Bookshelf: 'The Profiteers: Bechtel and the Men Who Built the World'

Sally Denton, Simon & Schuster, 436 pages, $30. Bechtel Corp., one of the world's largest construction companies, has had decades of extraordinary influence in Washington, thriving on and perhaps even setting the terms of that relationship. Sally Denton tells the story, starting with the company's founder, Warren Bechtel. Born in 1872, Bechtel worked his way from a farm in Illinois to a construction firm in California, struck out on his own in 1906 and built railroads, pipelines, highways and finally the Hoover Dam. "The Profiteers" shows how the dam set a pattern. Bechtel made alliances with other businesses and federal officials, and obtained the contract for his consortium in 1931, through the influence of a former government insider in his employ. Denton concedes that the Hoover Dam may have been "a marvel of design, engineering, architecture and construction," but highlights how "the safety violations and labor unrest that characterized the Hoover Dam's construction site would become synonymous with Bechtel" over time. The corporation went global after World War II, developing expertise in energy and alliances with the Arab world and the CIA. The characters of Bechtel are vivid (even if the Bechtel heirs are not). Denton is a pro at weaving in government connections, although once she hits the Reagan administration she relies too much on innuendo. Whether she persuades on all points or not, though, she shows it's a topic worth exploring.