MASTER PLAN
The Hidden Plot to Legalize Corruption in America
Lever Books (2025)
Based on the award-winning investigative podcast from The Lever, journalist David Sirota and producer Jared Jacang Maher trace the 50-year plot to buy America’s political system, from a little-known memo written by future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell to current day. With newly unearthed documents and gripping storytelling, they reveal how this manifesto became a roadmap for dismantling democracy — one that corporate leaders implemented at secret meetings in places like Disney World, that inspired wealthy anti-government radicals like Joseph Coors to fund the Heritage Foundation, and that paved the way for operatives like Roger Ailes to build Fox News. From Nixon’s Watergate cover-up to the Citizens United ruling and today’s dark-money super PACs, Master Plan exposes the calculated efforts to use wealth to control political leaders and legalize corruption at every level of government.
“I thought I knew everything about dark money. Master Plan delivers new revelations.”
“You must read Master Plan if you want to understand what has happened to our democracy. Get ready to read and fight back.”
“If you want to understand what’s wrong with our democracy and why, read this book. It’s brash, insightful and incredibly important.”
BACK TO OUR FUTURE
How the 1980s Explain The World We Live In Now — Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything
Ballantine Books (2011)
In his wide-ranging and wickedly entertaining new book, David Sirota takes readers on a rollicking DeLorean ride back in time to reveal how so many of our present-day conflicts are rooted in the larger-than-life pop culture of the 1980s – from the “Greed is good” ethos of Gordon Gekko (and Bernie Madoff) to the “Make my day” foreign policy of Ronald Reagan (and George W. Bush) to the “transcendence” of Cliff Huxtable (and Barack Obama).
“Sirota has picked through the decade’s cultural detritus to reconstruct the scene of a generation’s ideological poisoning…He tells the tale with wit and subtlety.”
“Sirota ushers readers back to the era of big money and bigger hair, the yuppie and the Gipper to show how the 1980s transformed – and continues to influence – America’s culture and politics… his arguments are well informed and sparkle with wit and irreverence.”
“A sharp, dizzying history lesson that packs a punch.”
THE UPRISING
An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington
Crown (2008)
Job outsourcing. Slashed paychecks. A war without end, fatally mismanaged. Americans on both the Right and Left are tired of being disenfranchised by corrupt politicians and are organizing to change the status quo. In his invigorating new book, David Sirota investigates this uprising, taking us into the trenches where real change is happening–in the headquarters of the most powerful third party in America, at an ExxonMobil shareholder meeting, and on the quasi-military staging area of a vigilante force on the Mexican border. The Uprising is essential reading for anyone who wants to look beyond presidential politics at the new populism that is reshaping the American political landscape.
“An audacious account of the re-emergence of populism as a force in American politics…Sirota has a true gift for phrase-making and the pithy comment.”
“The Uprising is a hard book to dislike or dismiss. Sirota reports cleverly and in pleasing detail about a complex world of political conflict that the journalistic throng obsessed with presidential candidates and their handlers seldom notices.”
“Grade: A…Sirota is a true 21st-century political journalist. His book examines both the right and left wings of the uprising, making it the perfect tome for rebels of all persuasions.”
HOSTILE TAKEOVER
How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government – And How We Take It Back
Crown (2006)
In Hostile Takeover, David Sirota, a major new voice in American politics, seeks to open the eyes of ordinary Americans to the fact that corporate interests have undermined democracy, aided and abetted by their lackeys in our allegedly representative government. At a time when more and more of America’s major political leaders are being indicted or investigated for corruption, Sirota takes readers on a journey that shows how all of this nefarious behavior happened right under our noses—and how the high-profile scandals are merely one product of a political system and debate wholly owned by Big Money interests. Sirota considers major public issues that feel intractable—like spiraling health care costs, the outsourcing of jobs, the inequities of the tax code, and out-of-control energy prices—and shows how in each case workable solutions are buried under the lies of lobbyists, the influence of campaign cash, and the ubiquitous spin machine financed by Big Business.
“Every politically engaged citizen should read this book.”
“Hostile Takeover includes creditable analysis…its prescriptions are admirably specific…and arguably on the side of the angels. Many would even find some support on both sides of the aisle.”
“Hostile Takeover is a book that tells you more about our corporations and politicians than our corporations and politicians think you really ought to know.”