Synopses & Reviews
A rich and lively survey of the great families who rule industry by the acclaimed author of
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations.
Through perseverance, solid ingenuity, and unwavering determination, family-run companies dynasties have dominated wealth and business throughout the last two centuries. One third of Fortune 500 firms are family owned and, in most cases, the ideal of the family business is one synonymous with continuity, watchful leadership, and dedication to success. But what happens when bad behavior, extravagance, and laziness all very real enemies of industry are allowed to proliferate?
In Dynasties, bestselling author and historian David S. Landes scrutinizes the powerful family businesses that rule both the financial and industrial sectors across Europe, Japan, and America to determine what factors can cause a dynasty to flourish or fail. Focusing on three areas banking, automobiles, and raw materials his cast of characters speaks to the power of the family enterprise: Ford, Rothschild, Morgan, Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and Toyoda are but a few whose histories contain all the drama and passion expected when exorbitant money, power, and kinship intersect. Drawing on his immense knowledge of economic history, Landes offers a new reading of the dynastic business plan of the last two centuries with surprising recommendations for the coming one.
Review
"Historian Landes profiles business dynasties from the seventeenth century to the present....This is an excellent book." Booklist
Review
"[A] lively although very loosely organized analysis....This overview, complete with family sagas, is interesting, but readers who want more substance and structure could read particular biographies..." Library Journal
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"The book is an interesting compare-and-contrast exercise, not only among the families listed, but between them and the family businesses around us....It also provides many cautionary tales..." San Antonio Express-News
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"Landes's characteristic insight and caustic wit brighten oft-told tales....For Landes, Dynasties was clearly a pleasurable undertaking, not a scholarly one, and general readers may enjoy it for precisely that reason." Charles R. Morris, The New York Times Book Review
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"The book has an uneven quality, as if it has started out to be something else. Nevertheless, Landes summons up enough evidence to make his central point: Loyalty devoted to a common purpose is a prime mover in the dynamics of capitalism." Los Angeles Times
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"Dynasties is rich in anecdote and will bring pleasure to the many readers who admired Landes's last book, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. It offers the same combination of shrewd insight and an engagingly conversational style. It is especially funny on the temptations to which nearly all dynasties sooner or later succumb, the most lethal (in the author's view) being horses." Niall Ferguson, The New Republic (read the entire New Republic review)
Synopsis
Bestselling author and historian Landes scrutinizes the powerful family businesses that rule both the financial and industrial sectors across Europe, Japan, and America to determine what factors can cause a dynasty to flourish or fail.
Synopsis
From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, a fascinating look at the crossroads of kin and coin David S. Landes has earned a reputation as a brilliant writer and iconoclast among economic historians. In his latest acclaimed work, he takes a revealing look at the quality that distinguishes a third of today's Fortune 500 companies: family ownership. From the banking fortunes of Rothschild and Morgan to the automobile empires of Ford and Toyota, Landes explores thirteen different dynasties, revealing what lay behind their successes-and how extravagance, bad behavior, and poor enterprise brought some of them to their knees. A colorful history that is full of surprising conclusions, Dynasties is an engrossing mix of ambition, eccentricity, and wealth.
About the Author
David S. Landes is professor emeritus of history and economics at Harvard and author of the bestseller The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. His other books include Bankers and Pashas, The Unbound Prometheus, and Revolution in Time.