Well worth the money - a good read., 09 Oct 2008
The book starts well although it reads a bit like a hagiography written by Arthur Hailey. That is ok by me I like Arthur Hailey and have always regarded Buffett as a saint. I laughed out loud several times during the first 50 pages.

After this it gets a bit heavier going. There are many insights and many surprises. I had not realised that Berkshire Hathaway lost money from the start and wound up having the textile mill shut down. I had not reliased that Buffett was first a director of Salomon brothers and then became chairman appointed to clean up the mess which he seems to have done with great honour distinction and dignity. I liked the account of the arbitration with the former director Gutfreund who seems to have had it coming. His views on how derivatives spawn risk rather than remove it are very current today. Also his views on the Efficient Market Hypothesis have always been my own and not current orthodoxy.

A trifle over-written but very moving at the death of this friend Kay Graham and at the death of his wife Susie. Remarkable for the close friendship he enjoys with Bill and Melinda Gates and his partner Charlie Munger.


Good but..., 08 Oct 2008
I can't agree more with 1nnovator' review. This is a good book on Buffett but it could be better. Particularly liked the first 1/3 because it concentrated on his character and how he came to be the man he is. The 2/3 it did became more factual and felt a bit padded like it was written quickly she wanted to finish the book quickly.

Liked the one by Roger Lowenstein better but this is the only 'official' biography with direct interviews with Buffett so it is as close as it gets to the man.

More Buffalo News than Washington Post, 04 Oct 2008
How can the most comprehensive biography of the world's most remarkable allocator of capital be disappointing? Alice Schroeder has used her several years of access to Buffett to good, but not great effect.
This is a terrific human interest story, but how many purchasers will be buying the book for that reason?
For those of us spoiled by Buffett's ability to say all with few words, wading through Schroeder's work is frustrating. Ultimately, the return per word read matches the index of Buffett biographies, nothing more. For the book to live up to the man a greater return was required.
Everyone should understand Buffett, but start with the main feature: his own words and books that add value. This is the equivalent of the bonus disc: not as good as the feature, but with lots of background detail for enthusiasts.

A Lesson Not To Be Missed in Difficult Times, 29 Sep 2008
Warren Buffett is one of the most important and successful people in the business world. His life is a story of success - not a single lucky hit but a career going from one victory to another. One would be very irrational to miss an opportunity to have a glimpse of what made him the person he is and what made his success so huge. This book offers more then just a glimpse - it is a full scale portrait of the man. Full scale in more than one sense - this is a book of almost a thousand pages.
Alice Schroeder has done a marvelous job putting together this biography - it is insightful and thought-provoking. People pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the honour of lunching with Buffett - you can get to know him (inasmuch as he was ready to reveal himself, obviously) for much less so why not give it a try?

Rampant speculation. Record trading volumes. Assets bought not because of their value but because the buyer believes he can sell them for more in a day or two, or an hour or two. Welcome to the late 1920s in the US. There are obvious and absolute parallels to the great bull market of the late 1990s, writes Galbraith in a new introduction dated 1997. Of course, Galbraith notes, every financial bubble since 1929 has been compared to the Great Crash, which is why this book has never been out of print since it became a bestseller in 1955.

Galbraith writes with great wit and erudition about the perilous actions of investors and the curious inaction of the government. He notes that the problem wasn't a scarcity of securities to buy and sell: "The ingenuity and zeal with which companies were devised in which securities might be sold was as remarkable as anything." Those words become strikingly relevant in light of revenue-negative start-up companies coming into the market each week in the 1990s, along with fragmented pieces of established companies, like real estate and bottling plants. Of course, the 1920s were different from the 1990s. There was no safety net below citizens, no unemployment insurance or Social Security. And today we don't have the creepy investment trusts--in which shares of companies that held some stocks and bonds were sold for several times the assets' market value. But, boy, are the similarities spooky, particularly the prevailing trend at the time toward corporate mergers and industry consolidations--not to mention all the partially informed people who imagined themselves to be financial geniuses because the shares of stock they bought kept going up. --Lou Schuler, Amazon.com

Well worth the money - a good read., 09 Oct 2008
The book starts well although it reads a bit like a hagiography written by Arthur Hailey. That is ok by me I like Arthur Hailey and have always regarded Buffett as a saint. I laughed out loud several times during the first 50 pages.

After this it gets a bit heavier going. There are many insights and many surprises. I had not realised that Berkshire Hathaway lost money from the start and wound up having the textile mill shut down. I had not reliased that Buffett was first a director of Salomon brothers and then became chairman appointed to clean up the mess which he seems to have done with great honour distinction and dignity. I liked the account of the arbitration with the former director Gutfreund who seems to have had it coming. His views on how derivatives spawn risk rather than remove it are very current today. Also his views on the Efficient Market Hypothesis have always been my own and not current orthodoxy.

A trifle over-written but very moving at the death of this friend Kay Graham and at the death of his wife Susie. Remarkable for the close friendship he enjoys with Bill and Melinda Gates and his partner Charlie Munger.


