Barbarians at the Gate



$16.95
Customize It


Paperback
592 pages
ISBN 9780060536350 Published June 2003
Harper Paperbacks
See all formats


Barbarians at the Gate
The Fall of RJR Nabisco
By Bryan Burrough, John Helyar John Helyar 

Related Blog Posts
Barbarians at The Gate - Twenty Years Later
Posted Nov. 24, 2008 5:28 a.m. by todd-sattersten
In History and Biographies - 800 CEO Read Blog

The Wall Street Journal site has an interview with Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, authors of Barbarians at The Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco. This year is the twentieth anniversary of the book's publications and Marketwatch's Jon Friedman ask the authors about comparisons to today's troubles and what has made the book a lasting success.



Business Books Recommended by and for The Business Journalist
Posted Sept. 5, 2008 4:29 a.m. by todd-sattersten
In Lists - 800 CEO Read Blog

I posted last week on the amazing number of blog posts that have been appearing lately with lists of business books. The latest comes from BusinessJournalism.org, a site that is a part of National Center For Business Journalism at Arizona State University.

In a post titled "A Must Read", Kelly Carr starts with two titles from other business journalists meant to help reporters write stories: Michelle Leder's "Financial Fine Print: Uncovering a Company's True Value" and Chris Roush's "Show Me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication"

In an effort to further prep interns, Carr gathered up a set of recommended from practicing business journalists. These suggestions will look a little more familiar (thought I just ordered the third rec):

On the extended list, you'll find even more of what we normally recommend, but Good To Great is the only true "business book to solve problems" book on the list.

[hat tip: DataJoe and Addictomatic]



Financial Times Asks "What Is Best Business Book of All Time?"
Posted Sept. 28, 2007 9:53 a.m. by todd-sattersten
In Publishing Industry - 800 CEO Read Blog

In conjunction with their Business Book of The Year Award, The Financial Times is asking the question: "What is the best book of all time?" They solicited suggestions from a wide variety of business executives, including GE's Jeff Immelt and Ebay's Meg Whitman. The editorial staff then created a short list using the same criterea as their yearly awards. The finalists are:

You can cast your vote and leave comments if you think they missed the mark with their selections.



Forbes' 20 Most Influential Business Books
Posted April 21, 2006 3:52 a.m. by todd-sattersten
In Lists - 800 CEO Read Blog

In the Forbes' article that Tom referred to yesterday, the writer Dan Ackman pointed to a list of business books the magazine put together in 2002. Forbes calls these The 20 Most Influential Business Books. As you look down the panel experts, you'll notice our own Jack Covert was among those called to contribute. Since this was put together before the blog was born, I thought we should get it put up here.

They also organized the books and you will find some good commentary under the topics of management, narrative, biography and investing.



Getting Great Ink
Posted Jan. 28, 2005 7:54 a.m. by todd-sattersten
In The Company - 800 CEO Read Blog

People have been saying a lot of nice things about us and we just wanted to thank them. Robert Scoble told me he uses us for market research as he develops his new book (he also blogged it here.), Hello World gushed about a little gift package Aaron sent them, and Brendon at Slacker Manager yesterday listed us as a great place to go to find out about business books.

We have also being getting real physical ink. Jack had a letter to the editor published in Fast Company about their Was "Built To Last" Built To Last? article (he sided with the book). Jack was also recently quoted in a Crain's New York article about business scandal books [sub. needed]. Here is the opening from the piece that has Jack's blurb:

Back in December 2002, the future looked bright for publishers eager to bring out nonfiction books about greedy executives intent on corporate deceit. Wall Street Journal reporter Charles Gasparino had no trouble inking a deal in the middle six figures with the Free Press for a book on how prominent analysts cheated investors out of millions of dollars.



"The stars aligned very well for me," says Mr. Gasparino, whose book Blood on the Street has just hit bookstores. "We had a tremendous number of bidders.



Mr. Gasparino might face a different set of stars today. Following a parade of money-losing Enron titles, the business scandal category stands close to collapse, a victim of the exhaustive coverage found in newspapers, on cable television and on the Internet. Sales for Blood on the Street and the upcoming Conspiracy of Fools--the last of the big Enron books--may decide if the stars ever line up again for major books on financial villains.



"This will be a test," says Jack Covert, president of 800-CEO-READ, an Internet supplier of business books to corporate clients. A fan of Conspiracy of Fools author Kurt Eichenwald, Mr. Covert is betting that title will succeed when it comes out in March. "If it doesn't, maybe the genre is beyond resuscitation," he says.



The category goes back to the financial scandals of the 1980s and the books that dissected them, Barbarians at the Gate and Den of Thieves. Both titles came out in the early 1990s, and each sold more than 300,000 copies nationwide in hardcover.



The rub is that it has been pretty much downhill from there. In recent years, the merger of America Online and Time Warner inspired three high-profile books that were commercial failures, while the Enron scandal led to about half a dozen hardcover titles that made rapid progress to the remainder table.



Even The Smartest Guys in the Room, a book which sold an estimated 70,000 copies, was a money-loser for the Penguin business imprint Portfolio, which paid $1.4 million for the publishing rights. Some of the other major Enron titles sold as few as 25,000 hardback copies.



"There is still a market for these books when they're done well, but whether it's a best-seller market is the question," says Publisher David Rosenthal of Simon & Schuster, which is releasing 200,000 copies of James B. Stewart's Disney War in March. "You may not be willing to spend a million dollars."



Lowering their sights may be all that publishers can do, as they gradually run out of blockbuster categories.

Our last mention just hit newsstands in the current issue of Business 2.0 (Feb. 2005). I was quoted in a short piece about the podcasting phenomenon. And I quote (myself):

"Audio on the Internet is not interesting, " says Todd Sattersten, who runs 800-CEO-READ's podcasts. "What is interesting is getting it on your audio player so you can listen whenever you want."

It been a good month for us. Again thanks for all the support. I think you will be excited by some of the things we have planned to roll out over the next three months.

Stay Tuned...




More on this book