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Alpha Dogs
How Spin Became a Global Business

Synopsis:

Full of fierce intrigue and disastrous miscalculations, "Alpha Dogs" introduces the small but extraordinary group of men who invented modern politics and made 'spin' global.David Sawyer was a New England aristocrat with dreams of a career as a film-maker; Scott Miller, the son of a shoe salesman, was a brilliant copywriter. Unlikely partners, their enormously influential campaigning company, Sawyer-Miller, directed democratic revolutions from the Philippines to Chile, steered a dozen presidents and prime ministers into office, and instilled the campaign ethic in corporate giants from Coca-Cola to Apple.Long after the firm had broken up and sold out, its alumni had moved into the White House, to dozens of foreign countries and to the offices of America' blue-chip chief executives. The men of Sawyer-Miller were the Manhattan Project of spin politics: a small but extraordinary group who invented American-style political campaigning and exported it around the world.In his marvellously readable narrative, James Harding tells the story of a few men whose political savvy, entrepreneurial drive and sheer greed would alter the landscape of global politics.

Reviews:

"* 'What makes this story come alive are the characters; those who speak of their early hopes, and of their later depravity, those who quit and those whose lives end in tragedy, those who know they have had a pernicious effect on politics, and those in designer suits who don't have a clue or don't much care.' Ken Auletta"

Author Biography:

James Harding is the editor of The Times. He was previously Washington bureau chief of the Financial Times. This is his first book.

Additional Information:

Related subjects: Politics & government