The Fall of the House of Zeus by Curtis Wilkie

The Fall of the House of Zeus by Curtis Wilkie

Over the past four decades no reporter has critiqued the American South with such evocative sensitivity and bedrock honesty as Curtis Wilkie.
--Douglas Brinkley

The Fall of the House of Zeus tells the story of Dickie Scruggs, arguably the most successful plaintiff's lawyer in America. A brother-in-law of Trent Lott, the former U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Scruggs made a fortune taking on mass tort lawsuits against Big Tobacco and the asbestos industries. He was hailed by Newsweek as a latter day Robin Hood, and portrayed in the movie, The Insider, as a dapper aviator-lawyer. Scruggs' legal triumphs rewarded him lavishly, and his success emboldened both his career maneuvering and his influence in Southern politics--but at a terrible cost, culminating in his spectacular fall, when he was convicted for conspiring to bribe a Mississippi state judge.

Based on extensive interviews, transcripts, and FBI recordings never made public, The Fall of the House of Zeus exposes the dark side of Southern and Washington legal games and power politics: the swirl of fixed cases, blocked investigations, judicial tampering, and a zealous prosecution that would eventually ensnare not only Scruggs but his own son, Zach, in the midst of their struggle with insurance companies over Hurricane Katrina damages. In gripping detail, Curtis Wilkie crafts an authentic legal thriller propelled by a welter of betrayals and personal hatreds, providing large supporting parts for Trent Lott and Jim Biden, brother of then-Senator Joe, and cameos by John McCain, Al Gore, and other DC insiders and influence peddlers.

Above all, we get to see how and why the mighty fail and fall, a story as gripping and timeless as a Greek tragedy.

Wilkie, Curtis: - Curtis Wilkie, Oxford, Mississippi, spent most of his career as a national and foreign correspondent for the Boston Globe. After his retirement, he joined the faculty at the University of Mississippi, where he teaches journalism and serves as a fellow at the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics. He is the author of three earlier books, including The Fall of the House of Zeus.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780307460707
ISBN 10	0307460703
Title	The Fall of the House of Zeus
Author	Curtis Wilkie
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Broadway Books (A Division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc)
Year published	2010-11-02
Number of pages	400
Prizes	Commended for Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize (Nonfiction) 2011
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.