Many are they who, in the course of history, have placed their own passions before the public interest. But what has been the result? From the courtesans of Versailles to the back halls of Chirac government, from Danton - revealed to have...

Many are they who, in the course of history, have placed their own passions before the public interest. But what has been the result? From the courtesans of Versailles to the back halls of Chirac government, from Danton - revealed to have been a paid agent for England - to the shady bankers of Mitterand's era, from the buddies of Mazarin to the builders of the Panama Canal, Paul Lombard unearths the secrets of the corridors of power. He reveals the vanity and the corruption, but also the grandeur and panache that characterize the great. This cavalcade over many centuries can be read as a subversive tract on how to lead. The Party of Virtue is the Party of Hypocrisy. . . With humor and goodwill, Lombard shows that it is not men that are evil, but reality that is cruel. Furthermore, these great bandits accomplished great dreams; and this master of the Bar asks they be acquitted. And he wins his point. Fundamentally, the only ones who don't give anything to the corrupt are the romance-writers - and that is just as well. They are the only ones left! Lombard proposes, "First we had the separation of the Church and State. Now, we need to separate politics and money."