The World Bank

From Origin and Before to Today is its complete story, told in plain language:
▸ ORIGINS - the 1944 conference that built it, the forgotten 1947 power struggle that made the presidency, the Aswan shock that taught the institution its place - and how four sister institutions (IDA, IFC, MIGA, ICSID) were bolted on across forty years.
▸ THE MACHINE - step by step: how a loan travels from idea to disbursement, how a 25-seat board approves by silence, how $233 billion of "callable capital" no one has ever called underwrites a perfect credit rating, and how a staff-only formula gives Ethiopia $3.9 billion a year while twenty-three African nations share one vote.
▸ THE PRESIDENTS - all thirteen: McNamara's empire of expertise, the corruption war that nearly split the institution, the only president ever expelled, the ranking killed for doctored data, and the current president's seat on the US-led Board of Peace.
▸ THE CASEBOOK - every documented scandal and corruption network, named and evidence-tagged: the project rated "satisfactory" for fourteen years while 62% of its transactions were fraudulent; the pipeline that funded arms; the $1.45 billion loan whose fine print gave one trading house 90% of a nation's oil revenue; the bribery trial unfolding in London as of September 2026.
▸ THE PATTERNS & THE FIX - seven structural forces that explain eighty years of headlines, and every reform blueprint on record: named, sourced, priced.
The achievement record is given full weight - river blindness halted, 1.1 billion children vaccinated, $42 billion keeping Ukraine's government running. The failure record is given equal care. Sources: court records, congressional reports, the Bank's own evaluations, and live proceedings stated as of September 2026.
The closing argument fits in one line: keep the machine, change the governors.