Amazon.com

While Microsoft was occupied with the largest, most expensive consumer marketing effort in history, the launch of Windows 95, Netscape was equally busy capturing the Web browser market. By mid-1995 it looked as if Bill Gates and company had missed the paradigm shift created by the Internet, and many pundits doubted Microsoft could recover. Meanwhile, the Justice Department was aggressively investigating claims of unfair practices levied by Microsoft's competitors. Suddenly the company found itself in the unfamiliar role of lumbering corporate giant--and underdog. James Wallace's Overdrive, his sequel to Hard Drive, is the story of Microsoft's response to this challenge. A veteran investigative reporter, the author paints a vivid portrait of Gates's determination and competitive ferocity, with a host of revealing anecdotes and details as backdrop. The battle for control of cyberspace is far from over, but Microsoft is clearly not to be trifled with. The tale of how the company repositioned itself in the race makes for fascinating reading. ... Read more

Reviews (15)

Don't miss this book,Gates's fans, if u had read Hard Drive
Don't miss this book if u had read James Wallace's Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the making of Microsoft empire. Because this book contain Gates's next way to mantain his empire from internet wave. Just like Hard Drive ,this book is well written: Complete and detail but still easy to read and understand. It is still the easiest to read and understand Gates's book compare with other similar book.

Didn't really meet expectations
I read Hard Drive and like it a lot. I work with computers and I am very interested in the whole history of how things developed and how MS managed to stay on top. I liked this book, but I have to give it 3 starts because it really didn't keep me interested a whole lot. The part about Netscape and how MS almost totally missed the Internet was great. What is most amazing to me is how they turned it around and blew everybody away, which is not easy task for a company that size. Although the litigation against MS should be mentioned because it's part of the history of the company, the chapters about the lawsuits were way too long and boring. I can imagine that a lot of people gave up reading it after chapter 2, with so many names thrown around. Maybe if I were a lawyer I would've enjoyed more. I would read another book by the author as he did a good job on the research, perhaps in a few years it's going to be about how MS dominated the Internet. Hopefully, it'll be more focused on that subject.

Have to read this book to know more about Bill Gates.
This is one of the best written books out there on Bill Gates and the reason seems to be the journalistic background of the author that is so well suited for this kind of biographical account. The book has numerous real life stories of not just Gates but other legends as well like Marc Andreessen. Like me, you may also find that it is hard to put this book down once you pick it up and start reading it (almost on any page, any chapter).

If you are in the Information Technology field, you will no doubt thoroughly enjoy this book but it isn't written just for someone knowledgeable in computers. Almost anyone can read this book with little difficulty as the focus is not on technology terms but on the lives behind the technology and the Internet revolution. After reading this book, you will definitely catch up on the events of the last 15 years or so that have changed the world into one filled with computers and the Internet everywhere.

The paper used in the hard cover edition of this book feels strange to the touch and is not the normal paper you would find in most books. It feels more like cheap paper with a strange white color and the font used throughout looks like one of the generic fonts from the eighties. This alone discouraged me from reading this book for the first few months after I had bought it. But when I finally decided to read it, I instantly moved it to the top of my reading list.

If you are a budding entrepreneur wanting to topple Bill Gates' empire with some revolutionary idea that you are building in your garage or apartment, you HAVE to read this book. It is inspirational as it gets the hair on the back of your neck to stand up for most of the book and it gives you raw data to analyze and strategize how to succeed in this highly competitive market place.

The same author also wrote 'Hard Drive' which was a best seller prior to 'Overdrive' and I plan on reading 'Hard Drive' next as I am so impressed by 'Overdrive'. The thing that really got me hooked on this book is the author's writing style where he keeps your attention the WHOLE time. He does it by hooking into your emotions as evidenced by his account of Bill Gates' visit to Orlando, Florida in 1993 where he gets stuck in a traffic jam. As the author reveals the cause of the traffic jam (everyone from around 100 miles all going to the Sheraton hotel to listen to Bill Gates talk) you can't help but chuckle at the hilarious situation Bill is in (since he is the cause). The book is full of several such accounts where you can't stop reading!

Working on a startup company myself, I was looking around for biographical books on successful entrepreneurs to get some ideas and informaiton that I can analyze for myself and find some patterns. I then came across a few books focused on Bill Gates (this being the best) all of which I purchased immediately. I have not been disappointed. This book is headed for my long term collection. I hope that you too enjoy this book!

Actually In Park
Gossipy, disorganized and poorly written anti-Gates screed. This book is so badly written it's hard to get through it, even for someone who is a knee jerk hater of Chairman Bill (like, well, me). The author meanders about, jumping from topic to topic like a kangaroo, leaving the reader at first dazed and confused, but finally bored and annoyed. Worse, he spends an inordinate amount of time discussing Gates personal life, from the chairman's alleged over attachment to his mother to the birth of his kids. Excuse me, but I'm interested in the business end of Gates' life, I don't care if he wants his mommy. Wallace spends an entire chapter gushing about Gates' Hawaiian wedding and how exclusive and elaborate it was. Doubtless Wallace is envious, I was bored. The anti-trust battles are poorly explained, at best, why did Bingaman refuse to prosecute chairman bill? We can only guess. This book has little to recommend it, although Judge Sporkin thought highly of the prequol, HARD DRIVE. I never read it, and after reading this disjointed mess I don't think I will.

Good, but diffused
This is a very informative and eye-opening book on the policies of Microsoft. What I didn't like in here is that a lot of material that has nothing to do with the main subject matter has been discussed at length. I don't understand why a whole chapter (out of a total of about 6) has been devoted to Mr. Gates' wedding. There is also some discussion on the history of the island where his wedding took place! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Hard Drive charts Gates's missteps as well as his successes: thefailure of OS/2 and the embarrassing delays in bringing Windows to themarketplace; the highly publicized split with IBM, which then forged analliance with Apple to battle Microsoft; the public relations falloutover various exploits of Gates; and the investigations bythe Federal Trade Commission. Wallace and Erickson also examine thecombative, often abrasive side of Gates's personality that has alienatedmany of Microsoft's rivals and even employees, and led to his beinglabeled "The Silicon Bully" by Business Month Magazine. They report:

In the early 80's, Microsoft's Multiplan lost out to Lotus 1-2-3 in themarketplace. According to one Microsoft programmer, a few of the keypeople working on DOS 2.0 had a saying at the time that "DOS isn't doneuntil Lotus won't run." They managed to code a few hidden bugs into DOS2.0 that caused Lotus 1-2-3 to breakdown when it was loaded. "Therewere as few as three or four people who knew this was being done," theemployee said. He felt the highly competitive Gates was the ringleader.

