Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue
By Ryan Holiday
The bankruptcy-inducing lawsuit against Gawker.com by professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, aka Terry Bollea, is one of the strangest, and potentially most consequential, legal cases in recent years. The lawsuit brought a chill to the press in the United States, calling into question many of the legal protections that publishers took for granted, and showed billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel, who secretly financed the lawsuit, to be a capable of taking truly Machiavellian revenge on his enemies. Others saw the lawsuit as a necessary blow against gossip mongers run amok. Ryan Holiday unravels the conspiracy that brought down Gawker and builds the story around rare interview material with Thiel himself. Portfolio, $17, 336 pages