Good but..., 08 Oct 2008
I can't agree more with 1nnovator' review. This is a good book on Buffett but it could be better. Particularly liked the first 1/3 because it concentrated on his character and how he came to be the man he is. The 2/3 it did became more factual and felt a bit padded like it was written quickly she wanted to finish the book quickly.

Liked the one by Roger Lowenstein better but this is the only 'official' biography with direct interviews with Buffett so it is as close as it gets to the man.

More Buffalo News than Washington Post, 04 Oct 2008
How can the most comprehensive biography of the world's most remarkable allocator of capital be disappointing? Alice Schroeder has used her several years of access to Buffett to good, but not great effect.
This is a terrific human interest story, but how many purchasers will be buying the book for that reason?
For those of us spoiled by Buffett's ability to say all with few words, wading through Schroeder's work is frustrating. Ultimately, the return per word read matches the index of Buffett biographies, nothing more. For the book to live up to the man a greater return was required.
Everyone should understand Buffett, but start with the main feature: his own words and books that add value. This is the equivalent of the bonus disc: not as good as the feature, but with lots of background detail for enthusiasts.

A Lesson Not To Be Missed in Difficult Times, 29 Sep 2008
Warren Buffett is one of the most important and successful people in the business world. His life is a story of success - not a single lucky hit but a career going from one victory to another. One would be very irrational to miss an opportunity to have a glimpse of what made him the person he is and what made his success so huge. This book offers more then just a glimpse - it is a full scale portrait of the man. Full scale in more than one sense - this is a book of almost a thousand pages.
Alice Schroeder has done a marvelous job putting together this biography - it is insightful and thought-provoking. People pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the honour of lunching with Buffett - you can get to know him (inasmuch as he was ready to reveal himself, obviously) for much less so why not give it a try?

Essential Reading, 01 Sep 2008
I found this book captivating, in a "gallows humor" sort of way.

Although written many years ago, and recounting events in the distant past, it should be required reading for anyone in the markets today. More specifically, it should have been required reading a year ago (mid 2007) for those invested in finance and property sectors.

Whether the malaise in those sectors (some stocks down 90%) spreads eventually to the general indexes remains to be seen.

Tony Loton, author --
DON'T LOSE MONEY! (in the Stock Markets)
Financial Trading Patterns


An excellent book and highly recommended to anyone with any interest whatsoever in economics or the dark days of 1929. , 04 Jan 2007
One of the most surprising and delightful things that I found about the book, particularly in view of the potentially heavy subject matter, was how wonderfully readable Professor Galbraith is. There are not that many world renowned experts in any field who can write as well as they can understand their subject. It's a bit like finding that a world class footballer can also play first violin. This book reads like the work of a top drawer professional writer who has immersed him/herself in the subject for a period and, with ongoing expert guidance and hands-on editing, has brought the subject home in fine style. It reads to me a bit like Tom Wolfe (of the Right Stuff etc), wonderfully literate, sardonic prose. It really is quite unexpected. Marvellous. You will have more than one chuckle out loud which may raise one of the live-in's eyebrows. Chuckling at economics now? Hmmm.

Anyway, the stock market fell, measured by the Times Industrial Average, from 542 down to 224, from October through Nov 1929, and then more gradually to only 58, basically a tenth of its peak 1929 value, by July 1932. Drastic times indeed. This residual value that the market held, 58, in 1932, was roughly the same amount by which the market fell, in only one day, 28/10/1929, Black Thursday. The Professor's contention seems to be that the Depression and the Crash, while not totally unrelated, were less connected than popular opinion held then, or holds now. The contention is that prior to the crash, that the economy was not fundamentally sound. Although there were no glaring warning signs in the economic indicators reported in the first half of 1929, there were some red lights flickering. The Professor goes on to detail and explain those. Of course I am still no expert on what happened in 1929 and why. But due to this book I have a better idea. And it has encouraged me to read more about it. Which I intend to do shortly. And further works by the extremely readable Professor Galbraith will most certainly be on my list.





What Actually Happened in 1929?, 05 Jul 2004
Having recently lived through the crash of the dot-com stocks, I thought it was a particularly appropriate moment to reread John Kenneth Galbraith's famous history of the stock market crash of 1929 in the United States. Professor Galbraith's final words prove to be prophetic as he suggests that as soon as the lessons of 1929 are forgotten, the speculative excesses that led to that debacle will recur. I am sure that when the dot-bomb experience is forgotten, it will be repeated with some new class of speculation in some future generation.

With the recent experience of seeing a market mania, I came away more impressed with this book than before. Professor Galbraith does a fine job of capturing the psychology that builds into and sustains a mania. He also writes like a novelist rather than like an economist. That talent makes the message easy to grasp and appreciate.

I was also impressed by how our popular perceptions of 1929 are so often wrong. For example, most people believe that many "broken" speculators committed suicide. Although some did, there was no significant rise in the suicide rate compared to a general trend in that direction.

Economists often like to fault the Federal Reserve for the crash. That blame seems somewhat misplaced when you learn that there was very little government debt that the Fed could repurchase to create liquidity. Had the Fed acted differently, the crash might have come a little sooner and not been quite so severe . . . but the fundamentals would probably not have changed too much.