The first two female executives hired at Microsoft in 1985 wererecruited to meet federal affirmative action guidelines so that thecompany could qualify for a lucrative Air Force contract. One sourcesays,"They would say, 'Well, let's hire two women because we can pay themhalf as much as we will have to pay a man, and we can give them all thisother crap work to do because they are women.' That's directly out ofBill's mouth...." Gates treated one of these executives so badly thatshe asked to be transferred away from him.

Microsoft managers used the company's e-mail system tosecretly spy on employee work habits. Only those employees who workedweekends could collect bonuses. In time word got out and some employeeslogged into their e-mail on weekends with a modem from home so it wouldappear they had come in. ... Read more

Reviews (31)

The Definitive History of Microsoft
(By Edward Trimnell, author of "Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One," ISBN:1591133343)

This book is required reading for anyone who is interested in:

1) Computers and software
2) Microsoft
3) Entrepreneurship

Hard Drive is as readable as a novel. The book covers the history of Bill Gates' rise to power with expert thoroughness. There are numerous insights into the man and company--not all of which are flattering.

If you have ever wondered how the current PC software market reached its current state, then you will find the answers within these pages. The authors portray the struggles between Microsoft, Lotus, IBM, and Apple from the technical, commercial, and human perspectives.

The book is also balanced in its handling of one of the business world's most controversial personalities. Gates admirers and detractors alike will find ammunition in Hard Drive.

A great book written by two very talented journalists
I had heard a lot about this book and I finally got around to reading it a while back and have to say that it was time well spent. Not only the book is a well versed discussion of how to succeed through hard drive, it is also a reflection and warning on how ambition, when unchecked, and an unbalanced life can turn into greed, complete paranoia and life driven by fear rather than the excitement of accomplishment. The book tries to be balanced and shows the evolution of a boy genius to a driven shrewd industry leader to a completely paranoid ego maniac. Not having any opinions of Gates when I started to read the book, besides the fact that he was a successful and driven person worthy of examination, I could not help but to admire him in his youth for his dedication and drive. By the middle of the book when Microsoft finally establishes itself in Bellevue, one sees the transformation of a workaholic and challenge driven person, to a paranoid almost parasitic individual, who surrounds himself with technologically unaccomplished little demons -- such as Steve Ballmer and Mike Maples -- who will do his dirty job for him and will fetch/steal and confiscate other people's hard earned technologies such as C-U-SeeMe, Go, Inuit, Borland technologies and even DOS etc. Paul Alan by this point is out of the picture suffering from cancer (probably from the guilt of being part of it all) and shunned by his old partner Bill. When one reads the account of Microsoft's attitude toward Lotus (putting bugs in DOS allegedly to break Lotus 123), one understands why Chairman Bill -- like Chairman Mao -- is being credited for transforming/destroying a culture, and according the the founder of Lotus creating a kingdom of the dead. By this time pity turns into complete dislike. Following Microsoft's recent attitude toward Java/Netscape/Inuit/3COM one is left but to wonder 1). where the heck has the justice department been upto now! and 2). will Xanadu be Citizen's Gates last place in history.

A Must Buy About the #1 Guy at the Pinnacle
Should I Buy This Book?

The story is starting to get a bit dated but the book still has 95% of the Gates story warts and all. He is one of the most compelling and admired and maybe feared business leaders today.

Unlike Jack Welch, another great leader and manager, he started from zero or near zero in a new field and (largely) owned the company. I remember seeing the personal computers for sale in the 70's - just pre Microsoft - that did not come with anything other than a very rudimentary software. He was one of the first people to recognize the dollar value of the software and to charge for its use in the hobby market. Since then he has dominated the market. Now there is a computer in virtually every office and home using his (expensive high margin) software. Now he has the resources to buy anything he wants, or to support any charity or university, or buy a sizeable portion of the stock in almost any company that he wishes. And of course he has no debt. He used no risky leverage or tricks. He took the software and generated billions of dollars in cash and securities on hand. It is quite the story.

This is a relatively short book and an easy read. Frankly it is a must read for anyone running their own business and or in the Tech field. Gates is the statistical anomaly who sits at the very pinnacle. He is perched even above Warren Buffet the financial guru who is at least 20 years older than Gates. But Gates was astute enough to buy DOS for $50,000. and then had the business smarts and drive to market and sell the product. He was a hands on manager working long hours and a technical leader. He was (is) as smart or smarter than anyone else in the field. He did not invent any major new invention but he had the practical ability to take the product to market and make it work, make it better, and build a winning business. He hired great people and built a team that literally crushed the opposition including IBM and all foreign competitors in that area. It is only now two decades later that people are (seriously) starting to consider alternatives such as Linux, and these still have a lot of catch up to do.

Still a great book and a great yarn. A must buy 5 stars.

Jack in Toronto

Hard Drive and the GENIUS BILL GATES
Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire is a great book. James Wallace and Jim Erickson gives us an insight as to how Bill Gates really is as a person. The genius Bill Gates at the mere age of 13 was completely different from any ordinary 13 year old. He had ideas that would once lead world into future. If anyone really wants to know as to how the future billionare thought, then I recommend this book.

An Accurate Account of How It All Started
I fine myself re-reading this novel from time to time. It's that good. From the time Bill Gates recited passages from the bible to win a dinner at Seattle Space Needle to becoming the riches man in world has led many people including myself to "emulate" this figure's work ethics if not his flaws. In some small way, we can be just as sucessful as a billionaire as long as we stay away from the "Darkside". It's how Microsoft got the contracts to support the Altair; the flourishing program language business; they're plan for oversea expansion with Kay Nishi; what they did with the money that rolled in and yes, Bill's hygene problem.(LOL) This is how it happen - not how Pirates of SV wrongfully portrayed events for the sake of entertainment. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Bill Gates
I would give this book a five-star rating. The title is Bill Gates and the author is Jeanne M. Lesinski. Bill Gates had a dream. His dream was to create his own computer. Bill does complete his goal. On different kinds of computers he created, he did them with other friends. Throughout the story, it tells about his life, his wife, and three kids. Read the book and find out about his life and the start of Microsoft.

An excellent read.
A & E produces a daily Biography show about famous people in all categories, this book is based on that series. Bill Gates is more than a story about the richest man in the world, is an accounting of where this fame and fortune came from and the vision of the future of the software giant.

While the book is only about 100 pages there is enough information about Gates' roots, his ride to the top of the software industry and his recent battles with the Justice department to give this reader a new look into the man himself.

The author gives you pictures from early childhood to his start with Microsoft in Albuquerque to his work with the Bill Gates Library Foundation. I must admit most of the photos have already been seen, however they're a few new and interesting ones, especially his new house.

