Butler to the World: The Book the Oligarchs Don't Want You to Read - How Britain Helps the World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, and Get Away with Anything

Bullough, Oliver

ISBN 10: 125028192X / ISBN 13: 9781250281920

Published by St. Martin's Press, 2022

About this Item

Seller Inventory # E-9781250281920-6-2

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Butler to the World: The Book the Oligarchs Don't Want You to Read - How Britain Helps the World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, and Get Away with Anything
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 125028192X
• ISBN 13: 9781250281920
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very good

About this title

Synopsis

Named one of the Best Books of 2022 by the New Yorker and the Economist

In his forceful follow-up to Moneyland, Oliver Bullough unravels the dark secret of how Britain placed itself at the center of the global offshore economy and at the service of the worst people in the world.

The Suez Crisis of 1956 was the nadir of Britain's twentieth century, the moment when the once-superpower was bullied into retreat. "Great Britain has lost an empire and not yet found a role," said Dean Acherson, a former US secretary of state. Acheson's line has entered into the canon of great quotations: but it was wrong. Britain had already found a role. The leaders of the world just hadn't noticed it yet.

Butler to the World reveals how Britain came to assume its role as the center of the offshore economy. Written polemically, but studded with witty references to the butlers of popular fiction, it demonstrates how so many elements of modern Britain have been put at the service of the world's oligarchs.

The Biden administration is putting corruption at the heart of its foreign policy, and that means it needs to confront Britain's role as the foremost enabler of financial crime and ill behavior. This book lays bare how London has deliberately undercut U.S. regulations for decades, and calls into question the extent to which Britain can be considered a reliable ally.

About the Author

Oliver Bullough is the author of non-fiction books on Russian history and politics: The Last Man in Russia, and Let Our Fame Be Great, which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in the UK and won the Cornelius Ryan in the US.

Bullough is a writer for the Guardian, and his work has been published by British GQ, The New York Times, and the BBC. He lives in London.