Business Adventures
The Business Adventures is a 1969 collection of New Yorker articles by John Brooks that illustrate the formation of the modern American corporation. Up to this day, it has remained a favorite by many. This book poses as a great reminder that the rules for running a strong business and creating value hasn't changed. For one thing, there's an essential human factor in every business endeavor. Choosing the right people to lead and implement the company’s objectives is still the key to good governance. Business Adventures set an example of how an iconic company is defined by a particular moment of fame or notoriety; these notable and fascinating accounts are as relevant today to understanding the intricacies of corporate life as they were when the events happened. Stories about Wall Street are infused with drama and adventure and reveal the machinations and volatile nature of the world of finance. Business Adventures’ insightful reportage is so full of personality and critical details. It is truly financial journalism at its liveliest and best.
“[Brooks] provides the early version of what we think of as Malcolm Gladwell–style or Freakonomics-style lessons. . . . But Brooks features another trait that modern business writers, whether James Stewart, Malcolm Gladwell, or Michael Lewis, do not. Brooks is truly willing to give up his own views to get inside the mind of all his subjects.”
— National Review
“More than two decades after Warren [Buffett] lent it to me—and more than four decades after it was first published—Business Adventures remains the best business-adventu book I’ve ever read . . . Brooks’s deeper insights about business-adventu are just as relevant today as they were back then.”
— Bill Gates, The Wall Street Journal
“The prose is superb. Reading Brooks is a supreme pleasure. His writing turns potentially eye-glazing topics (e.g., price-fixing scandals in the industrial electronics market) into rollicking narratives. He’s also funny. . . . He tells entertaining stories replete with richly drawn characters, setting them during heightened moments within the world of commerce.”
— Slate