Another misperception is that everyone was speculating. By even the most generous measures, the speculators probably never numbered over a million people.

Although this is a history, Professor Galbraith takes on the economic question of how the crash contributed to the Depression. Although we know very little about the economic details of 1929, I was impressed by the point about how much consumer spending was concentrated in the wealthiest people. As they lost vast sums, both spending for consumer goods and savings for capital were decimated. With the broader income distribution of today, such a cataclysm would not be so harmful (as we saw in the aftermath of the dot-com crash).

There is an excellent parallel discussion of the land boom in Florida earlier in the 1920's that is very rewarding. I was intrigued by the ways that ever increasing ways of extending leverage were created so that both bubbles could climb higher. In Florida, people didn't actually buy the land. They bought options to buy the land, and traded those. In the stock market, holding companies sold stock and then floated new holding companies. These were capitalized with common stock, preferred and debt so that all of the appreciation would accrue to the common holders. Naturally, the opposite occurred on the way down. Many stocks fell by over 99 percent, as a result.

Everyone who is tempted to buy any item primarily because it is thought to represent an opportunity for a quick buck should read this book.

Look for true value in all that you do!

What Actually Happened in 1929?, 10 Apr 2004
Having recently lived through the crash of the dot-com stocks, I thought it was a particularly appropriate moment to reread John Kenneth Galbraith's famous history of the stock market crash of 1929 in the United States. Professor Galbraith's final words prove to be prophetic as he suggests that as soon as the lessons of 1929 are forgotten, the speculative excesses that led to that debacle will recur. I am sure that when the dot-bomb experience is forgotten, it will be repeated with some new class of speculation in some future generation.

With the recent experience of seeing a market mania, I came away more impressed with this book than before. Professor Galbraith does a fine job of capturing the psychology that builds into and sustains a mania. He also writes like a novelist rather than like an economist. That talent makes the message easy to grasp and appreciate.

I was also impressed by how our popular perceptions of 1929 are so often wrong. For example, most people believe that many "broken" speculators committed suicide. Although some did, there was no significant rise in the suicide rate compared to a general trend in that direction.

Economists often like to fault the Federal Reserve for the crash. That blame seems somewhat misplaced when you learn that there was very little government debt that the Fed could repurchase to create liquidity. Had the Fed acted differently, the crash might have come a little sooner and not been quite so severe . . . but the fundamentals would probably not have changed too much.

Another misperception is that everyone was speculating. By even the most generous measures, the speculators probably never numbered over a million people.

Although this is a history, Professor Galbraith takes on the economic question of how the crash contributed to the Depression. Although we know very little about the economic details of 1929, I was impressed by the point about how much consumer spending was concentrated in the wealthiest people. As they lost vast sums, both spending for consumer goods and savings for capital were decimated. With the broader income distribution of today, such a cataclysm would not be so harmful (as we saw in the aftermath of the dot-com crash).

There is an excellent parallel discussion of the land boom in Florida earlier in the 1920's that is very rewarding. I was intrigued by the ways that ever increasing ways of extending leverage were created so that both bubbles could climb higher. In Florida, people didn't actually buy the land. They bought options to buy the land, and traded those. In the stock market, holding companies sold stock and then floated new holding companies. These were capitalized with common stock, preferred and debt so that all of the appreciation would accrue to the common holders. Naturally, the opposite occurred on the way down. Many stocks fell by over 99 percent, as a result.

Everyone who is tempted to buy any item primarily because it is thought to represent an opportunity for a quick buck should read this book.

Look for true value in all that you do!

a must read for any investor, 21 Feb 2001
following the "sudden vanishing" of approximately USD 5 trillion dollars of market capitalization in the NASDAQ since march 2001, this book comes as a somewhat "refreshing" read - especially considering that it was published back in 1954! i have never been one to put too much weight on comments such as "history always repeats itself", but this book was rather scary in that it could have easily been written in 2001. for those of you have been following the "irrationally exhuberant" technology equity markets of the last 3 years, this book shows that the will to participate in "easy money opportunities" lives in all of us.

Love him or loathe him, you've got to admit it, Richard Branson has drive. And guts. And enough ambition to sink a battleship--or perhaps that should be a jumbo jet--or even a whole company of jumbos if the Virgin Atlantic/British Airways debacle (which takes up a huge chunk of this already huge tome) is anything to go by.

Branson's autobiography makes immensely fascinating reading. Whatever you think of Britain's most famous entrepreneur, the odds are that you will enjoy reading his autobiography. You may snort at descriptions of his "poor" childhood--spent eating bread and dripping while living in a house the majority of us visit on Bank Holidays and attending a "minor" public school. You may groan at memories of early initiative tests: how about being ejected from the family car and told by his mother to find his way home--at the age of four? You may flinch at accounts of his early business days as an unwashed, unshod, hippy magazine publisher living en famille with his staff in the crypt of a West London church. But, all in all, you'll get to understand where the guy's coming from--man.