I personally liked the way the author put together the story, not running over of boring you with details in any one are. The storyline flows from start to finish. Granted there is a lot more that could have gone into the book, however this one was an excellent read. ... Read more

Book Description

Gates reveals the guiding genius behind the unparalleled success of theMicrosoft Corporation-- the biggest and most profitable personal computer software company in history-- and exposes the intensely competitive tactics that help it dominate the desktops of America.Chairman and co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates is the most powerful person in the computer industry and the youngest self-made billionaire in history. His company's DOS and Windows programs are such universal standards that more than nine out of ten personal computers depend on Microsoft software. Under the "Microsoft Everywhere" rallying cry, Gates intends to expand his company's worldwide dominance to office equipment, communications, and home entertainment.Vivid and definitive, Gates details the behind the scenes history of the personal computer industry and its movers and shakers, from Apple to IBM, from Steve Jobs to Ross Perot. Uncovering the inside stories of the bitter battle for control of the expanding personal computing market, Gates is a bracing, comprehensive portrait of the industry, the company, and the man-- and what they mean for a future where software is everything. ... Read more

Reviews (19)

Best Gates Biography Around
I first read "Gates" back in 1993. Many books about Bill Gates have been written since. But "Gates" by Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews is still by far the best book about Bill Gates.

Still Best Gates Biography Around
I first read "Gates" back in 1993. Many books about Bill Gates have been written since. But "Gates" by Stephen Manes and
Paul Andrews is still by far the best book about Bill Gates.

A Detailed History in the Making of a Monoply...
I won't get wordy here but I read this book twice and enjoyed it both times. It goes into the life of Bill Gates; his thought process, his work ethics, his childhood and how Microsoft established it's dominance. It's a good read even though it's over 500 pages. I highly recommend this book along with the book "Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire". This is the way it really happened. Not the way the movie "Pirates of SV" incorrectly portrayed it.

Great history of PC computing
I bought this book expecting to skim through it to find out a little more about what Bill Gates was like. But it's a wonderfully readable history of the growth of PC's, from the early days when the best a school kid (Bill himself) could do was to try to get access to a teletype time-share system, on through the first home "computers" that amounted to little more than a bunch of switches and LEDs (no keyboard or monitor), to IBM coming out with the PC and Microsoft's amazing good fortune at supplying the OS (great story! Bill just cared about programming languages, mostly BASIC, and saw the DOS manuever mostly just as a way to ensure that BASIC would run on the new IBM machine!), on thru the OS/2 vs. Windows battles.

It even has a lot of inside detail on the development of the Apple Macintosh. I recently read "Accidental Empires" (the basis for the TV documentary "Triumph of the Nerds"), and found Gates to be a far better and more readable history of the PC's startup.

The book is packed with interviews and amusing or interesting anecdotes. It's well written and well edited. One drawback for some people will be that it hasn't been updated since 1995, but for the two main things that have happened since then - the anti-trust suit against Microsoft and the rise of the Internet - there are plenty of other sources.

An interesting account of Bill and the evolution of the PC
This very readable book provides a candid overview of the rise of Bill Gates and Microsoft. I found it interesting and insightful. Like much of the material about "billg", I find it a little sycophantic -- but it is not over the top. Key success ingredients: early signs of selfishness, million dollar trust-fund from his grandfather (which no doubt provided safety and leverage at the start), an early passion for an incredibly important technology at the critical period and a shrewd, single-mindedness. I suspect Bill is not a particularly compassionate, polite, happy or fair person -- however I bet he is really efficient! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Love him or hate him, no matter how you feel about Bill Gates, you've got to respect him. As the richest man in the world and leader of the most successful company of our day, Gates has achieved a level of success that even the Almighty might be jealous of. In Bill Gates Speaks, Janet Lowe captures much of the Gates legend by weaving together stories and quotes attributed to Gates in speeches, newspapers, and interviews in a short and easy-to-read volume. The book covers everything from Gates's time at Harvard to the construction of his "home" on the shores of Lake Washington near Seattle. The result is a well-rounded look at the man who has helped to shape our present more than any other individual alive today. --Harry C. Edwards ... Read more

Reviews (17)

No Meat To This BooK!
I like to be told a story. Although the book starts with a good story on how Bill Gates got started, it quickly digresses. This book is an accumulation of facts and boring accounts about Bill Gates and Microsoft. It never gets into the meat of things. I would have liked to have read more about the litigations against Microsoft. Maybe some more about Nescape's lawsuit. It mentions very little about the Antitrust lawsuit that I was looking forward to learning about. Instead we get quotes from Bill Gates that do not enhance the book, but instead interrupt it. The author references websites about Microsoft's and the government's claims about the lawsuit. It's like the author got lazy. Don't waste your money on this book. A very big dissapointment!

I WANT TO BE BILL GATES
I read this book in three hours.It captured my imagination and I came to the conclusion that I want to be Bill Gates. This book gave me motivation in life. I am sure it will do the same for you.

Nothing "Original" But Still A Good Book for Young Teens
This is one of a series of books that covers highly successful, highly visible individuals and how they got that way. These books are targeted at school age teens to inspire them to follow their paths for success. The author seems to cover the life stories of Bill Gates and adds quotes where appropriate to boost the storyline. There are occasional segments on subjects related to Gates as shown in the Amazon's "Look in" review. It's an easy read with only 230 pages. If you read any of the other books such as "Gates" or "Hard Drive" you'll get the feeling of reading this book before. Since the work isn't original and seems to heavily reference other books I give it 3 stars. The only question I have is whether the author actual sat down with Bill Gates and talked to him or did she really just go to the library, the Internet, etc. to get info on the book. As a first book on Bill Gates life, it's still a good read for young adults looking to be inspired.

It's just a sumary of other books
It's an easy to read story of Gates, but there's nothing new here. In fact, the whole book is made up of quotes from other books and articles. You can't really tell if they are taken out of context or not. There's just not much original stuff here.

Not what I thought
While this book was well written, I was dissapointed with what I learned about Bill Gates. There was not enough detail and the book was pieced together from a number of different quotes, which is ok for many biographies but the extent of the number of quotes compared to the varied sources did not complete the picture.

The books cover claimed 'Insight From The Worlds Greatest Entrepreneur' but I did not feel an insight.

Despite the above, if you like Bill Gates and want to learn a little more about him, I recommend this book. There are some fun stories and some things to be learned about the man. It is put together nicely, it makes a high claim but does not completely deliver on this claim. ... Read more

Amazon.com

AOL's story--from its origins in a doomed gaming service through its early appearance as a much-dismissed startup to its current status as an often-maligned giant--is as irresistible as a heroic comedy. Kara Swisher chronicles the surprising growth of the world's largest online service, an organization for which everything apparently went wrong.

