City Adrift: New Orleans Before and After Katrina (2007)

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, seven seasoned journalists traveled to New Orleans to investigate the storm’s aftermath. Through interviews with homeowners, first responders, politicians, evacuees, and ordinary citizens, the team explored the storm from every angle, including health care, social services, housing and insurance, and emergency preparedness. This comprehensive collection of expert voices uniquely details not only what went wrong in the Big Easy, but provides a road map to avoiding disaster in the future. This book is about more than just the mishandling of Katrina’s aftermath — it’s about how unprepared the government still is for the next disaster.

Networks of Influence: The Political Power of the Communications Industry (2005)

Who owns the media in your town? How much do you know about the political agendas of the giant broadcasting, cable TV, and telephone companies that you rely on for news and information? To find the answers to these questions and more, read this in-depth resource about the broadcasting and telecommunications industries. Networks is a must-read for anyone who wants to “consider the source” of virtually all the news and information they consume every day. Written by the staff of the Center for Public Integrity, the book contains financial and political profiles of the top 41 communications conglomerates in the United States, in addition to detailed contribution information about the congressional committee members that oversee the industry.

The Corruption Notebooks: 25 Investigative Journalists Report on Abuses of Power in Their Home Country (2004)

The Corruption Notebooks is a hard-hitting collection of essays by leading investigative journalists from around the world on what happens when the public is either uninformed about abuses of power or incapable of doing anything about it. Many of the 25 contributing journalists have been threatened, jailed, and in some cases had their offices firebombed. All have spent years fearlessly uncovering government and corporate scandal in their home countries. Their unique and comprehensive essays reveal how no democracy, including the United States, is immune from the scourge of corruption. Published by the Center for Public Integrity, The Corruption Notebooks is essential for anyone seeking to understand the insidious impact of corruption on societies around the world.

Harmful Error: Investigating America’s Local Prosecutors (2003)

Harmful Error is the first-ever national examination of local prosecutors’ conduct in all types of criminal proceedings. The book reveals how local prosecutors in jurisdictions across the nation have stretched, bent, or broken rules to win convictions. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anthony Lewis applauded the book as “by far the best thing I have ever seen on or near the subject of prosecutorial misconduct. It is painful but essential reading.” Since 1970, individual judges and appellate court panels have cited prosecutorial misconduct as a factor when dismissing charges, reversing convictions, or reducing sentences in more than 2,000 cases. In thousands more, judges labeled prosecutorial behavior inappropriate, but upheld convictions using a doctrine called “harmless error.” The book shows how prosecutors’ misconduct led not only to the conviction of innocent individuals who were later exonerated, but also resulted in guilty defendants having their convictions overturned and being placed back on the street. Many of these prosecutors were cited multiple times for their misconduct. These prosecutors give recidivism — a word usually used to describe those they work to put behind bars — a disturbing new meaning.

The Buying of the President 2004: Who’s Really Bankrolling Bush and His Democratic Challengers – and What They Expect in Return (2004)

A New York Times bestseller, The Buying of the President 2004 reveals how the process of choosing a president has moved from the voting booth to the auction block, and shines a light on the special interests that heavily invest in the politicians who seek the nation’s highest office. Lewis and his team reveal and investigate the sponsors and the known and not-so-known conflicts of interest entangling each of the aspirants to the White House. This is the only book of its kind, containing investigative profiles and personal histories of the major presidential candidates.

The Water Barons: How a Few Powerful Companies Are Privatizing Your Water (2003)

The privatization of public water systems around the world, driven by a handful of European corporations and the World Bank, is increasing dramatically despite sometimes tragic results. The Water Barons, by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a project of the Center for Public Integrity, shows how the three largest water utility companies have expanded since 1990 into nearly every region of the world, raising concerns that a handful of private companies could soon control a large chunk of the world’s most vital resource.

Making a Killing: The Business of War (2003)

Amid the global military downsizing and the growth of small conflicts since the end of the Cold War, governments have turned increasingly to private military companies to intervene on their behalf around the globe. Making a Killing, by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a project of the Center for Public Integrity, looks at over 90 companies now providing services normally performed by national military forces. These companies have operated in 110 countries worldwide. They provide everything from military training to logistics, and even engage in armed combat — and they have virtually no public oversight.

