The oil giant ExxonMobil makes more money annually than the GDP of most countries; has greater sway than US embassies abroad; and spends more on lobbying than any other corporation. Yet to outsiders it is a mystery. In Private Empire award-winning reporter Steve Coll tells the truth about the world's most powerful and shadowy company. From the Exxon Valdez accident in 1989 to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, via Moscow, the swamps of the Niger Delta and the halls of Congress, he reveals a story of dictators, oligarchs, civil war, blackmail, secrecy and ruthlessness. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and newly declassified documents, this is a chilling portrait of unchecked power. 'The definitive work on its subject . . . at every stop there are vivid anecdotes, sharp insights and telling details.' Ed Crooks, Financial Times 'Magisterial . . . a revealing history of our time.' New York Review of Books 'Meticulous, multi-angled and valuable . . . Coll's prose sweeps the earth like an Imax camera.' Dwight Garner, The New York Times 'Jaw-dropping reading.' Kirkus Reviews