A Washington Post review of Jane Mayer’s new book on the Koch brothers includes even more new, bombastic details on the Kochs’ family history and political network:

• A major source of Mayer’s book is a “confidential history” commissioned by Bill Koch on “Charles Koch’s effort to shape American politics.”
• Fred Koch and Charles Koch were raised by a Nazi governess (don’t miss those details below).
• “Mayer’s book is so deeply researched and studded with detail that it seems destined to rattle the Koch executive offices in Wichita.”
• “A 1982 sealed deposition from Bill Koch, for example, describes how Charles and David attempted to blackmail their brother Frederick by threatening to reveal to their father his alleged homosexual preferences unless Frederick turned over his shares in the family business.”
• “Two former prosecutors and an FBI agent told Mayer they suspected they were targets of Koch Industries’ private espionage efforts while they were investigating the company for alleged misdeeds.”
• The Kochs are funding at least 238 higher education programs — and even high school programs” that “among other things, recruit students to work on campaigns while seeking to eliminate liberal bias from instruction”.
• “Mayer repeatedly argues that the Kochs’ political ambitions are entwined with the family’s narrow personal interests“.

Read more here.