Colby, Gerard. DuPont Dynasty. Secaucus NJ: Lyle Stuart, 1984. 968 pages.

Gerard Colby, who previously went by the name of Gerard Colby Zilg, has written the definitive book on the DuPont family. This is an expanded edition of "Behind the Nylon Curtain" by Colby (then Zilg), which was nominated for a National Book Award in 1974. When the first edition came out, the DuPonts played hardball with publisher Prentice-Hall and anyone who dared review the book favorably. P-H caved in and slashed its print run and advertising, and despite high demand, ultimately let it go out of print altogether.

Colby first became interested in the DuPonts while working as a press secretary for Congressman John Dow of New York. His research on Vietnam war profiteering led him to the 1934 Senate munitions hearings, which revealed that the DuPonts made over $250 million in profits from World War I. In 1934, according to witnesses and the findings of a House Committee, a plot existed to seize the White House with a march on Washington by veterans who were to be armed by the DuPonts.

The DuPonts, America's richest dynasty, run a network of companies around the world from their base in Delaware, a state which is controlled by the family. To Colby's credit, he avoids much of the titillating family trivia emphasized by other books on the DuPonts, and concentrates instead on the DuPonts' political significance in American society.
ISBN 0-8184-0352-7

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