Publishers Weekly
06/24/2024
The Microsoft founder and philanthropist is a protean figure and thus an ideal prism through which to study society’s relationship with the billionaire class, according to this ruminative debut. New York Times finance editor Das chronicles well-known criticisms of Gates, including that he’s a ruthless monopolist who built his company on other people’s ideas; he’s a cold, rude boss with no people skills; he made inappropriate advances toward female employees and cheated on his wife, Melinda; and he hung out with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The book’s centerpiece is Das’s investigation of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which dominates private charitable efforts aimed at global public health, vaccines, and agricultural development. She interviews hundreds of former employees of the foundation, who make juicy assertions like that Gates’s operation was very much fixated on winning him a Nobel Prize. She also cites scholars and critics who accuse the foundation of throwing its weight around recklessly and making missteps with massive repercussions, ranging from supporting ineffective initiatives on telemedicine and charter schools to “replicat the power dynamics of colonialism” in developing countries. While this exposé intrigues, Das’s sociological framing—which revolves around how billionaires are perceived by the public and Gates’s PR management—never quite coheres. Still, it’s a perceptive and vibrant character portrait. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
FT and Schroders Business Book of the Year 2024 Longlist
“Eye-opening . . . Full of intriguing titbits about Gates . . . Although her in-depth reporting digs deep into the history and structure of our billionaire-friendly financial world, Das’s clear writing makes for an entertaining story. It may not quite be a beach read, but it will surely be read on yachts. . . . Perfectly timed too, as tech bro billionaires are now more obviously wielding their influence.” —The Times (UK)
“Das widens the lens through which Gates’ life and career is viewed. Each facet of his reputation is couched within a larger framework of capitalism, social justice, and entrepreneurship to question the outsized sway Gates and others of his rank hold over society writ large. Venturing deep into every aspect of Gates’ professional and private spheres, Das offers a balanced, perceptive, and thought-provoking portrait of a man and his times.” —Booklist
“Ms. Das considers different facets of Mr. Gates’s life, from his friendship with Warren Buffett and the breakdown of his marriage to the running of his foundation and the management of his wealth. Some of this is eye-opening . . . . But Ms. Das’s book is most interesting when it shows how Mr. Gates has influenced other billionaires—how they have emulated him, and how they have not.” —The Economist
“A sharply incisive portrait.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A vivid, deeply reported look at one of the most influential figures in business and technology that confronts the urgent question of whether empire-builders such as Gates play too large a part in shaping the world we live in.” —Sheelah Kolhatkar, New Yorker staff writer and author of Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street
“A perceptive and vibrant character portrait.” —Publishers Weekly
“Anupreeta Das’s brilliantly written and ambitiously reported Billionaire, Nerd, Savior, King shows—through the complicated and fascinating story of a single tycoon—how the power and the perils of enormous wealth shape and distort not only what we expect of our democratic institutions, our tax system, our public health infrastructure, and our expectations for the future; it also examines how all of us are complicit in, but often unaware of, the ways in which the wealthy use that wealth and that power to turn greed into generosity and immorality into heroism.” —Jesse Eisinger, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Chickenshit Club
“In tight, elegant prose, Anupreeta Das’s Billionaire, Nerd, Savior, King shares the fascinating life story of Bill Gates and then uses it to ask and to answer timely and important questions about the roles that the wealthiest Americans play in our increasingly stratified society. It’s the book we need right this minute.” —William D. Cohan, author of Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon
“With delicious stories and dogged attention to detail, Anupreeta Das delves into the paradox of Bill Gates: a man whose intellectual prowess and vast wealth simultaneously uplift and complicate the fabric of society. A compelling read about one of the most powerful people on the planet.” —Rob Reich, professor of political science at Stanford University and author of Just Giving: Why Philanthropy Is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better
Kirkus Reviews
2024-06-28
Secrets of a billionaire.
Drawing on hundreds of interviews and published reports, Das, finance editor at theNew York Times, focuses on technology titan Bill Gates’ manipulation of money and power “to hide in the shadows or shine on the stage” as he pursues his goals in business, politics, policy, and philanthropy. Central to her investigation is the “ever-widening inequality” blighting American society along with the culture’s persistent veneration of billionaires. “The American dream,” Das writes, “loosely holds that in a land of liberty, boundless opportunity, and free enterprise, individual merit, hard work, and a sprinkling of luck are the keys that unlock fortune.” As Das chronicles Gates’ evolution from Microsoft’s nerdy creator to beneficent philanthropist, she shows that his education at private schools, strong family ties, and more than a sprinkling of luck were factors in his success. As a businessman, he was notoriously arrogant. His divorce from Melinda French Gates disclosed lifelong womanizing. More than 2,000 people depend on the Gates fortune for their livelihoods, Das notes, including “a small army of communications professionals” who work “to shape the public persona of Gates in a way to elevates his stature to benefit his foundation’s goals and burnish his individual brand.” Their task became especially onerous when Gates was linked with Jeffrey Epstein, whom he continued to see even after allegations against Epstein became widely known. “Why Gates hung around with Epstein may remain a head scratcher forever,” Das admits. But that failure of judgment, as well as ruthless business practices and marital betrayal, have been glossed over. Today, she finds, “the world has a completely refurbished image of Gates, the jagged edges of the monopolist softened by the halo of the philanthropist.”
A sharply incisive portrait.