And, like the man himself, there's no holds barred here. Richard bares his soul, from childhood, school days (cheating at exams), loves and losses (lost one wife when a spot of wife-swapping went drastically wrong--for him), death-defying adventures (yes, the balloons are all there), to the rise and rise of the Virgin empire. His interviews for Student magazine and the early days of Virgin Music read like a chronicle of popular music and culture in the late 20th century. Famous names bounce off every page. Prepare to be enthralled by the life and times of a walking publicity machine. --Carey Green

Well worth the money - a good read., 09 Oct 2008
The book starts well although it reads a bit like a hagiography written by Arthur Hailey. That is ok by me I like Arthur Hailey and have always regarded Buffett as a saint. I laughed out loud several times during the first 50 pages.

After this it gets a bit heavier going. There are many insights and many surprises. I had not realised that Berkshire Hathaway lost money from the start and wound up having the textile mill shut down. I had not reliased that Buffett was first a director of Salomon brothers and then became chairman appointed to clean up the mess which he seems to have done with great honour distinction and dignity. I liked the account of the arbitration with the former director Gutfreund who seems to have had it coming. His views on how derivatives spawn risk rather than remove it are very current today. Also his views on the Efficient Market Hypothesis have always been my own and not current orthodoxy.

A trifle over-written but very moving at the death of this friend Kay Graham and at the death of his wife Susie. Remarkable for the close friendship he enjoys with Bill and Melinda Gates and his partner Charlie Munger.


Good but..., 08 Oct 2008
I can't agree more with 1nnovator' review. This is a good book on Buffett but it could be better. Particularly liked the first 1/3 because it concentrated on his character and how he came to be the man he is. The 2/3 it did became more factual and felt a bit padded like it was written quickly she wanted to finish the book quickly.

Liked the one by Roger Lowenstein better but this is the only 'official' biography with direct interviews with Buffett so it is as close as it gets to the man.

More Buffalo News than Washington Post, 04 Oct 2008
How can the most comprehensive biography of the world's most remarkable allocator of capital be disappointing? Alice Schroeder has used her several years of access to Buffett to good, but not great effect.
This is a terrific human interest story, but how many purchasers will be buying the book for that reason?
For those of us spoiled by Buffett's ability to say all with few words, wading through Schroeder's work is frustrating. Ultimately, the return per word read matches the index of Buffett biographies, nothing more. For the book to live up to the man a greater return was required.
Everyone should understand Buffett, but start with the main feature: his own words and books that add value. This is the equivalent of the bonus disc: not as good as the feature, but with lots of background detail for enthusiasts.

A Lesson Not To Be Missed in Difficult Times, 29 Sep 2008
Warren Buffett is one of the most important and successful people in the business world. His life is a story of success - not a single lucky hit but a career going from one victory to another. One would be very irrational to miss an opportunity to have a glimpse of what made him the person he is and what made his success so huge. This book offers more then just a glimpse - it is a full scale portrait of the man. Full scale in more than one sense - this is a book of almost a thousand pages.
Alice Schroeder has done a marvelous job putting together this biography - it is insightful and thought-provoking. People pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the honour of lunching with Buffett - you can get to know him (inasmuch as he was ready to reveal himself, obviously) for much less so why not give it a try?

Essential Reading, 01 Sep 2008
I found this book captivating, in a "gallows humor" sort of way.

Although written many years ago, and recounting events in the distant past, it should be required reading for anyone in the markets today. More specifically, it should have been required reading a year ago (mid 2007) for those invested in finance and property sectors.

Whether the malaise in those sectors (some stocks down 90%) spreads eventually to the general indexes remains to be seen.

Tony Loton, author --
DON'T LOSE MONEY! (in the Stock Markets)
Financial Trading Patterns


An excellent book and highly recommended to anyone with any interest whatsoever in economics or the dark days of 1929. , 04 Jan 2007
One of the most surprising and delightful things that I found about the book, particularly in view of the potentially heavy subject matter, was how wonderfully readable Professor Galbraith is. There are not that many world renowned experts in any field who can write as well as they can understand their subject. It's a bit like finding that a world class footballer can also play first violin. This book reads like the work of a top drawer professional writer who has immersed him/herself in the subject for a period and, with ongoing expert guidance and hands-on editing, has brought the subject home in fine style. It reads to me a bit like Tom Wolfe (of the Right Stuff etc), wonderfully literate, sardonic prose. It really is quite unexpected. Marvellous. You will have more than one chuckle out loud which may raise one of the live-in's eyebrows. Chuckling at economics now? Hmmm.

Anyway, the stock market fell, measured by the Times Industrial Average, from 542 down to 224, from October through Nov 1929, and then more gradually to only 58, basically a tenth of its peak 1929 value, by July 1932. Drastic times indeed. This residual value that the market held, 58, in 1932, was roughly the same amount by which the market fell, in only one day, 28/10/1929, Black Thursday. The Professor's contention seems to be that the Depression and the Crash, while not totally unrelated, were less connected than popular opinion held then, or holds now. The contention is that prior to the crash, that the economy was not fundamentally sound. Although there were no glaring warning signs in the economic indicators reported in the first half of 1929, there were some red lights flickering. The Professor goes on to detail and explain those. Of course I am still no expert on what happened in 1929 and why. But due to this book I have a better idea. And it has encouraged me to read more about it. Which I intend to do shortly. And further works by the extremely readable Professor Galbraith will most certainly be on my list.