The company has run into obstacles at every step of the way--partners who failed to give necessary support or who even turned hostile, and competition from a multitude of corporate Goliaths (including Bill Gates, who declared that he could either buy AOL or bury it). Worst of all, AOL has created a cascading sequence of operational and technical blunders, often offending or infuriating the people they most need to survive; yet the company still manages to dominate the online service industry.

Swisher speculates that one main factor enabled AOL to succeed against overwhelming odds: the superior vision of marketing executive Steve Case. While other online services focused on games, shopping, and business, AOL worked on building community and interpersonal contacts. This service proved valuable enough to outweigh the company's mistakes and misfortunes.

However, it is this same focus that has also brought on many of AOL's problems. Swisher describes AOL's struggles with the seamier side of online life--people who use the service for criminal activities and for discussing raunchy sexual issues. Swisher also discusses the problems that come with too much success, such as the overload of users that routinely slows down or completely crashes the system, the backlash on the Internet when masses of netiquette-challenged AOLers appeared in cliquish newsgroups, and the national outrage when a technical problem brought down the entire service for many hours.

With its cast of fascinating and quirky characters, including Steve Case, Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Alexander Haig, aol.com is a captivating look at all the human, cultural, and sometimes just plain quixotic factors that created this unlikely giant. --Elizabeth Lewis ... Read more

Reviews (42)

The read of the year for geeks and non-geeks alike
For most people in the United States, the phrases "Kleenex", "Xerox Machine" and now, "America(n) Online," all serve the same purpose: the common pop culture reference for generic product categories - facial tissues, photocopiers and online access. Despite the insistence by some to add an extra "n" at the end of "America", AOL has captured that ultimate marketing Holy Grail: the absolute personification of its category. This testament to brand building and the emotional, human struggle of America Online's march to dominance is chronicled by former Washington Post reporter Kara Swisher in her new book, aol.com: How Steve Case Beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads, and Made Millions in the War for the Web [Times Business/Random House, 1998].

From its beginnings as Control Video Corporation, a failed attempt to become the defacto distributor of Amiga video games and its reemergence as a privately branded online service for Commodore and Apple, through the early years of its existence as a platform independent online service to the position of dominance and mindshare it holds today, aol.com is as much a professional biography of Steve Case, AOL's CEO as it is a fascinating corporate history. Author Kara Swisher recognizes and illustrates that which has been a corporate mandate from nearly the beginning: the casting of Steve Case not as AOL's head honcho, but as a human being and a member, Just Like You And Me. Swisher's writing style is as intriguing and surprising as ever: in one chapter, she calmly leads us through an August 1996 pleasure cruise skippered by Ted Leonsis, AOL's PT Barnum, as he attempts to close the deal to install MTV's Bob Pittman as AOL's COO. As their rented yacht anchors on a dock in Italy, Leonsis is handed a local paper with the headline "AOL E Morte" - AOL is Dead, and sets the stage for the surprisingly detailed explanation for the Great Outage. That 19 hour drop in service, in one agonizing day, swung AOL directly i! nto the mass culture, casting a spotlight on what we all already knew: AOL was an indispensable part of our lives, computer geek or not.

Kara Swisher writes with a voice that is at once technically accessible to the masses, and appealing to the netheads who want more than just the cursory skinny on America's largest online entity. Her access to the management team of Case, Leonsis, Jean Villanueva and Pittman gave her the word direct from the source, and although she does not skirt the dark side of AOL's history, she appropriately places just the right importance and relevance to AOL's missteps. When the issue of Case's and Villanueva's personal relationship is revealed, Swisher balances the public reporting of the "scandal" with sensitive attention to the agony the two had over sharing this information with their beloved company. She appropriately takes David Cassel, AOL's enthusiastic but sadly misdirected online critic, to task for glorifying hackers and grasping at straws in an effort to defame AOL is his yellow net.journalism.

Finally, Swisher leaves the reader with a sense that no one really knows where this "Internet thing" is headed, or what AOL's ultimate role will be (and she is right on in her supposition). She provides a supremely satisfying reading experience to users who only know AOL as the "busy signal" company as well as to readers such as myself: a former AOL employee (and the recorded voice of their tech support line) who knows the score already, but loves to wallow in the recap of the game.

Run, don't walk to buy this book. Kara Swisher's aol.com will enjoy the same surprising permanent success that its namesake has been dealt, and is far and away the geek (and non-geek) read of the year.

The history of an online cornerstone is worth reading.
This is a good book, detailing Steve Case's journey in building AOL. Roughly the first half of the book covers birth through the early 90s, and the remainder is devoted to extensive discussion of AOL's many changes in response to the growth of the Internet.

Often described as a cockroach in cyberspace (in more ways than one), America Online has repeatedly defied critics by sustaining its growth and success through repeated hard times. In going from a distant third (behind Compuserve and Prodigy) to becoming the undisputed top proprietary service, the story of AOL takes the reader through a variety of issues which are still very relevant to the Internet in general (e.g. AOL has been dealing with online pornography, first amendment issues, spam, etc. for years).

This book is well-researched, well-written, and very interesting. Whatever your own opinions of AOL, if you are at all interested in the past and future of the online world, you owe it to yourself to learn about AOL and why it is so hugely successful.

AMAZING THE AOL IS STILL HERE!
Very fascinating and detailed look at the early and middle years of AOL (before the latest difficulties with TimeWarner merger). We see just how amazingly close we came to not having an AOL at all. Steve Case and his partners and co-horts came so close so many times to going belly up, yet the book also shows how others failed to capitalize on AOL's weaknesses and failed to understand its strengths.

It's a good read for anyone, but if you're an AOL user, it'll give you a true insight into this important company. It's an easy, fast read, too, which you might not expect. The latest issue was updated once, through 1999. I'd love to see it updated again in a few months, to cover all the Time Warner stuff and many reorganizations that have gone on just lately.

Part one of the history of America Online (AOL.com)
Kara Swisher has covered AOL and the Internet for the business section of The Washington Post since 1994. Now reporting on Silicon Valley for The Wall Street Journal, she lives in San Francisco. This updated version, published in 1999, included an new epilogue by the author.

The book starts with the now legendary meeting between the world-richest man Bill Gates (founder and chairman of Microsoft) and Steve Case (now chairman of AOL) in May 1993. In this meeting, Gates makes the following proposal to Case: "I can buy 20 percent of you or I can buy all of you, or I can go into this business myself and bury you." In hindsight, we now know that Gates did not buy America Online and did not bury them either. With this conversation in the background Swisher discusses the roots, the lack of business plan, the strategy changes (through which AOl got the nickname cockroach: "... a bug you couldn't kill no matter how hard you tried."), the people involved, the battles with Microsoft, Prodigy and CompuServe, the financial problems, the legal problems, the acquisitions of Netscape and various other companies, and Steve Case's vision (the three C's - "communication, community, clarity"). Most of the information comes from inside the company itself, where Swisher has interviewed the numerous people involved, but as a Washington Post-journalist there is plenty of external information.

