How to Rule the World

“A rigorous, self-assured, propulsive, at times terrifying portrait of a dweebocracy that ‘sets the agenda for the planet.’ In every age, there is some place that epitomizes how power works. Baker’s Stanford is a strong candidate, and his book follows in the tradition of Michael Lewis’s Wall Street chronicle Liar’s Poker. . . In coming of age as a young man, he travels to the heart of a dehumanizing age.” —Anand Giridharadas, The New York Times

“Either of these two narratives—the wide-eyed novice’s glimpse of Stanford’s elites; the reporter’s tale of chasing down leads, landing essential sources, wrapping his head around the ethics of scientific research, and fending off the threats of high-powered lawyers—would make a pretty good book. Together, they amount to a terrific read. Baker’s account of assembling the Tessier-Lavigne reporting illustrates how meticulous investigative journalists work. . . How to Rule the World is a coming-of-age story, a campus story, and a newspaper story, but above all, it’s a horror story.” —Laura Miller, Slate

“What a journalist. If Baker’s portrait of Stanford could be its own movie (The Internship crossed with The Skulls), his gripping account of how a tip turned into a history-making investigation has the makings of All the President’s Men.” —Lily Janiak, San Francisco Chronicle

“The Bonfire of the VCs . . . A vivid, dishy exposé of the sometimes comical, at times seemingly corrupt, efforts by tech funders to seduce undergraduates who smell like future moguls and geniuses, and vice versa.” —Axios

“A romp and rollick of a read.” —Andrew Ross Sorkin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of 1929

“As 21-year-old Baker describes in his engrossing coming-of-age book, Stanford’s Faustian bargain with extreme wealth has corrupted its soul. . . racily written . . . [and a] painstakingly reported exposé.” —John Thornhill, Financial Times

“A scorching portrait of a university infiltrated by venture capital and tech firms.” —The New York Times

“How to Rule the World [is] a gripping book . . . offering a blow-by-blow account of [Baker’s] investigation and … the university’s culture of excess and cronyism.” —Parmy Olson, Bloomberg

“Baker’s book is a thrilling story of journalistic investigation: effectively, it’s All the President’s Men as a campus novel. . . Every one of us now lives in the domain of Stanford’s self-styled Übermenschen. Baker’s undeniable talent might make me sick with envy, but the truly nauseating thing here is the moral void he sketches at the heart of the tech world.” —Sarah Ditum, The Times

“Theo Baker’s blockbuster new book, How to Rule the World: An Education in Power at Stanford University, has won wide praise for offering a nuanced insider’s look at a towering academic institution beset by ethical challenges.” —Norman Vanamee, Town & Country

“The determination, resourcefulness and sheer courage shown by a young man who turned 18 in the course of that year is remarkable…For all its narrative dash, the true significance of Baker’s book lies not in the story of a brave student journalist nor in the size of the scalp he eventually claimed, but in what it reveals about the ethos of the institution now routinely referred to as ‘America’s top university.’” —Stefan Collini, The New Statesman

“Cleanly written, admirably sourced, Baker’s postpandemic tell-all is modeled on One L, Scott Turow’s classic of elite induction at Harvard Law, and shares a Y chromosome with other identity quests in hostile terrain, from Wall Street (Liar’s Poker) to backcountry Alaska (Into the Wild ). . . How to Rule the World, set amid luxury and evil, is combat testimony, too, whether read as an audit of rot, a dark-academe survival tale, an obituary for the campus honor code, or a horror story rich in helpful tips: how to vibe-code fabulous tools, how to afflict the comfortable where it hurts, how to preserve a soul.” —Anne Matthews, The American Scholar

“An innocents-abroad memoir packed with jaw-dropping moments . . . The story he tells is less a hero’s journey than a crooked path from innocence to experience . . . To say that colleges are morally formative is a commonplace, but only rarely does a book show in any convincing way how that moral formation happens . . . How to Rule the World demonstrates how thoroughly an educational institution can twist and deform the character of its students.” —Carl Elliott, The Hedgehog Review

“Theo Baker, an investigative journalist wunderkind and soon-to-be Stanford graduate, is not the first to trace Silicon Valley’s rot to his university…But he is the first to document, with rigor and detail, the institution’s recent history and culture…It reads like a memoir crossed with a spy thriller.” —Alex Bronzini-Vender, Washington Monthly

“. . . The riveting memoir of a student journalist at Stanford whose investigation into his school president’s alleged academic misconduct offers important and deeply unsettling insights into the culture of academia and the people who shape it. I couldn’t put it down!” —Katy Milkman, James G. Dinan endowed Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

“How to Rule the World sounds like exactly the right book for this moment in time.” —Connie Loizos, Tech Crunch

“[How to Rule the World is] an extraordinary, extraordinary thing. . . Theo’s a phenom. He’s done things that professional reporters would cherish in a 30-year career, and he did them all as a 17 and 18-year-old. . . he’s an astonishing young reporter and a very, very good writer, and he’s put in the hard work to make this happen. It’s an amazing story.” —Ashlee Vance, Core Memory