What Actually Happened in 1929?, 05 Jul 2004
Having recently lived through the crash of the dot-com stocks, I thought it was a particularly appropriate moment to reread John Kenneth Galbraith's famous history of the stock market crash of 1929 in the United States. Professor Galbraith's final words prove to be prophetic as he suggests that as soon as the lessons of 1929 are forgotten, the speculative excesses that led to that debacle will recur. I am sure that when the dot-bomb experience is forgotten, it will be repeated with some new class of speculation in some future generation.

With the recent experience of seeing a market mania, I came away more impressed with this book than before. Professor Galbraith does a fine job of capturing the psychology that builds into and sustains a mania. He also writes like a novelist rather than like an economist. That talent makes the message easy to grasp and appreciate.

I was also impressed by how our popular perceptions of 1929 are so often wrong. For example, most people believe that many "broken" speculators committed suicide. Although some did, there was no significant rise in the suicide rate compared to a general trend in that direction.

Economists often like to fault the Federal Reserve for the crash. That blame seems somewhat misplaced when you learn that there was very little government debt that the Fed could repurchase to create liquidity. Had the Fed acted differently, the crash might have come a little sooner and not been quite so severe . . . but the fundamentals would probably not have changed too much.

Another misperception is that everyone was speculating. By even the most generous measures, the speculators probably never numbered over a million people.

Although this is a history, Professor Galbraith takes on the economic question of how the crash contributed to the Depression. Although we know very little about the economic details of 1929, I was impressed by the point about how much consumer spending was concentrated in the wealthiest people. As they lost vast sums, both spending for consumer goods and savings for capital were decimated. With the broader income distribution of today, such a cataclysm would not be so harmful (as we saw in the aftermath of the dot-com crash).

There is an excellent parallel discussion of the land boom in Florida earlier in the 1920's that is very rewarding. I was intrigued by the ways that ever increasing ways of extending leverage were created so that both bubbles could climb higher. In Florida, people didn't actually buy the land. They bought options to buy the land, and traded those. In the stock market, holding companies sold stock and then floated new holding companies. These were capitalized with common stock, preferred and debt so that all of the appreciation would accrue to the common holders. Naturally, the opposite occurred on the way down. Many stocks fell by over 99 percent, as a result.

Everyone who is tempted to buy any item primarily because it is thought to represent an opportunity for a quick buck should read this book.

Look for true value in all that you do!

What Actually Happened in 1929?, 10 Apr 2004
Having recently lived through the crash of the dot-com stocks, I thought it was a particularly appropriate moment to reread John Kenneth Galbraith's famous history of the stock market crash of 1929 in the United States. Professor Galbraith's final words prove to be prophetic as he suggests that as soon as the lessons of 1929 are forgotten, the speculative excesses that led to that debacle will recur. I am sure that when the dot-bomb experience is forgotten, it will be repeated with some new class of speculation in some future generation.

With the recent experience of seeing a market mania, I came away more impressed with this book than before. Professor Galbraith does a fine job of capturing the psychology that builds into and sustains a mania. He also writes like a novelist rather than like an economist. That talent makes the message easy to grasp and appreciate.

I was also impressed by how our popular perceptions of 1929 are so often wrong. For example, most people believe that many "broken" speculators committed suicide. Although some did, there was no significant rise in the suicide rate compared to a general trend in that direction.

Economists often like to fault the Federal Reserve for the crash. That blame seems somewhat misplaced when you learn that there was very little government debt that the Fed could repurchase to create liquidity. Had the Fed acted differently, the crash might have come a little sooner and not been quite so severe . . . but the fundamentals would probably not have changed too much.

Another misperception is that everyone was speculating. By even the most generous measures, the speculators probably never numbered over a million people.

Although this is a history, Professor Galbraith takes on the economic question of how the crash contributed to the Depression. Although we know very little about the economic details of 1929, I was impressed by the point about how much consumer spending was concentrated in the wealthiest people. As they lost vast sums, both spending for consumer goods and savings for capital were decimated. With the broader income distribution of today, such a cataclysm would not be so harmful (as we saw in the aftermath of the dot-com crash).

There is an excellent parallel discussion of the land boom in Florida earlier in the 1920's that is very rewarding. I was intrigued by the ways that ever increasing ways of extending leverage were created so that both bubbles could climb higher. In Florida, people didn't actually buy the land. They bought options to buy the land, and traded those. In the stock market, holding companies sold stock and then floated new holding companies. These were capitalized with common stock, preferred and debt so that all of the appreciation would accrue to the common holders. Naturally, the opposite occurred on the way down. Many stocks fell by over 99 percent, as a result.

Everyone who is tempted to buy any item primarily because it is thought to represent an opportunity for a quick buck should read this book.

Look for true value in all that you do!

a must read for any investor, 21 Feb 2001
following the "sudden vanishing" of approximately USD 5 trillion dollars of market capitalization in the NASDAQ since march 2001, this book comes as a somewhat "refreshing" read - especially considering that it was published back in 1954! i have never been one to put too much weight on comments such as "history always repeats itself", but this book was rather scary in that it could have easily been written in 2001. for those of you have been following the "irrationally exhuberant" technology equity markets of the last 3 years, this book shows that the will to participate in "easy money opportunities" lives in all of us.