Although this excellent book is about one of the best-known brands in cyberspace, it is perfectly readable for non-Internet geeks (like me). Yes, yes, I know, there are plenty of names and Internet terms around, but that doesn't even make this a bad and difficult read. I see this book as the first part in the history of America Online (AOL), from pre-startup through to late-1998. But plenty has happened since 1998 and I do expect the author to write another book on those events?!?

To dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free
Karen Swisher weaves a compelling tale of America Online, a company saga that is remarkable in the annals of American business history. She recounts at the outset of this tale how Steve Case paid proper tribute to Bill Von Meister, the founder and visionary techie responsible for AOL becomming a commercial possibility.

Von Meister (VM) attracted some of the finest venture capitalists in the nation to his vision of sending video games into individual homes for a fee. While this dream did not pan out as commercially viable Von meister revealed a keen grasp of the future of the internet as long ago as the late seventies. Steve Case was not only intellectually curious when he met Von Meister, but immediately grasped the significance of his vision. Because VM was lax with his corporate spending habits while ignoring the rivers of red ink produced by a product without a market, Frank Caufield of Kleiner Perkins brought in his friend and investor in CVC, Jim Kimsey, to be his eyes and ears at the company.

As CVC tanked Quantum ne Aol was begun and Kimsey fought off the creditors while Case ran the business. As the company struggled thru the 80's Kimsey provided adult leadership while searching and finding enough capital to sustain AOL thru its bleakest times. As the microchip revolution caused a faster and more powerful computer base to grow up and around the company, Aol surpassed its resident competitors, Prodigy and Compuserve, as Case's clever marketing ideas continued to build a virtual community online.

When alex Brown took Aol public in 1992 the stock actually drifted below its IPO price for a couple of months before beginning its remarkable accent. Kimsey, who was older than Case and who had suffered more from opportunity cost than his younger counterpart, was in favor of selling out to Bill Gates in 1993. This didn't fly well with Case who eased Kimsey out in 1995, but what a way to go. Kimsey amassed one of the more significant fortunes in Washington DC business history and he did it largely by having the sense to know "which horse to ride", one Steve case.

Case went on to perform one of the more remarkable records of business timing any of us will ever witness. This series of correct moves included adding the right executives to the mix, the ones who could lead Aol "thru the iceburgs", and culminated in his buyout of Time Warner. The timing could not have been more deft.

This is a fascinating book about the best America has to offer. All aspiring businessmen should read it. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Bill Gates-Interesting
I first bought this book for a book report. I thaught since i love computers, i should write one on bill gates. I thaught that the author did a good job on this book. I liked this book alot. Very Interesting! ... Read more

Book Description

Critically acclaimed from coast to coast, Pride Before the Fall is the definitive account of the trial that shook an economy: United States v. Microsoft. Award-winning journalist John Heilemann uncovers the explosive truth behind the headlines: how the high-tech kingpins Bill Gates had tried to destroy, together with a motley crew of anonymous crusaders, worked in secret to help the government take down the most powerful empire of the information age. As colorful and riveting as a detective novel, Pride Before the Fall is an unforgettable tale of human ambition and human frailtya timely saga of arrogance, hubris, ruthlessness, and revenge.

Reviews (12)

A Clear (and Witty) Showing
This brilliant and thorough account of the complicated dynamics of US
v. Microsoft ought to be read by everyone who uses a computer. Despite
its unfortunate and misleading title, this is a book that first and
foremost explains in detail what Microsoft did that was unlawful and
what was done about it. Heilemann introduces individual after
individual on the many sides of the case - Bill Gates, Joel Klein,
David Boies, Steve McGeady, Bill Neukom, Garth Saloner and the rest
- offering a critical picture of motive, drive, method, and
specific contribution to the outcome (as of November 2000). The book
succeeds by its resistance to the usual (and in this case wrong) David
v. Goliath or organizational determinism metanarratives. Instead, it
is a story of a loose-knit organization of Davids fighting the Borg
that chronicles the complicated reasons that the Davids themselves
never became a Borg. Heilemann's achievement is no less extraordinary
because it is done simply and adroitly through his choice of language.
First, his folksy style (tangling "like a pair of scorpions in a
sock") sustains his focus on the organic even while he walks us
through the technological specificities of integrated browsers,
operating systems, and platforms: a tale peopled with pudding-bowl
bangs and cowlicks refuses to be intimidating. Second, the comingling
of earthy figures of speech and and computer-speak (an acronym such as
API is simply a metaplasmus, while the product name 'Windows' is
patently metaphoric) serves to remind the reader that while the market
circuitry is new, the human story is not. Heilemann's book is an
excellent read.

Engrossing, thoroughly informative, very well-written
This is an extraordinarily lucid, crisply-written account of the Microsoft trial and the circumstances leading up to it. Heilemann sets the scene with masterful depictions of the environment in Silicon Valley and especially at Microsoft, as well as of the various characters involved. Be aware, however, that this fascinating charting of Microsoft's rise to power and the complicated road to eventual government prosecution takes up almost 2/3 of the book. The subsequent trial scenes, while highly entertaining, may seem short by comparison.

Heilemann covered the case as a reporter and interviewed practically all the major players. The result is a balanced, even tale in which Heilemann remains mostly objective but is still able to comment critically and insightfully on the happenings. The story, even with its high level of depth, is propelled quickly by Heilemann's sophisticated writing, replete with erudite metaphors and colorful quotations.

Any recent books about the Microsoft case are handicapped to a certain degree because the appeals process is not over and a final remedy, yet to be determined. Still, this book provides an excellent foundation for understanding future developments in the case, as well as simply a great read. Heilemann truly makes the trial, and the world, of Microsoft, come alive.

An excellent analysis of the case
Heilemann has done a fabulous job with this book. The Wired article was really gripping and the full length book is just as difficult to put down! It really makes you wonder what they're thinking in Redmond - at the end of the book I couldn't help feeling that Gates (as Heilemann presents him) seems a lot like Mr. Burns in the Simpsons episode where Lisa teaches him about recycling and he ends 'recycling' all the fish in the sea for livestock feed. He couldn't figure out why he was wrong and Gates seems to have the same difficulty.

whiny
This book is more of a whine session than an informative look into the microsoft case. Poor writing and questionable facts make this book impossible to read. Save your money!

Save Your Money
This book was more than "based on" the Wired article, it was the Wired article. I read both the article and the book, and in my opinion there was very little added to the book. I would suggest buying the Wired Magazine that had this article, ... .

