One of the finest most compelling accounts of what happened to corporate america and wall street in the 1980 s new york times book review. Audience reviews for barbarians at the gate.
It is the true story of the 25 billion battle for control of the american biscuit and tobacco company rjr nabsico manufacturer of the oreo cookie and rj reynolds cigarettes.
Barbarians at the gate review. Basically a blow by blow of the sale of nabisco with sight gags thrown in to make it a comedy ken s super reviewer. Reviewed in the united kingdom on 11 may 2019 it s a very detailed interesting about the crazy era of lbos. His affable demeanor and joke telling affinity hides machiavellian schemes and all the while he really just likes his company s perks.
The latter is a bit more academic than barbarians at the gate but it s often both fun and educational to look at some of the same topic matter from different angles. 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. They show how he used his affable personality and his ability to befriend coworkers bosses and over seeing boards to propel himself to standard s ceo while winning a battle against his superior and getting his superior ousted.
Barbarians at the gate is an interesting story for sure. 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. The movie does everything to a tee.
Barbarians at the gate focuses on kkr s leveraged buyout of rjr nabisco in 1988 89. Barbarians at the gate review. Ross johnson was head of nabisco s rival standard brands.
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. The dated nature of the topic and the made for tv production and pace detracted from the overall experience but still enjoyable. This makes it for a long reading doesn t make you engage for passages of the book.
3 0 out of 5 stars barbarians at the gate reviewed in the united states on may 15 2013 i had heard about this movie for years but just recently watched it. Barbarians at the gates is a fascinating tale about the rise and fall of food giant nabisco. As far as the history making story emboldened on every page of this book as the authors say you couldn t make this stuff up.
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. Barbarians at the gate by bryan burrough and john helyar 1990 barbarians at the gate is arguably the most famous book about investment banking ever written. At times it went too much on a tangent producing too many irrelevant personal life details of some of the side characters of the book.
One of the finest most compelling accounts of what happened to corporate america and wall street in the 1980 s new york times book review. James garner plays ross johnson the smooth talking rjr executive. I m a little bit frustrated with the entire idea of leveraged buyouts because it s primary purpose is to make rich people more money.