Very Exciting!, 09 Oct 2008
I got this book at an airport (seem to buy a lot of books in airports!) It was a brilliant read. I could not wait to pick the book up in between holiday stuff!
The only thing I found a little irritating was the fact that Richard Branson seems to write with a real self indulgance. It would be nice to read about his life in a bit more of an unbiased way. But hey who am I to critise a man who has made millions!!

Excellent, 02 Sep 2008
I loved this book. Branson is so honest throughout. He's an amzing person. I could not put the book down from start to finish!

Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography, 17 Jun 2008
Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography. This was gift, I kept putting it off before reading. Once I started I could not put it down. A great book, very well written and interesting. Its time for the updated version or book two.

Jewels of wisdom from Richard, I just craved more!, 03 May 2008
I'm glad I read this book, the chronology of it flows exceptionally and it's like finding a real gem of understanding reading his anecdotes and reactions to situations that come his way. The most interesting parts for me was understanding his business start-up and development (the first half I would say), this could sell the book on its own.

Problems: Ok, I'm not sure about everyone else's reasons, but the reasons why I chose to read this book in the first place was to understand how and why Mr Branson approaches business in the way he does and what EXACTLY his methodology and thought processes are/were. Perhaps it's curiosity, tips, self-evaluation, whatever. Anyway, all the other peripheral stuff like his ballooning trips (multiple and repetitive) and the social conscience he develops and promotes toward the end just really slow down the momentum of the book.

I guess I wanted consistent and unadulterated nitty gritty insight into the grey matter of a stupendously successful businessman but there were only snippets and cryptic clues throughout that verged on frustrating. But whatever, it's Richard: he and his philosophies are awesome and you should buy this book just to contribute to the Virgin Empire.

Highly readable personal and business reflections, 23 Apr 2008
This book seems to give a "warts and all" view of Branson's start in business ventures, his early escapades and narrow escapes and his subsequent successes. From one-time album importer to multi-millionaire, multi-business owner, this review touches on his feelings and beliefs as well as his ways of making personal and business success.

I picked up the book when I was working at Virgin Holidays, and actually expected little from it. But I found the style and personal history fascinating ... at least initially. The book drifts midway, going into some self-justification over BA vs Virgin, and a little too much of the ballooning adventures, but opens up fascinating accounts of helping evacuate hostages from Iraq in the first Gulf war. The clash of old bureaucratic business vs the Virgin style is exemplified! Definitely worth the investment, and 4 stars from me.

Charles Handy's revolutionary 1989 bestseller The Age of Unreason catapulted him into the ranks of the top management consultants. In Understanding Organizations, he solidifies his reputation as a seminal business thinker, offering a brilliantly insightful, wide-ranging look at business organizations.

This classic text offers an illuminating discussion of key concepts of concern to all managers: culture, motivation, leadership, power, role-playing and working in groups. Ever mindful of actual business practice, Handy directly addresses how managers can translate the six main concepts into invaluble tools for effective management. He discusses how all organizations need to select, develop and reward their people; to structure and design their work; to resolve political conflicts; to lay down guidelines for their managers; and to plan for the future. In each case, the approaches and techniques described here are invaluable.

Equally important, Handy excels at presenting his ideas in colourful, immediately accessible ways, filling the book with illuminating examples and inventive metaphors that range from Tolstoy's ideas on the concept of self, to the many meanings of "good morning," to the conversations that occur in a stopped elevator, to the proper size for a vineyard or an elephant. He shows, for instance, how an optical illusion experiment sheds light on interdepartmental relations, and how the way schoolchildren are typecast by their peers helps explain corporate hierarchies. And along with case studies, graphs, charts, and questionnaires, Understanding Organizations is peppered with boxed sections that offer advice and stimulate thought, brimming with provocative quotations from business wizards such as Peter Drucker, Tom Peters, Warren Bennis, Alvin Toffler, and Rosabeth Moss Kanter, as well as from Aristotle, Shakespeare, Gilbert and Sullivan, Gail Sheehy, and Joseph Heller.

What the successful manager knows intuitively, Charles Handy puts into words. His powerful interpretive schemes will help managers grasp the underlying dynamics of their company, make sense of its past, and assess--and shape--its future. --Jake Bond

Well worth the money - a good read., 09 Oct 2008
The book starts well although it reads a bit like a hagiography written by Arthur Hailey. That is ok by me I like Arthur Hailey and have always regarded Buffett as a saint. I laughed out loud several times during the first 50 pages.

After this it gets a bit heavier going. There are many insights and many surprises. I had not realised that Berkshire Hathaway lost money from the start and wound up having the textile mill shut down. I had not reliased that Buffett was first a director of Salomon brothers and then became chairman appointed to clean up the mess which he seems to have done with great honour distinction and dignity. I liked the account of the arbitration with the former director Gutfreund who seems to have had it coming. His views on how derivatives spawn risk rather than remove it are very current today. Also his views on the Efficient Market Hypothesis have always been my own and not current orthodoxy.