Excluding that, the book was well written and entertaining, but somewhat disappointing. The amount of access the author had provided great visibility into the trial, but I felt the author squandered that information. There was very little analysis, and often the author missed humorous/interesting snippets that other books/articles had picked up (e.g. in "The New New Thing" and Upside's news coverage of the trial).

This book felt more like a synapse or a chronology, and it left me wanting more... ... Read more

Amazon.com

According to an old saying, the very rich are different from you and me because they have more money. According to The Wall Street Journal senior editor Cynthia Crossen, the very rich are different because they often cross into unknown territory to obtain their great wealth--and regularly presage significant changes in society and culture while doing so. Crossen profiles 10 of these notable magnates in The Rich and How They Got That Way, focusing on a truly unorthodox assortment from a thousand-year period that fit this dual definition. The result is novel, engaging, and instructive.

Much of this stems from the choices that Crossen has made, which range chronologically from military leader Machmud of Ghazni of the 10th century to technology leader Bill Gates of the 21st. In between, there's Genghis Khan (who went "beyond simple robbery" to "taxing a conquered people"); Mansa Musa (a master of early worldwide trade routes through Africa); Pope Alexander VI (who managed to "rule the spiritual world and manipulate the political"); Jacob Fugger (a 15th-century German moneylender); John Law (who refashioned France's treasury during the late 1600s); Richard Arkwright (a forefather of the 18th-century British industrial revolution); Howqua, (a Chinese trader at the tail end of his country's global isolation); and Hetty Green ("the early 20th-century queen of the stock market"). Students of both business enterprise and world history will appreciate how these stories tie together the surprisingly parallel development of each discipline. --Howard Rothman ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Of Historical Interest
With the rise of internet and multi-media fortunes, this book is a little dated, even though Bill Gates *is* still one of the most wealthy individuals on planet Earth. I found value in reading the histories of the earlier people: Ghengis Khan, Jacob Fugger, et al., and how wealth generation moved from a "conquer and plunder" scenario to one of capital and industry. The book is a bit of a struggle to get through and I hoped for a more insightful look into both the people and the history of wealth. It's an OK read for a quick and broad history lesson but don't expect depth or analysis of "the rich and how they got that way".

banal writing
There are a number of books out today on this topic - there has to be one where the writing is much more interesting - a high school student could have written this....

Highly Recommended!
Cynthia Crossen presents a one-thousand-year pageant of fortune, focusing on how nine wealthy men - and one woman - gained and kept their wealth. Each person symbolizes an era, and a means of amassing money. Crossen combines their biographies with a discussion of the historical trends that contributed to the changing sources of wealth - from the ancient days when thievery and conquest were the way to riches to the times when trade, manufacturing and new technologies provided the roads to wealth. The book provides a fascinating and leisurely overview of history, as well as a glimpse of the lives of these wealthy people. The discussion sometimes wanders in time and place, with asides comparing different time periods. We [...] recommend this engaging, briskly written book to executives, managers and anyone fascinated by wealth, history or both.

Basically a history book...An easy read
This book is basically a history book with mini-biographies of 10 different people. It was not an insightful guide into how you can use proven techniques to reach the same heights. It was, however, interesting to read profiles on some famous people through history. Many of those documented I previously knew nothing about.

In reading the individual stories, I was able to grasp the progression of the global economy although this was not explicitly explained. This was a good pre-bedtime or a bathroom read. I say this because you can read a chapter and pick it up a month later and read another chapter. SInce the chapters are basically separate biographies, you do not have to finish this one at once.

I would recommend this boojk for anyone who enjoys historical stories about business people and events. However, this is not a guide in any way that can be used to help you improve your business skills.

Little truth in this title
I bought this book because I saw it mentioned in Barron's as containing a chapter on Hetty Green, "the Witch of Wall Street". I knew a little of her story, how she bought cheap and sold dear, and was a famous miser.

So I bought the book. It turns out to be more a collection of magazine article length peices about what these people were like, not how they got rich.

For example, after describing how Hetty inherited some money, married and moved to England, says:"Hetty eagerly bought up US government bonds, which, in the years after the civil war were being sold for as little as forty cents on the dollar. Most investors thought they would never be redeemed at full value. Hetty also began buying American railroad stocks and bonds. In one year in London, she made more than $1.25 million on her investments."

That's it. Nothing about how she chose to buy that particular investment, nothing about the other choices she rejected. Also nothing about how, when, or for how much she sold the bonds. Nothing at all useful to today's investor trying to choose what to buy cheap and when to sell dear.

My advice to you: don't invest in this book. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

In a nation where cash is king, meet the royalty.
Dreams. Visions. Wealth and Power. Within the pages of this book you will learn about the lives of 100 extraordinary people and their amazing accomplishments. Coming from all walks of life, many were brought forth with very little to their name, and yet each one has possessed an overwhelming desire to be the best. In many cases, they pursued a vision and achieved unimaginable success. Their empires and ideas have revolutionized society and their names will forever be etched in stone with their legacies. If you have ever been inclined to command wealth, here is where you will find out how it was done by those before you.

--Taking Notes

100 highly readable vignettes on wealth-obsessed individuals
Let me start by saying that I would never have picked up a book on this topic were it not for the fact that one of its authors is my brother. I am so repelled by the "get rich" mentality that is exhibited by a certain segment of our population that I would have avoided the book for fear of being lumped in with them by anyone seeing it open in front of me. Before buying the book, I had prepared myself to dislike it, and had already fired off some ironic messages to my brother by electronic mail on the aspiring Rockefellers who I supposed would be flocking to buy it.

Finally, I got the book home, and, after drawing the shades and closing the blinds, furtively looked inside. A wealth, not of money, but of biographical detail, emerged immediately from the first few pages of text. It became immediately clear that, whatever its political slant, this was a profoundly well-written and researched work. What's more, it painted realistic and, in many cases, quite damning portraits of its 100 plutocratic subjects.

The book orders its collection of mini-biographies according to the wealth of their subjects. Still, the bite-sized pieces are too irresistable to be consumed in a linear manner, and so I found myself jumping from one disciple of mammon to another some chapters away, devouring several at a sitting over a period of many days. I remember the sense of mild surprise that I felt at the time that someone who I have known on a personal level for years had produced something that could truly be appreciated by the greater world (and evidently has been, from the reviews and interviews that have followed).

The reason that this book "only" gets a nine (for me, a 10 would be reserved for a great classic like Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States," and maybe one or two other titles), is my perception that it pulls its punches slightly on some of its more contemporary subjects. The facts are all there, but there is a sense that the kid gloves are on when examining the negative consequences of more recent fortunes, such as Sam Walton's, on the broader community. Walton's Wal-Mart stores, for example, have been criticized as vacuum pumps that suck money out of small communities, destroying local shops that pay decent wages and recycle their earnings to local economies, while offering only low-paying jobs and marginally lower prices in return. The book brushes this aside as "protests from small rivals," and says nothing more on the subject.

