Biography & Autobiography : Business

"When You Wish Upon a Star," "Whistle While You Work," "The Happiest Place on Earth" -- these are lyrics indelibly linked to Disney, one of the most admired and best-known companies in the world. So when Roy Disney, chairman of Walt Disney Animation and nephew of founder Walt Disney, abruptly resigned in November 2003 and declared war on chairman and chief executive Michael Eisner, he sent shock waves through the entertainment industry, corporate boardrooms, theme parks, and living rooms around the world -- everywhere Disney does business and its products are cherished. more...

Price: $16.00

Full of juicy details about what really goes on behind the bedroom door, The Education of a Very Young Madam is a provocative exposé of the newest developments in the world's oldest profession. more...

Price: $24.00

In this timely supplement to his incomparable reckoning with the contemporary financial world, Dr. Alan Greenspan presents his views on how the economy has changed since he wrote the #1 New York Times bestseller The Age of Turbulence. Covering the subprime mortgage crisis as well as other national and international issues, this Penguin eSpecial offers a front-line view of the global economy from the man who has worked at its heart longer and with greater effect than any other single living figure. more...

Price: $5.00

The startling story of an early American dreamer whose wily schemes made him a founding father of our speculation nation. Rediscover a lost chapter in early American history: the story of financial-pioneer-turned-confidence-man Andrew Dexter, Jr., and the skyscraper for which he amassed—and then lost—a paper fortune. In the 1790s, printed money and banks themselves were still regarded with tremendous suspicion, as traditional strictures about moneylending slowly made way for modern freewheeling capitalism. A pioneer in the new age of paper, Dexter challenged the notions of his Puritan ancestors by embarking on a wild career in real estate speculation, all financed by the string of banks he commandeered and the millions of dollars they freely printed. Upon this paper pyramid he built the tallest building in the United States—the Exchange Coffee House, a seven-story colossus in downtown Boston. But in early 1809, just as the exchange was ready for unveiling, the scheme collapsed. In Boston, the exchange became an opulent but largely vacant building, a symbol of monumental ambition and failure. Kamensky deftly steers the reader through this history, providing a riveting historical narrative of a second American founding: the birth of speculative capitalism. The book will appeal to fans of Peter Bernstein’s Against the Gods, John Gordon’s Empire of Wealth, and Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton, as well as Ross King’s Brunelleschi’s Dome. more...

Price: $17.00

A gripping, groundbreaking biography of the combative man whose genius and force of will created modern capitalism. Founder of a dynasty, builder of the original Grand Central, creator of an impossibly vast fortune, Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt is an American icon. more...

Price: $37.50