A trifle over-written but very moving at the death of this friend Kay Graham and at the death of his wife Susie. Remarkable for the close friendship he enjoys with Bill and Melinda Gates and his partner Charlie Munger.


Good but..., 08 Oct 2008
I can't agree more with 1nnovator' review. This is a good book on Buffett but it could be better. Particularly liked the first 1/3 because it concentrated on his character and how he came to be the man he is. The 2/3 it did became more factual and felt a bit padded like it was written quickly she wanted to finish the book quickly.

Liked the one by Roger Lowenstein better but this is the only 'official' biography with direct interviews with Buffett so it is as close as it gets to the man.

More Buffalo News than Washington Post, 04 Oct 2008
How can the most comprehensive biography of the world's most remarkable allocator of capital be disappointing? Alice Schroeder has used her several years of access to Buffett to good, but not great effect.
This is a terrific human interest story, but how many purchasers will be buying the book for that reason?
For those of us spoiled by Buffett's ability to say all with few words, wading through Schroeder's work is frustrating. Ultimately, the return per word read matches the index of Buffett biographies, nothing more. For the book to live up to the man a greater return was required.
Everyone should understand Buffett, but start with the main feature: his own words and books that add value. This is the equivalent of the bonus disc: not as good as the feature, but with lots of background detail for enthusiasts.

A Lesson Not To Be Missed in Difficult Times, 29 Sep 2008
Warren Buffett is one of the most important and successful people in the business world. His life is a story of success - not a single lucky hit but a career going from one victory to another. One would be very irrational to miss an opportunity to have a glimpse of what made him the person he is and what made his success so huge. This book offers more then just a glimpse - it is a full scale portrait of the man. Full scale in more than one sense - this is a book of almost a thousand pages.
Alice Schroeder has done a marvelous job putting together this biography - it is insightful and thought-provoking. People pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the honour of lunching with Buffett - you can get to know him (inasmuch as he was ready to reveal himself, obviously) for much less so why not give it a try?

Essential Reading, 01 Sep 2008
I found this book captivating, in a "gallows humor" sort of way.

Although written many years ago, and recounting events in the distant past, it should be required reading for anyone in the markets today. More specifically, it should have been required reading a year ago (mid 2007) for those invested in finance and property sectors.

Whether the malaise in those sectors (some stocks down 90%) spreads eventually to the general indexes remains to be seen.

Tony Loton, author --
DON'T LOSE MONEY! (in the Stock Markets)
Financial Trading Patterns


An excellent book and highly recommended to anyone with any interest whatsoever in economics or the dark days of 1929. , 04 Jan 2007
One of the most surprising and delightful things that I found about the book, particularly in view of the potentially heavy subject matter, was how wonderfully readable Professor Galbraith is. There are not that many world renowned experts in any field who can write as well as they can understand their subject. It's a bit like finding that a world class footballer can also play first violin. This book reads like the work of a top drawer professional writer who has immersed him/herself in the subject for a period and, with ongoing expert guidance and hands-on editing, has brought the subject home in fine style. It reads to me a bit like Tom Wolfe (of the Right Stuff etc), wonderfully literate, sardonic prose. It really is quite unexpected. Marvellous. You will have more than one chuckle out loud which may raise one of the live-in's eyebrows. Chuckling at economics now? Hmmm.

Anyway, the stock market fell, measured by the Times Industrial Average, from 542 down to 224, from October through Nov 1929, and then more gradually to only 58, basically a tenth of its peak 1929 value, by July 1932. Drastic times indeed. This residual value that the market held, 58, in 1932, was roughly the same amount by which the market fell, in only one day, 28/10/1929, Black Thursday. The Professor's contention seems to be that the Depression and the Crash, while not totally unrelated, were less connected than popular opinion held then, or holds now. The contention is that prior to the crash, that the economy was not fundamentally sound. Although there were no glaring warning signs in the economic indicators reported in the first half of 1929, there were some red lights flickering. The Professor goes on to detail and explain those. Of course I am still no expert on what happened in 1929 and why. But due to this book I have a better idea. And it has encouraged me to read more about it. Which I intend to do shortly. And further works by the extremely readable Professor Galbraith will most certainly be on my list.





What Actually Happened in 1929?, 05 Jul 2004
Having recently lived through the crash of the dot-com stocks, I thought it was a particularly appropriate moment to reread John Kenneth Galbraith's famous history of the stock market crash of 1929 in the United States. Professor Galbraith's final words prove to be prophetic as he suggests that as soon as the lessons of 1929 are forgotten, the speculative excesses that led to that debacle will recur. I am sure that when the dot-bomb experience is forgotten, it will be repeated with some new class of speculation in some future generation.

With the recent experience of seeing a market mania, I came away more impressed with this book than before. Professor Galbraith does a fine job of capturing the psychology that builds into and sustains a mania. He also writes like a novelist rather than like an economist. That talent makes the message easy to grasp and appreciate.

I was also impressed by how our popular perceptions of 1929 are so often wrong. For example, most people believe that many "broken" speculators committed suicide. Although some did, there was no significant rise in the suicide rate compared to a general trend in that direction.