Despite these issues, the book remains one of the most informative and interesting ones that I have read. And if the authors' point of view seems to favor, or at least accept, the system that created these Matterhorns of money, that view isn't imposed upon the reader, and there are plenty of facts and figures from which to derive a competing perspective.

--Carl Gunther ... Read more

Amazon.com

In a brilliant--and, at times, overwhelming--display of research and perspicacity, Paul Andrews chronicles Microsoft's internal and public battles to adapt to Internet technology and fight the browser wars. He starts in 1991: the Internet is barely a blip on the company radar. Meanwhile, 22-year-old new hire J Allard is asked by Microsoft's No. 2 man, Steve Ballmer, to "make the pain go away" with TCP/IP, the standard Internet protocol. It's just Allard's second day on the job, and he realizes that the software giant doesn't get it: interoperability between networks and the Internet is key to Microsoft's future. He begins a grassroots effort to raise Internet consciousness, eventually distributing a widely read 17-page memo titled "Windows: The Next Killer Application on the Internet." Higher up, Bill Gates's technical assistant, Steven Sinofsky, gets snowed in at technically progressive Cornell University. He's stunned to witness a student body that's already devoted to a fledgling Internet, and writes home: "Cornell is WIRED." After intense internal debate (and more than a few late nights), Gates stops the engines and changes course to pursue integration of Windows and an Internet browser called Explorer.

Andrews--a personal-technology columnist for the neighboring Seattle Times--has actually layered several books into one. In the first, he writes scores of fascinating profiles on the Internet idealists, architects, and managers who devoted "Microsoft Hours" to redirect the company's focus. In the second, he reports on external battles against foes such as Netscape and Sun Microsystems. In addition, he explores the hundreds of technological developments (occasionally to the point of distraction) that flourished during this high-tech revolution. And, finally, he comments throughout on what led the Department of Justice to file the largest antitrust action since the breakup of AT&T. Andrews's coverage of this last issue is slanted heavily in Microsoft's favor, but is thorough enough to deflect most accusations of bias. Although the Web is far from won, Microsoft's ability to turn its ship around is certainly a victory. --Rob McDonald ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Inside the Greatest Company of the New Economy
There's been a lot of blather from competitors about Microsoft's so-called predatory ways -- some of it, I understand, directed at this book. But the real reason Microsoft is so feared and often loathed is that they compete so well. How many companies of Microsoft's size in any industry would be fleet-footed enough to completely reinvent their overall strategy to address a sea change in their market? This book tells you how this remarkable company did it. Get to know the real players who helped turn this battleship around -- and kept Bill Gates very very wealthy.

Overall good, changed my perception of Microsoft
Overall I liked the book because it shows a side of Microsoft, but advocates them in the side of the antitrust trial, and they don't explain how a free web browser earns money.

Scratch a free-marketeer and you’ll find a socialist
I am writing this after the appeals court has done the smart thing and voided the breakup remedy and exposed Judge Jackson for the little punk he is (His bias was obvious during the trial, despite MS's missteps. Congress should impeach him pronto). So I have perspective many of the other reviewers don't.

All I can say is: Ah-hah. Ah-hah. The appeals court may have found that MS maintained its monopoly illegally, largely because it didn't provide sufficient evidence that it needed those contracts with PC makers to protect the proprietary elements of Windows. And they may be right (although I think the general rapacity of the software industry is enough). But it agreed with nothing else, and I think the author of this book has been more than vindicated against his critics.

Yes, he had access to top MS officials, and probably shares their views of things. But you don't need that to agree that Netscape did everything all wrong ... they walked out of the HTML 3 standards conference, made their browser as incompatible with IE as they could just because they were so afraid. Their entire business plan could be summed up as "Bill Gates must be incredibly dumb and tone-deaf, so we'll make all the noise we want about how we can make them irrelevant and they won't notice until it's too late. Oh, and if this somehow doesn't work, let's get the Justice Department to sue them."

Well, it tells you a lot about this strategy (as if you couldn't guess) that Netscape today is just another cog in the AOL Time Warner media machine. The author is particularly good at noting what has not been much noticed elsewhere ... how Netscape, especially in the infamous 1995 meeting, seemed to be working hand-in-glove with Justice to create the appearance of improper competition on Microsoft's part (Funny how, when Larry Ellison (and Bill Gates' biggest service to America is keeping that guy from taking his place, believe me) pays people to sniff through DC trash to find connections between MS and DC lobbying groups, the news is more about the latter aspect of the story than the former).

But the larger issue that this book doesn't get into is how the New Economy guys, all devout members of the Church of the Invisible Hand, were done in by their own economic beliefs working too well.

That basically went that MS would become, and remain, hidebound and lazy like all companies with little real competition (of course, many companies have said they competed against Microsoft, which comes as a real surprise to anyone who has used many of their products ... Linux especially). After all, hadn't IBM and Apple before MS? Our laissez-faire theory tells us so, that economics will trump all human ability ... right?

Well, no one ever thought to imagine that maybe a company that has achieved the kind of market dominance that MS has might just retain the competitive instincts that got it there (as plainly logical as that might be). You're going to have to wait a while for MS to get soft. The story is not that it was easy to win the web war or that MS shouldn't have been at risk of losing it in the force place. It was that they got into it at all. The market is supposed to reward supertankers that turn on a dime, isn't it? (In fact, I believe MS's problems may have come from it being too eager to compete sometimes, owing to Gates' oft-cited paranoia that somewhere out there are two guys in a garage building the future that he won't see coming until too late. But should he be penalized for not forgetting his own company's history?....

Along the way, it was hilarious at first but scary later on to see how standard business practices, and things that would be recognized as smart moves in any other business, were invariably transformed into flaws whenever MS did them. Add lots of features to your OS so a broad segment can find it useful? "Bloatware." Keep in mind your customers who are just casual end users? "Dumbing down the operating system?" (Reminds me of Dilbert: "Hey, you're one of those condescending Unix users!" "Here's a nickel, kid. Go buy yourself a better computer") The looniest was, and still is, Linux, dedicated to the principle that people who don't make money from what they do do a better job than people who do. (And this system is often pushed heavily by some of the most libertarian, pro-free enterprise types around! I still do not get it)

So, seven years after the Web became the Internet's killer app, Microsoft has won, and IMO deservedly so. Deal with it. If you weren't in their tent, you should just cash out, shake Bill Gates' hand like a good sport, recognize that they won because they just played a better game, go enjoy a nice retirement and stop wasting the public's time.

