The story of how a vast fortune acquired in the Gilded Age has moved into the darkest spaces of the American political system, now bankrolling Donald Trump, the administration’s anti-immigration machine, and conservative judges and right-wing think tanks.

Andrew Mellon built one of the largest fortunes in American history, served as Treasury secretary for three US presidents, and amassed the greatest private art collection in the world. He bent the nation’s tax code and financial institutions to his will, clearing the way for his family and other wealthy industrialists to amass unprecedented sums and to become immensely influential.

There were Mellons on the Gatsby-esque Long Island estates and polo fields of the Roaring Twenties, and in the viewing box with Hitler at the Nuremberg rallies. They helped build the nascent CIA in the World War II intelligence services during the London Blitz. Modern-day Mellons can be found in the secretive world of Washington power brokers.

Now, as Kevin Carey reports, some of Mellon’s descendants have been using their wealth to help move presidential elections and to reshape American institutions to favour ultra-right-wing interests. Between them, Timothy Mellon, Andrew Mellon’s last living grandson; Andrew Mellon’s grand-niece, Cordelia May; and Cordelia’s brother, Richard Mellon Scaife, have spent vast sums funding the campaigns of Robert F Kennedy Jr, Donald Trump, and key elements of Trumpism and the MAGA movement.

Shadow Dynasty tells a riveting tale of what colossal amounts of money have done to people as individuals and what they are doing to American society as a whole.