Capture The Dark Side Of Power: The Real Armand Hammer Compiled By Carl Blumay In Electronic Format

them before they screw you

Carl Blumay worked as a PR man for Armand Hammer before cowriting this book, Having some familiarity with Hammer before reading this work, I knew Blumay had a hard row to hoe, The industrialist Armand Hammer presented himself to the public as a kindly, grandfatherly man obsessed with world peace, a love of art, and the search for the cure for cancer.
Behind this facade, though, there lurked a man whom even some of his closest friends characterized as reptilian, He boasted about having people killed and threatened to kill others, He fired

anyone who questioned his autocratic rule, even if they had been with him for decades, and he stood accused of everything from rape, to murder, to bribery, and extortion some of which has been proven in court, some of which is probably impossible to prove at this great remove.


Armand Hammer was born to Julius and Rose Hammer, His father was a RussianJewish immigrant to the United States, who started a seemingly innocuous life in America as a doctor and small businessman, Julius Hammer secretly worked for Vladimir Lenin, as part of the Comintern Communist international and his son followed in his footsteps, using the capitalist system of the West and the authoritarian regimes in Eastern and Central Europe to create a network that would enrich him and enmiserate millions whom he claimed to be helping.
He counted the genocidal Nicolae Ceausescu among his warmest, dearest friends,

Blumay's work obviously shouldn't be judged on Dr, Armand Hammer's moral fiber which was pretty threadbare, but on its own literary merits, Parts of the book come to life, especially when Blumay quotes directly from the coldhearted Hammer, or from his tragicomic younger brother Victor, who only yearned to be a clown or an entertainer, but found himself conscripted into his older brother's plans for world domination.
It would have also been nice though perhaps impossible for Blumay to interview Armand's son, Julian, who killed his friend as a young man in a drunken argument, and was known for taking LSD and brandishing a gun in public even after he'd already beaten one murder rap!.


Too often, though, the book veers away from the pathos and the compelling family drama that puts Charles Foster Kane to shame, and instead reads like a series of internal memos and legal documents, detailing daily market fluctuations and the revolvingdoor policy of firing and hiring in which Dr.
Hammer engaged. There's no doubt Blumay has the inside scoop on Hammer, but he doesn't have the disposition to make compelling drama of the boardroom stuff, and his coauthor didn't pick up the slack.
That said, there's still some good info in here, though I would recommend Edward Jay Epstein's "Dossier" instead,

Hammer was a nasty man and somehow the media let him get away with it, Perfect example of how corrupt the media was in thes, A look at the multimillionaire capitalist, philanthropist, and art collector discusses Hammer's ties with the Kremlin, his selfserving deals, and maneuvers for political favors, .