Another Piece of Pro-Microsoft Propaganda
This book is obviously very slanted and biased in Microsoft's favor. It seems as if this book came straight out of the Microsoft book of propaganda! All of Microsoft's actions in the past are shown to be harmless and not anticompetitive. In total contrast, the actions of Microsoft's competitors are shown in a very negative light. Even the most incidental actions of Microsoft's competitors are shown in a bad light. It is odd then that Microsoft escapes this accounting. The author is obviously very pro-Microsoft and I would not be surprised to see that he may have close contacts at the company. The author does not really show how Microsoft's actions regarding "leveraging their OS into other software areas" could lead to destruction of competition in the computer industry. In fact, he either outright ignores this argument or downplays it! Even if you are interested in how the web was won, this book does not really give much insight to outside developments. There is no real context given. Other books fully account for the complex events surrounding the battle for supremacy on the internet. This book does not. It skims over much of the "outside action" and instead focuses only on Microsoft and it's quest to dominate the new emerging industry. Of course, given that this book should revolve around Microsoft but it should NOT exclude other angles to the story. The author takes Microsoft's side without justifying it for the readers. And ultimately this EXTREMELY BIASED account makes the author lose much of his credibility. Also without going in depth with the emerging industry as a whole the narrative loses much of what would have been very interesting and engrossing story. By and large this is one of the worst books regarding this interesting period in the computer industry. NOT RECOMMENDED. FIND ANOTHER BOOK IF YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE INTERNET AND THE "BROWSER WARS'.

Make sense of Microsoft's Internet offerings
Microsoft has released such a confusing stream of products into the Internet arena, it's hard to keep up with it all. This book provides excellent perspective and historical context for those decisions. I also really enjoyed the compelling writing style of this book, especially on the fascinating charaterizations of the colorful players at Microsoft. A good read for anyone interested in the history of the Internet! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Masters of Enterprise examines the lives of 25 American entrepreneurs, from John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford to Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey, to find the common ingredients of their success. "First, all had good health and abundant energy," writes H.W. Brands, a professor of history at Texas A&M University, "enough for half-a-dozen careers each." The other elements that Brands identifies: all were hungry for success; they were persuasive at getting others on their side; they intensely identified with their work; and each had a burning creative vision. Brands dedicates a chapter to each of the 25, starting chronologically with real estate magnate John Jacob Astor in the late 1700s, and ending with software giant Bill Gates in the late 1990s. He describes the entrepreneurs' background, vision, and major deals, and draws lessons for today's business mavens.

Modern-day speculators might find enlightening the story of Jay Gould's cornering of the gold market in the 1800s, for instance. Brands dramatically describes the maneuvers Gould took to hide his buying and selling--and his underhanded but failed attempts at keeping the U.S. government from flooding the market with gold and driving the price down. And women entrepreneurs of today might find inspiring the lives of cosmetics titan Mary Kay Ash, designer Liz Claiborne, and television and movie star Oprah Winfrey--all overcame obstacles, personal and professional, to become giants in their fields.

Others profiled: industrialist Andrew Carnegie, Ray Kroc of McDonald's, Sam Walton of Wal-Mart, Motown founder Berry Gordy, Walt Disney, cable-television pioneer Ted Turner, and Intel's Andrew Grove. Well written and filled with anecdotes, Masters of Enterprise should be an entertaining read for entrepreneurs and fans of business biography and history. --Dan Ring ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Pure inspiration
If you are chasing the, "American Dream," of becoming a successful entrepeneur, this book is definitely a must read! H. W. Brands has compiled a collection of highly enterprising and inspirational people in his book. I not only was encouraged by reading about such great American men, such as Cornelius Vanderbilt and Andrew Carnegie, I was even more impressed with the profiles of such determined business women as Oprah Winfrey and Mary Kay. Their lives and positive, business tactics shed a shining light, leading the way to establishing a successful enterprise.

Sketches of Great American Entrepreneurs
These brief portraits of great American businessmen and women are well written. Brands does a creditable job laying out the basics of each of their lives and presenting it in a highly readable fashion. His purpose is to show the historical development of how Americans have made money in a country where the making of wealth has became almost a divine calling.

Brands' selection of business giants could have been better. He seems to have picked his membership more for their diversity as people than for their masterful entrepreneurial skills. Why include Berry Gordy, but not Warren Buffett? Brands' choices obviously skew his presentation of U.S. business history, making it seem more diverse than it really has been.

Why did H.W. Brands write this book?
That is the question I invariably ask myself upon reading. Why would one choose to write a book about people one despises? The only answer I can come up with is that he doesn't consciously realize the underlying premises he holds (obviously neither do any of the reviewers of this book). Nary a good thing is said about any of the extraordinary individuals written about herein. The underlying tone of Brands' writing is that of cynicism and thinly veiled scorn for success. It is a tolerable book when he is merely recounting events without putting any of his own 'wit' into the writing. Don't take my word for it though, read it for yourself while bearing my comments in mind.

Masters of Enterprise
Here is a complete set of portraits of America's greatest generators of wealth. Only such a collective study allows us to appreciate what makes the great entrepreneurs really tick. As H.W. Brands shows, these men and women are driven, they are focused, they deeply identify with the businesses they create, and they possess the charisma necessary to persuade other talented people to join them. They do it partly for the money, but mostly for the thrill of creation.

Rome was not built in a day¿
Common beliefs shattered by uncommon men- Henry Kaiser would have taken on the challenge to build Rome in a day!

"Rags to riches" is another common adage; but the route to getting there is what distinguishes the daring from the rest. But the most important factor that has made these great achievers who changed and paved the course of business history is the strong desire to excel against all odds. What else can explain the rise of Andrew Carnegie from the drudgery of working in a dirty shop floor to being the master of one of America's greatest steel company.

Do not read this book in a hurry. Brands has an excellent command on the English language and his style of narration matches the true values that one can derive from the 25 great persons described in this book.

I have recommended this book as the first assignment to my daughter during her summer vacation.

Your search for human excellence ends here. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Very informative and easy to understand
This biography of Bill Gates had a lot of interesting facts about his entire life. It explained how he got started and how his company evolved. It also told about his family and his college years at Harvard. Many of his friends and associates are mentioned too. The book gave a little bit too much information at times but for the most part it was well-written. The author made Gates' work easy to understand even for someone who doesn't know much about computers. I believe this book would be great for a younger crowd to read but not for someone over 14 or 15. It is just on too low of a reading level. Since the book was written in 1997, it is somewhat outdated also. Other than that I liked the book a lot.

A great book
[...] but the book was great. It had a lot of interesting info.

A great book for young readers
I enjoyed this book, but would most likely not reccomend it to anyone over the age of ten or eleven. It was interesting but was published in 1997, therefore it is not 100% up to date.

bill gates
No, It's first time. ... Read more