13 min · 13 chaptersNarrated in your voice
Original summary · AI-drafted, human-published · added by Library
What it's about
Patrick Radden Keefe traces three generations of the Sackler family from Depression-era Brooklyn to global philanthropy, showing how a family fortune built on advertising psychiatric drugs was later used to sell OxyContin as a nearly non-addictive painkiller. He argues that the same marketing playbook, the same denial of harm, and the same insulation of the family from consequences recur across decades, turning a private pharmaceutical company into one of the central engines of America's opioid crisis.
Reading plan
Pick a finish date and Genius lays out the days — the plan shows today's target and keeps you honest.
Read together
Start a circle and share the code — everyone sees everyone's honest place in the book. Accountability, not leaderboards.
Who it's for
- Readers of investigative journalism who want a documented account of how a public health disaster was manufactured and defended - People affected by the opioid crisis, or working in addiction treatment, policy, or public health, who want the corporate backstory - Anyone curious about how wealthy families use philanthropy, secrecy, and litigation strategy to control their public reputation
What’s inside
- 1Arthur Sackler and the Invention of a Playbook1 min
The manipulative marketing techniques later used to sell OxyContin were not invented at Purdue Pharma but were perfected decades earlier by Arthur Sackler while selling Valium.
- 2A Family Business Built on Secrecy1 min
The Sacklers' decision to keep Purdue private and their finances opaque let one branch profit enormously from OxyContin while another could later claim moral distance from it.
- 3From MS Contin to OxyContin1 min
The reputation for safety that Purdue built with MS Contin for cancer patients was transferred, without adequate justification, to a much broader population taking OxyContin for chronic pain.
- 4Selling a Painkiller as a Miracle1 min
Purdue's sales force was structured to reward volume and dosage escalation regardless of warning signs, making abuse and diversion a predictable outcome of the incentive design, not a surprise.
- 5The Epidemic and the First Reckoning1 min
Purdue's 2007 guilty plea proved that a company could admit criminal wrongdoing in marketing OxyContin while leaving the family that owned and directed it personally untouched.
- 6Philanthropy as Reputation Laundering1 min
The Sackler name on museum wings and university buildings functioned for decades to obscure, not merely decorate, the family's connection to a company selling a dangerous opioid.
- 7Extracting the Fortune1 min
As litigation risk against Purdue grew after 2007, the family accelerated withdrawals from the company, moving roughly $10.7 billion out between 2008 and 2018 in a pattern that outpaced the pending legal claims.
- 8Activists, Journalists, and the Fall of the Name1 min
Public pressure campaigns, led by artist Nan Goldin, succeeded in stripping the Sackler name from major museums years before any court forced the family to give up anything.
- 9Bankruptcy as a Shield1 min
Purdue's 2019 bankruptcy filing functioned less as a response to insolvency and more as a legal strategy to secure permanent protection for the Sackler family, who never filed for bankruptcy themselves.
- 10A Guilty Plea Without a Guilty Person1 min
Purdue's 2020 criminal guilty plea proved that a corporation can be convicted of felony conduct in an epidemic that killed hundreds of thousands, while no individual Sackler faces a criminal charge.
About Patrick Radden Keefe
Patrick Radden Keefe is a staff writer at The New Yorker and author of Say Nothing and Rogues. He specializes in long-form investigative journalism on crime, secrecy, and institutional power, drawing on court records, depositions, and hundreds of interviews. His 2017 Esquire article on the Sackler family's connection to Purdue Pharma became the seed for this book.
What readers say
Read next
Poor Charlie's AlmanackCharles T. MungerSummary14 min
The Essays of Warren BuffettWarren E. Buffett and Lawrence A. CunninghamSummary12 min
Pitch AnythingOren KlaffSummary12 min
The Power LawSebastian MallabySummary13 min
BlitzscalingReid Hoffman and Chris YehSummary12 min
Delivering HappinessTony HsiehSummary10 min