops:
Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalistby Roger Lowenstein
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2008-04-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.91
Price in other shops:
Armand Hammer: The Untold Storyby Steve Weinberg
Random House Value Publishing; Published: 1990-12-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $48.00
Hammerby Armand Hammer
Perigee Trade; Published: 1988-05-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.20
Price in other shops: