Biography & Autobiography : Business

In The Big Rich, bestselling author and Vanity Fair special correspondent Bryan Burrough chronicles the rise and fall of one of the great economic and political powerhouses of the twentieth century—Texas oil. By weaving together the epic sagas of the industry’s four greatest fortunes, Burrough has produced an enthralling tale of money, family, and power in the American century. Known in their day as the Big Four, Roy Cullen, H. L. Hunt, Clint Murchison, and Sid Richardson were all from modest backgrounds, and all became patriarchs of the wealthiest oil families in Texas. As a class they came to be known as the Big Rich, and together they created a new legend in America—the swaggering Texas oilman who owns private islands, sprawling ranches and perhaps a football team or two, and mingles with presidents and Hollywood stars. The truth more than lives up to the myth. Along with their peers, the Big Four shifted wealth and power in America away from the East Coast, sending three of their state’s native sons to the White House and largely bankrolling the rise of modern conservatism in America. H. L. Hunt became America’s richest man by grabbing Texas’s largest oilfield out from under the nose of the man who found it; he was also a lifelong bigamist. Clint Murchison entertained British royalty on his Mexican hacienda and bet on racehorses—and conducted dirty deals—with J. Edgar Hoover. Roy Cullen, an elementary school dropout, used his millions to revive the hapless Texas GOP. And Sid Richardson, the Big Four’s fun-loving bachelor, was a friend of several presidents, including, most fatefully, Lyndon Johnson. The Big Four produced offspring who frequently made more headlines, and in some cases more millions, than they did. With few exceptions, however, their fortunes came to an end in a swirl of bitter family feuds, scandals, and bankruptcies, and by the late 1980s, the era of the Big Rich was over. But as Texas native Bryan Bu more...

Price: $29.95

John Malone, hailed as one of the great unsung heroes of our age by some and reviled by others as a ruthless robber baron, is revealed as a bit of both in Cable Cowboy . For more than twenty-five years, Malone has dominated the cable television industry, shaping the world of entertainment and communications, first with his cable company TCI and later with Liberty Media. Written with Malone's unprecedented cooperation, the engaging narrative brings this controversial capitalist and businessman to life. Cable Cowboy is at once a penetrating portrait of Malone's complex persona, and a captivating history of the cable TV industry. more...

Price: $27.95

Circle of Greed is the epic story of the rise and fall of Bill Lerach, once the leading class action lawyer in America and now a convicted felon.  For more than two decades, Lerach threatened, shook down and sued top Fortune 500 companies, including Disney, Apple, Time Warner, and—most famously—Enron. more...

Price: $28.00

A perceptive examination of the whole Disney phenomenon both in business terms and as a cultural construct. A valuable overview of the literature on the Disney Organization and its significance to popular culture. more...

Price: $47.95

The stories of the people captured on the pages within are anything but ordinary. Like you, they had to start somewhere. But it's not what you do or where you start, but how you do it. It wasn't through maintaining the daily grind (for themselves or others) that got them to the top. It was by building their dreams and doing business in a way that no other had done before them. These Dream Merchants and Howboys live in the Business Icon Hall of Fame in the Sky (ok so maybe one day this will exist). But before they got there they lived somewhere very different. They lived in the land of complete Nutterdom. Retired CEO of Burger King and Fortune turn-around champion, Barry Gibbons, introduces you to this world. Gibbons brings together some of the most famous names in business today. He takes us on a whirlwind tour of the careers, lives and crazy decisions of nutters - from Walt Disney and Michael Dell to Luciano Benetton and Anita Roddick. All of them made decisions that seemed odd, crazy or downright weird. But they worked. Gibbons, a distinguished madman himself, keeps you hooked with his humour and wit, but never straying from the point of it all. That we can learn from these mavericks. That we can put a little madness into our daily grind. Heck yeh. Steal their ideas! Why should they be famous and not you? Dream Merchants and Howboys may just be the most unconventional business book ever written and firmly cements Gibbons' reputation as the P.J. O'Rourke of business. more...

Price: $19.95