Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street

by John Brooks

Overview

“Business Adventures remains the best business book I’ve ever read.” —Bill Gates, The Wall Street Journal

What do the $350 million Ford Motor Company disaster known as the Edsel, the fast and incredible rise of Xerox, and the unbelievable scandals at General Electric and Texas Gulf Sulphur have in common? Each is an example of how an iconic company was defined by a particular moment of fame or notoriety; these notable and fascinating accounts are as relevant today to understanding the intricacies of corporate life as they were when the events happened.

Stories about Wall Street are infused with drama and adventure and reveal the machinations and volatile nature of the world of finance. Longtime New Yorker contributor John Brooks’s insightful reportage is so full of personality and critical detail that whether he is looking at the astounding market crash of 1962, the collapse of a well-known brokerage firm, or the bold attempt by American bankers to save the British pound, one gets the sense that history repeats itself.

Five additional stories on equally fascinating subjects round out this wonderful collection that will both entertain and inform readers . . . Business Adventures is truly financial journalism at its liveliest and best.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781497644892
Publisher:	Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
Publication date:	08/12/2014
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	123,873
Product dimensions:	7.80(w) x 5.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

John Brooks (1920–1993) was an award-winning writer best known for his contributions to the New Yorker as a financial journalist. He was also the author of ten nonfiction books on business and finance, a number of which were critically acclaimed works examining Wall Street and the corporate world. His books Once in Golconda, The Go-Go Years, and Business Adventures have endured as classics. Although he is remembered primarily for his writings on financial topics, Brooks published three novels and wrote book reviews for Harper’s Magazine and the New York Times Book Review. 

Table of Contents

1 The Fluctuation 3

The Little Crash in '62

2 The Fate of the Edsel 30

A Cautionary Tale

3 The Federal Income Tax 88

Its History and Peculiarities

4 A Reasonable Amount of Time 136

Insiders at Texas Gulf Sulphur

5 Xerox Xerox Xerox Xerox 166

6 Making the Customers Whole 201

The Death of a President

7 The Impacted Philosophers 227

Non-Communication at GE

8 The Last Great Corner 255

A Company Called Piggly Wiggly

9 A Second Sort of Life 283

David E. Lilienthal, Businessman

10 Stockholder Season 315

Annual Meetings and Corporate Power

11 One Free Bite 338

A Man, His Knowledge, and his Job

12 In Defense of Sterling 357

The Bankers, The Pound, and the Dollar

Index 443

Interviews

• Fans and followers of business narrative such as Liar’s Poker and Barbarians at the Gate
• Readers interested in the intricacies of the corporate and financial worlds
• People who enjoy business history

Editorial Reviews

"[Brooks] provides the early version of what we think of as Malcolm Gladwell–style or Freakonomics-style lessons. . . . But Brooks features another trait that modern business writers, whether James Stewart, Malcolm Gladwell, or Michael Lewis, do not. Brooks is truly willing to give up his own views to get inside the mind of all his subjects.” —National Review

“More than two decades after Warren [Buffett] lent it to me—and more than four decades after it was first published—Business Adventures remains the best business book I’ve ever read . . . Brooks’s deeper insights about business are just as relevant today as they were back then.” —Bill Gates, The Wall Street Journal

“The prose is superb. Reading Brooks is a supreme pleasure. His writing turns potentially eye-glazing topics (e.g., price-fixing scandals in the industrial electronics market) into rollicking narratives. He’s also funny. . . . He tells entertaining stories replete with richly drawn characters, setting them during heightened moments within the world of commerce.” —Slate

From the Publisher

Johnny Heller narrates 12 detailed essays on the history of business, written between 1959 and 1968 for THE NEW YORKER. In measured tones, Heller covers such topics as the 1962 stock market crash, IRS code codification, Texas Gulf oil, the Xerox machine, the creation and failure of the Edsel, the Piggly Wiggly supermarket chain, General Electric, the New York Stock Exchange, Tennessee Valley Authority administrator David Lilienthal, BFGoodrich, the Federal Exchange versus the pound sterling, and more. Affecting a newscaster’s matter-of-fact tone, Heller reports the events as if they occurred yesterday. This audiobook is the perfect gift for listeners who love the history of business and want to understand how technology evolved to what we know today.  M.B.K. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2015 - AudioFile