Buxton Books is excited to be the bookseller for the Charleston Library Society as they welcome Dana Mattioli in discussion with Rob Copeland to celebrate the release of Dana Mattioli’s new book, The Everything War.
From veteran Amazon reporter for The Wall Street Journal, The Everything War is the first untold, devastating exposé of Amazon’s endless strategic greed, from destroying Main Street to remaking corporate power, in pursuit of total domination, by any means necessary. Dana Mattioli has been a reporter for The Wall Street Journal since 2006, has written investigative pieces and front-page stories about Amazon since 2019, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Journalism for her work on Amazon. Join the Library Society and Buxton Books to welcome Dana in discussion with Rob Copeland, a finance reporter for the New York Times, diving into the definitive, inside story of how Amazon grew into one of the most powerful and feared companies in the world.
Ticketing information listed below:
$25 – Members or $35 – General Admission
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About The Everything War:
In 2017, Lina Khan published a paper that accused Amazon of being a monopoly, having grown so large, and embedded in so many industries, it was akin to a modern-day Standard Oil. Unlike Rockefeller’s empire, however, Bezos’s company had grown voraciously without much scrutiny. In fact, for over twenty years, Amazon had emerged as a Wall Street darling and its “customer obsession” approach made it indelibly attractive to consumers across the globe. However, the company was not benevolent; it operated in ways that ensured it stayed on top. Lina Khan’s paper would light a fire in Washington, and in a matter of years, she would become the head of the FTC. In 2023, the FTC filed a monopoly lawsuit against Amazon in what may become one of the largest antitrust cases in the 21st century.
With unparalleled access, and having interviewed hundreds of people – from Amazon executives to competitors to small businesses who rely on its marketplace to survive – Mattioli exposes how Amazon was driven by a competitive edge to dominate every industry it entered, bulldozed all who stood in its way, reshaped the retail landscape, transformed how Wall Street evaluates companies, and altered the very nature of the global economy. It has come to control most of online retail and uses its own sellers’ data to compete with them through Amazon’s own private label brands. Millions of companies and governmental agencies use AWS, paying hefty fees for the service. And, the company has purposefully avoided collecting taxes for years, exploited partners, and even copied competitors—leveraging its power to extract whatever it can, at any cost. It has continued to gain market share in disparate areas, from media to logistics and beyond. Most companies dominate one or two industries; Amazon now leads in several. And all of this was by design.
About Dana Mattioli:
Dana’s Amazon coverage received the 2021 Gerald Loeb Award for Beat Reporting. In 2021, she received the WERT Prize, an award from the Women’s Economic Round Table that honors excellence in comprehensively reported business journalism for her Amazon investigations, and received a Front Page Award for her Amazon coverage. Prior to covering Amazon, Dana held one of the WSJ’s highest-profile beats covering mergers & acquisitions. During her 16-year career at WSJ she has produced a string of investigations the evens and Page One stories on CEOs, boards of directors, technology companies, and retailers. Dana is the recipient of a second Gerald Loeb award for breaking news, the SABEW breaking news award, two New York Press Club awards and was a finalist for the Larry Birger Young Business Journalist Award. Dana has appeared on CNBC, Good Morning America, Fox Business News, and Cheddar. She was the subject of a Wall Street Journal advertisement campaign about how the newspaper’s highest-profile stories came together.
About Rob Copeland:
Rob Copeland is a finance reporter for the New York Times. He was previously the longtime hedge-fund beat reporter at the Wall Street Journal, and has also covered Silicon Valley and the hidden worlds of the wealthy and powerful. His front-page investigations into Bridgewater Associates won a New York Press Club award; he was also awarded an honorable mention twice by the Society of American Business Writers (SABEW) and was named a News Media Alliance “Rising Star” (formerly Top 30 Under 30). He has appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” NPR and other major news networks.