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"Powerful...His extensively reported tales of individual whistleblowers and their often cruel fates are compelling...They reveal what it can mean to live in an age of fraud." — The Washington Post
"Tom Mueller's authoritative and timely book reveals what drives a few brave souls to expose and denounce specific cases of corruption. He describes the structural decay that plagues many of our most powerful institutions, putting democracy itself in danger." —George Soros
A David-and-Goliath story for our times: the riveting account of the heroes who are fighting a rising tide of wrongdoing by the powerful, and showing us the path forward.
We live in a period of sweeping corruption — and a golden age of whistleblowing. Over the past few decades, principled insiders who expose wrongdoing have gained unprecedented legal and social stature, emerging as the government's best weapon against corporate misconduct—and the citizenry's best defense against government gone bad. Whistleblowers force us to confront fundamental questions about the balance between free speech and state secrecy, and between individual morality and corporate power.
In Crisis of Conscience, Tom Mueller traces the rise of whistleblowing through a series of riveting cases drawn from the worlds of healthcare and other businesses, Wall Street, and Washington. Drawing on in-depth interviews with more than two hundred whistleblowers and the trailblazing lawyers who arm them for battle—plus politicians, intelligence analysts, government watchdogs, cognitive scientists, and other experts—Mueller anatomizes what inspires some to speak out while the rest of us become complicit in our silence. Whistleblowers, we come to see, are the freethinking, outspoken citizens for whom our republic was conceived. And they are the models we must emulate if our democracy is to survive.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
October 1, 2019 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593146934
- File size: 711338 KB
- Duration: 24:41:57
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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This is a listen that is very good, important, and frustrating. Anyone who knows Mark Deakins's work knows how good a narrator he is. With this audiobook, he takes a work that could have been dry and uninspiring and turns it into a performance that leaves the listener engaged but frustrated. Engaged because the work of whistleblowers is so vital to our democracy. Frustrated because it's depressing how whistleblowers can be treated. This audiobook covers misdeeds and malfeasance in both public and private sectors. It explains why whistleblowers do what they do--and the price they often pay for their deeds. Deakins uses the right degrees of incredulity, exasperation, explanation, and enthusiasm without ever overdoing it. This audiobook is not to be missed. J.P.S. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine -
October 14, 2019
Journalist Mueller (Extra Virginity) explores “the nature of the whistleblowing act” and profiles insiders who have exposed fraud in America’s public and private institutions in this exhaustive account. His subjects include Franz Gayl, a civilian military adviser and former Marine who went public in 2008 with claims that the Department of Defense was preventing frontline soldiers from receiving lifesaving equipment. Florida hospital administrator Elin Baklid-Kunz filed a whistle-blower suit alleging that her bosses had overbilled Medicare and paid illegal kickbacks to doctors, some of whom were performing unnecessary procedures. Citigroup underwriter Richard Bowen’s warnings that 80% of the mortgages bought by the bank in 2007 were “defective” went unheeded until the 2008 financial collapse. Mueller chronicles the serious repercussions faced by these and other whistle-blowers and sketches similarities in their backgrounds (early life struggles; rural upbringings; “straightforward” temperaments) before concluding that there is no “whistleblower ‘type.’ ” He distinguishes between “anonymous leakers” in the Trump administration and “authentic whistleblowers” who buttress their claims with “professional gravitas” and “personal conviction.” Such broad characterizations occasionally mar Mueller’s analysis, but he efficiently synthesizes a vast amount of material. This exceptionally timely book is sure to strike a chord with readers paying close attention to the political landscape.
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