Read Yasha Levine’s investigative piece for The Texas Observer on Charles and David Koch’s grandfather, Harry Koch, an aggressive booster and railroad mini-baron from Northern Texas…Turns out the Kochs are third-generation oligarchs…

Vanity Fair profiles The eXile: "Gutsy...visceral...serious journalism...abusive, defamatory...poignant...paranoid...and right!"

MSNBC: Mark Ames and Yasha Levine
Broke the Koch Brothers' Takeover of America

What You Should Know / November 7, 2011

Read Yasha Levine’s investigative piece for The Texas Observer on Charles and David Koch’s grandfather, Harry Koch, an aggressive booster and railroad mini-baron from Northern Texas…Turns out the Kochs are third-generation oligarchs…

www.texasobserver.org -- Little has been written about Harry Koch. He’s the least-known member of the Koch family. What has not been reported is that the Koch family has been marching under the same laissez-faire banner for the past three generations, ever since Charles’s grandfather, Harry Koch, emigrated to America in 1888, settled in a North Texas railroad town and became an aggressive newspaper publisher and booster. He shamelessly shilled for railroad and baking interests, amassing his wealth by helping big business fight organized labor and squelch reforms. Much of the Koch brothers’ ideology can be found in Harry Koch’s newspaper editorials of nearly a century ago. Take, for instance, the Kochs’ current fight against Social Security. Harry Koch took part in a multi-year right-wing propaganda campaign to shoot down New Deal programs. Grandfather and grandsons employ eerily familiar talking points to bash government pension and welfare programs.