“In this incendiary account . . . Baker is frank about the toll his reporting took on his social life and his faith in higher education; the book is at its most fascinating when detailing his disillusionment with the ‘rot’ at the heart of academia that prizes the appearance of success over the truth. It’s a confident testament to the power of independent journalism from an author with a bright future.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“In this absorbing memoir, a college journalist reveals how his scoops brought down his august school’s leader . . . brisk and punctuated with well-explained details.” —Kirkus

“A riveting new book has the inside scoop on the culture that created the tech behemoths attempting to run circles around Washington’s regulators… It’s enjoyable and insightful… Baker writes well, and you sometimes forget that he’s barely into his 20s… He proved to be excellent at deep-dive investigative reporting… and brought down the biggest man on campus.” —Claude Marx, FTCWatch

“I am a sucker for books that illuminate cultures born of hubris, stories that make you say, ‘I had no idea this world existed.’ Theo Baker achieves this for several such worlds at the same time: Silicon Valley, ‘Nerd Nation’ (as Stanford calls itself), oligarchy, and precocious youth generally. Poignant, maddening, and genuinely hilarious, How to Rule the World is to be devoured—and fast, before Stanford buys up and sets fire to every copy. (Talk about a burn book!)” —Mark Leibovich, #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Town

“How to Rule the World is the story of a young reporter unafraid to challenge Silicon Valley’s billionaires and the powerful institutions that enable them—including his own university. Dogged, fearless, unflinching—Baker proves journalism’s future is alive and fighting. Both a gripping personal journey and a searing indictment of our entanglement with tech wealth and influence, this book shows how real reporting can still unsettle, expose, and hold the powerful to account.” —Emily Chang, national bestselling author and Emmy Award–winning journalist at Bloomberg Originals

“I first loved How to Rule The World because it manages to tell you everything you need to know about America in this particular moment by focusing so closely on the cloistered yet unimaginably powerful world of Stanford. And then I met Theo, a young man so brilliant and erudite that I walked away from our first meeting with a full reading list. His vulnerability and brilliance leap off the page in equal measure.” —Amy Pascal, former chairwoman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, founder of Pascal Pictures, and producer of the Spider-Man films, James Bond, The Post, Little Women, and The Social Network

“Theo Baker has written a page-turning drama about what happens when the search for scientific truth has to compete with personal and institutional power. His remarkable reporting has permanently changed the way we discuss research misconduct. Yet How to Rule the World is so much more. It’s a vital story about how higher education has lost sight of the students and ideals it was created to serve.” —Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of Science and former chancellor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“In How to Rule the World, the wunderkind Theo Baker combines the remarkable story of his astounding reporting as a Stanford freshman that led to the downfall of the university’s president with his wry, insightful observations about Stanford’s unique form of Silicon Valley arrogance. Both strands are rendered in spare and propulsive prose, making it a nearly unfathomable accomplishment from someone so young.” —William Cohan, bestselling author of House of Cards

“How to Rule the World is a fascinating safari through modern academia, based on meticulous, damning reporting. Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the culture of money and ambition that has taken hold at one of America’s most storied institutions.” —Jake Tapper, #1 New York Times bestselling author and Emmy Award–winning anchor at CNN

“Stanford is one of America’s most influential and fascinating institutions, and the gulf between those qualities and the attention it receives is vast. The world badly needs an inside account of this mysterious corner of the country from which so much wealth has oozed, and Theo Baker is the perfect author to deliver it.” —Jonathan Chait, staff writer at The Atlantic

“This book is a funny, mind-blowing and infuriating exposé of Silicon Valley’s feeder school.” —Michael Grunwald, contributing writer to New York Times Opinion and bestselling author The New New Deal and We Are Eating the Earth

“But if that scandal put Baker on the map, his upcoming book may cement his reputation as the rare young journalist willing to challenge Silicon Valley’s startup machine. . . Baker represents something both exciting and increasingly uncommon: a star student betting his career on accountability journalism.” —Connie Loizos, TechCrunch

Praise for the work of Theo Baker:

“Mr. Baker’s reporting was thorough and fearless—undertaken in circumstances in which he had much to lose. . . . With young people like this, the future of journalism looks bright.” —John Darnton, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and curator and winner of the George Polk Award for Journalism

“Theo Baker’s investigation . . . stands alongside some of the most significant journalistic endeavors of the year.” —Dan Rather Medal for News and Guts

“One of America’s greatest journalists.” —Jonathan Reiner, CNN medical analyst and professor of medicine at George Washington University

“Phenomenal . . . at any level.” —Clara Jeffery, editor-in-chief of Mother Jones

“A great journalism story . . . Journalism can really have an impact.” —Kara Swisher, New York Times bestselling author of Burn Book

“A doggedly reported investigation with immediate impact, and a masterclass in holding the powerful to account.” —Investigative Reporters and Editors Award

“The world’s most impressive college student of all time.” —Josh Brener, president of Stanford University on the Emmy Award–winning TV show Silicon Valley