This is Joe Nocera's list “in no particular order”:
“Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco,” by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar
“Liar’s Poker,” by Michael Lewis
“The Devil’s Candy,” by Julie Salamon
“The Box,” by Marc Levinson
“Indecent Exposure,” by David McClintick
“The Go-Go Years,” by John Brooks
“The Kingdom and the Power,” by Gay Talese
“Titan,” by Ron Chernow
“Do You Sincerely Want To Be Rich,” by Godfrey Hodgson, Bruce Page and Charles Raw
“Disney Wars,” by James Stewart
“The Informant,” by Kurt Eichenwald
“Father, Son and Co.: My Life at IBM and Beyond”, by Thomas J. Watson and Peter Petre
“When Genius Failed,” by Roger Lowenstein
“Greed and Glory on Wall Street,” by Ken Auletta
“The Smartest Guys in the Room,” by Peter Elkind and Bethany McLean
Nocera concedes his conflict of interest on the last book (“O.K., O.K., they are former colleagues of mine, and I was deeply involved in editing this book — but I have to say, I think it turned out pretty well!”), after he disses Eichenwald's Enron book in endorsing The Informant (“Forget his Enron book, “Conspiracy of Fools.” This book, about the strange saga of Mark Whitacre and Archer Daniels Midland, is his masterpiece”). I liked both of Eichenwald's books.
I have read about half of the books on Nocera's list, and a couple of others are on my bookshelf. I might have included Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure by Jerry Kaplan and Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw. Or a real dark horse, Siberia Bound: Chasing the American Dream on Russia's Wild Frontier by Alexander Blakely. But all in all, Nocera's is a nice list.
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8345157d569e200e553ccd5578834
Links to weblogs that reference The Best Business Books Ever?:
1. Posted by Christine on July 22, 2008 @ 13:06 | Permalink
The Informant should be on everyone's reading list if for no other reason that the movie is coming out depicting the events of 10 years ago. As you might imagine, there is a certain amount of buzz about it here in ADM country, and I think it may have been filmed here in Central Illinois. I think Matt Damon plays Mark Whitacre.
2. Posted by Bill Newman on July 22, 2008 @ 15:14 | Permalink
What missing is John Brooks' all-time classic, Once in Golconda. This is a magnificently readable history of the Roaring Twneties and the events that led to the Glass-Steagle Act (which separated investment and commercial banking) and the U.S. securities laws. It's a must read for any observer of the business world.
3. Posted by 2L on July 22, 2008 @ 23:28 | Permalink
http://www.theconglomerate.org/2007/07/the-business-ca.html#c76958240
4. Posted by Cara Ellison on July 26, 2008 @ 20:47 | Permalink
The Smartest Guys In The Room? Seriously? I've written a whole post on the lies, distortions and suppositions of the movie which, of course, is based on the book.
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
