Details Books Toward Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco
Original Title: | Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco |
ISBN: | 0060536357 (ISBN13: 9780060536350) |
Edition Language: | English |
Bryan Burrough
Paperback | Pages: 592 pages Rating: 4.25 | 28294 Users | 739 Reviews
List Epithetical Books Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco
Title | : | Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco |
Author | : | Bryan Burrough |
Book Format | : | Paperback |
Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 592 pages |
Published | : | December 13th 2005 by HarperBus (first published January 1st 1990) |
Categories | : | Business. Nonfiction. Economics. Finance. History |
Description Concering Books Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco
A #1 New York Times bestseller and arguably the best business narrative ever written, Barbarians at the Gate is the classic account of the fall of RJR Nabisco. An enduring masterpiece of investigative journalism by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, it includes a new afterword by the authors that brings this remarkable story of greed and double-dealings up to date twenty years after the famed deal. The Los Angeles Times calls Barbarians at the Gate, “Superlative.” The Chicago Tribune raves, “It’s hard to imagine a better story...and it’s hard to imagine a better account.” And in an era of spectacular business crashes and federal bailouts, it still stands as a valuable cautionary tale that must be heeded.Rating Epithetical Books Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco
Ratings: 4.25 From 28294 Users | 739 ReviewsCriticism Epithetical Books Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco
Read this in 1991 just after it first came out. I couldn't put it down. If you don't understand the financial pages of newspapers and the terms they use, this is an easy way to learn about acquisitions, hostile takeovers, liquidity, assets, etc. Perhaps a bit dated now, but the author (a financial journalist) describes what happened here in the States in the 80's, a time when small businesses (and huge ones like RJR Reynolds) were bought out, sometimes just for the land they were built upon. TheIf you havent noticed, I am a connoisseur of the business bestseller. I read em all, and this one is among the best. This, Den of Thieves and the Informant are as good as these books get. Here we got conniving and scheming on a massive scale. Extremely unlikable rich assholes brought low by equally unsavory, but way smarter rich people.Its the story of an attempt to take RJR Nabisco private, and then a series of take over attempts that were instigated by the original privatization plan. Johnson,
It was a bit slow for the first 100 pages or so, but once it got into the actual story I couldn't put it down. It was dramatic, and informative, and helped crystallize a lot of things I'm confused about, like:- How do companies work? Like in basic economics, you think about market participants each trying to maximize their profits, and everyone acting in their own interest ends up maximizing total welfare, and that makes sense in a zoomed-out way, and as far as I can tell is not a crazy model of
Any who has an interest in mergers and acquisitions will love this book. Or anyone who has an interest in an absolutely amazing story. And it's all true, which is even more amazing.
If you're at all interested in how investment banking and Wall Street make money by doing nothing of value to society, this is a great read. It's long, but the authors have done a good job of breaking things down and making the narrative suspenseful to the end, even with zero likable characters.I just wish the latest edition came with an appendix on how to build a guillotine.
"'we were charging right through the rice paddies, not stopping for anything and taking no prisoners.'"This was FUN! So much so that I went and bought loads of non-fic/faction about Wall Street. What is it with me and the 80s? If I'm not reading about AIDS, I'm reading about Gordon Gekkos.Anyway, everyone in this is just a monster. And whilst "Barbarians at the Gate" is a doozy title, it's total crap. They're all barbarians. It should be called "A Shitstorm of Evil Bastards".
When you run out of Eichenwald books to read, most algorithms point you here. For much of this book, that's an apt recommendation. It's a large, well-sourced, tomb that is a dense tick-tock of a specific corporate situation. The difference, is that Eichenwald tends to exam corporate malfeasance and the ne'er-do-wells getting their comeuppance. Here, well, Ross Johnson & crew to some degree are rewarded (though their malfeasance is not great as Eichenwald's subjects - maybe just their greed).
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