{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "bskyPostRef": {
    "cid": "bafyreicdnfzlqn3w7wvqknnt2xbc6xxg3vd4pkt7bz4x5e57v5oah3c7ry",
    "uri": "at://did:plc:6o2wbpivvsog6cfn5xr2so4t/app.bsky.feed.post/3meugsborosj2"
  },
  "coverImage": {
    "$type": "blob",
    "ref": {
      "$link": "bafkreigtkixil36pq25ri4kvw7gonceqqvctvifa7xh62uchprph5nkzx4"
    },
    "mimeType": "image/jpeg",
    "size": 188844
  },
  "path": "/books/2026/2/editors-picks-59",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-05T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://airmail.news",
  "tags": [
    "Air Mail",
    "READ ON"
  ],
  "textContent": " \n\n##### This week, don’t miss the secret history of the fund that reshaped American democracy, a memoir by Andrew Cuomo’s divorce attorney, and a chronicle of the fight to save the Siberian tiger\n\nBy Jim Kelly\n\nIn a country where so much of our politics is funded by dark money—funds given by anonymous donors to nonprofits that try to influence elections—it is both refreshing and startling to read about Charles Garland, a young banking heir in the 1920s who used most of his fortune to finance the American Fund for Public Service. What made this fund different from the foundations established by the likes of Rockefeller and Carnegie is that its monies would go to fixing what its directors thought was broken in American capitalism. The A.C.L.U., unions, and the N.A.A.C.P., among others, all benefited from the fund’s seed money, and its legacy stretched from helping to finance Clarence Darrow’s defense in the Scopes evolution trial in 1925 to victory in the Supreme Court’s READ ON",
  "title": "Editor's Picks"
}