Capitol Offenders: How Private Interests Govern Our States (2002)

A scourge of legalized corruption is spreading through state capitols across the country. With little fear of exposure, vested interests have turned one statehouse after another into private preserves for their agendas, imperiling our health and safety, our wallets, our environment, and our rights as citizens in the process. Capitol Offenders, by Diane Renzulli and the Center for Public Integrity, is the first investigative book to expose the close ties between state lawmakers and large industries, documenting the fusion of public service and private interests.

The Cheating of America: How Tax Avoidance and Evasion by the Super Rich Are Costing the Country Billions — and What You Can Do About It (2001)

Each year, millions of income-earning adults and corporations do not pay their fair share of federal income taxes — whether legally (tax avoidance), illegally (tax evasion), or through shady means (tax “avoision”), and their numbers are rising dramatically. In this explosive book, Charles Lewis, founder of the Center for Public Integrity, and Bill Allison, a former researcher at the Philadelphia Inquirer, expose the worst of these white-collar culprits and explain how they can be stopped.

Citizen Muckraking: How to Investigate and Right Wrongs in Your Community (2000)

Published by Common Courage Press, this book is a hands-on, practical guide to being an effective muckraker, detailing methods used by investigative reporters to uncover and address the ethical lapses of corporate and government groups that affect even small communities. The narrative also includes case histories in which one person or community illuminated the damaging truths behind corrupt powerbrokers, with inspiring results.

The Buying of the President 2000 (2000)

Twenty-four researchers, writers, and editors worked for 18 months to page through tens of thousands of federal and state records, thousands of news articles, and hundreds of interviews to create this definitive book. It is the only investigative book about the 2000 presidential candidates.

Animal Underworld: Inside America’s Black Market For Rare And Exotic Species (1999)

Written by Alan Green and the Center for Public Integrity, and published by Public Affairs, this book collects four years of unprecedented research into the exotic animal trade in the United States and exposes the underground trade in rare and endangered animals. Animal Underworld documents how these creatures are moved from respected zoological parks and research institutions through a network of shady, but often federally licensed, dealers to private pet owners, roadside attractions, and even “canned hunts” — and tells you why more is not being done to stop it. Read a preview here.

The Buying of the Congress: How Special Interests Have Stolen Your Right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (1998)

The United States Congress is supposed to work for you. So think of this book as the most important employee evaluation you’ll ever read. A startling and groundbreaking expose, The Buying of the Congress details the ways in which special interests worm themselves into the lives of Capitol Hill lawmakers — who in turn protect polluters, cigarette manufacturers, food producers, the airline industry, the insurance industry, corporate tax cheats, and other big-money interests. What does all this have to do with you? You cannot shop at the local supermarket or drugstore, visit a hospital emergency room, watch television, pay your taxes, or even breathe the air outside your home without being directly affected by the decisions that Congress makes — decisions that, increasingly, favor special interests at your expense. Now, Charles Lewis and the Center for Public Integrity reveal just how and why Congress has been so unresponsive to the basic concerns of ordinary citizens. Based on the work of an investigative team of more than three dozen people, the conclusions they reach are simple — and simply frightening.

The Buying of the President (1996)

This guide to the big money sources behind the presidential candidates features hard-hitting facts culled from public records, detailed pie charts, and easily referenced top-ten lists of financial supporters for all the candidates who were part of the 1996 presidential campaign.

Toxic Deception: How the Chemical Industry Manipulates Science, Bends the Law, and Endangers Your Health (1996)

Toxic pollution has increased dramatically in the 37 years since the publication of Rachel Carson’s seminal Silent Spring, and the chemical industry has become infinitely more sophisticated at deploying legions of lobbyists, lawyers, scientists, and public relations experts who camouflage its deadly deceptions. Two prize-winning investigative reporters have dug deep into the secretive world of the nation’s chemical giants and unearthed enough wrongdoing to shake America’s faith in many of the products of our homes. Yet rather than merely exposing the injustices of the chemical industry, Toxic Deception offers an optimistic vision of how consumers can reduce their own risk and how a flawed system of health and safety laws can be rescued through practical reforms.

Beyond the Hill: A Directory of Congress from 1984 to 1993 (1995)

Subtitled “Where Have All the Members Gone?” this book by Rebecca Borders and C.C. Dockery shows the great consideration given by members of Congress on what it means to seek power, to exercise it (or attempt to), and finally to lose it or give it up.