Captains and the Kings
Taylor Caldwell, 1973
Random House
816 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780449205624
Summary
Captains and the Kings is the saga of young Joseph Armagh, recently of Ireland, who promised his dying mother to care for his younger siblings. Landing in Boston, Joseph's determination carries him through years shady-deal making and his gradual accumulation of wealth and power.
In this work, Caldwell takes on the global power brokers. Running through the story line is a description of the way the international financiers and industrialists (all private consortiums owned by an elite of the world's richest families and persons) hijack governments around the globe; instigating wars and gaining control over the warring countries through manipulation of the enormous debts incurred during a war.
While a disclaimer states that all persons portrayed in the book are fictional, many see the story as loosely based on the life of Joseph Kennedy, scion of President John F. Kennedy, Robert, Senators Robert F. and Teddy Kennedy. (From Wikipedia.)
Captains and the Kings was made into a 1976 TV mini-series.