Economists often like to fault the Federal Reserve for the crash. That blame seems somewhat misplaced when you learn that there was very little government debt that the Fed could repurchase to create liquidity. Had the Fed acted differently, the crash might have come a little sooner and not been quite so severe . . . but the fundamentals would probably not have changed too much.

Another misperception is that everyone was speculating. By even the most generous measures, the speculators probably never numbered over a million people.

Although this is a history, Professor Galbraith takes on the economic question of how the crash contributed to the Depression. Although we know very little about the economic details of 1929, I was impressed by the point about how much consumer spending was concentrated in the wealthiest people. As they lost vast sums, both spending for consumer goods and savings for capital were decimated. With the broader income distribution of today, such a cataclysm would not be so harmful (as we saw in the aftermath of the dot-com crash).

There is an excellent parallel discussion of the land boom in Florida earlier in the 1920's that is very rewarding. I was intrigued by the ways that ever increasing ways of extending leverage were created so that both bubbles could climb higher. In Florida, people didn't actually buy the land. They bought options to buy the land, and traded those. In the stock market, holding companies sold stock and then floated new holding companies. These were capitalized with common stock, preferred and debt so that all of the appreciation would accrue to the common holders. Naturally, the opposite occurred on the way down. Many stocks fell by over 99 percent, as a result.

Everyone who is tempted to buy any item primarily because it is thought to represent an opportunity for a quick buck should read this book.

Look for true value in all that you do!

What Actually Happened in 1929?, 10 Apr 2004
Having recently lived through the crash of the dot-com stocks, I thought it was a particularly appropriate moment to reread John Kenneth Galbraith's famous history of the stock market crash of 1929 in the United States. Professor Galbraith's final words prove to be prophetic as he suggests that as soon as the lessons of 1929 are forgotten, the speculative excesses that led to that debacle will recur. I am sure that when the dot-bomb experience is forgotten, it will be repeated with some new class of speculation in some future generation.

With the recent experience of seeing a market mania, I came away more impressed with this book than before. Professor Galbraith does a fine job of capturing the psychology that builds into and sustains a mania. He also writes like a novelist rather than like an economist. That talent makes the message easy to grasp and appreciate.

I was also impressed by how our popular perceptions of 1929 are so often wrong. For example, most people believe that many "broken" speculators committed suicide. Although some did, there was no significant rise in the suicide rate compared to a general trend in that direction.

Economists often like to fault the Federal Reserve for the crash. That blame seems somewhat misplaced when you learn that there was very little government debt that the Fed could repurchase to create liquidity. Had the Fed acted differently, the crash might have come a little sooner and not been quite so severe . . . but the fundamentals would probably not have changed too much.

Another misperception is that everyone was speculating. By even the most generous measures, the speculators probably never numbered over a million people.

Although this is a history, Professor Galbraith takes on the economic question of how the crash contributed to the Depression. Although we know very little about the economic details of 1929, I was impressed by the point about how much consumer spending was concentrated in the wealthiest people. As they lost vast sums, both spending for consumer goods and savings for capital were decimated. With the broader income distribution of today, such a cataclysm would not be so harmful (as we saw in the aftermath of the dot-com crash).

There is an excellent parallel discussion of the land boom in Florida earlier in the 1920's that is very rewarding. I was intrigued by the ways that ever increasing ways of extending leverage were created so that both bubbles could climb higher. In Florida, people didn't actually buy the land. They bought options to buy the land, and traded those. In the stock market, holding companies sold stock and then floated new holding companies. These were capitalized with common stock, preferred and debt so that all of the appreciation would accrue to the common holders. Naturally, the opposite occurred on the way down. Many stocks fell by over 99 percent, as a result.

Everyone who is tempted to buy any item primarily because it is thought to represent an opportunity for a quick buck should read this book.

Look for true value in all that you do!

a must read for any investor, 21 Feb 2001
following the "sudden vanishing" of approximately USD 5 trillion dollars of market capitalization in the NASDAQ since march 2001, this book comes as a somewhat "refreshing" read - especially considering that it was published back in 1954! i have never been one to put too much weight on comments such as "history always repeats itself", but this book was rather scary in that it could have easily been written in 2001. for those of you have been following the "irrationally exhuberant" technology equity markets of the last 3 years, this book shows that the will to participate in "easy money opportunities" lives in all of us.

Very Exciting!, 09 Oct 2008
I got this book at an airport (seem to buy a lot of books in airports!) It was a brilliant read. I could not wait to pick the book up in between holiday stuff!
The only thing I found a little irritating was the fact that Richard Branson seems to write with a real self indulgance. It would be nice to read about his life in a bit more of an unbiased way. But hey who am I to critise a man who has made millions!!

Excellent, 02 Sep 2008
I loved this book. Branson is so honest throughout. He's an amzing person. I could not put the book down from start to finish!

Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography, 17 Jun 2008
Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography. This was gift, I kept putting it off before reading. Once I started I could not put it down. A great book, very well written and interesting. Its time for the updated version or book two.

Jewels of wisdom from Richard, I just craved more!, 03 May 2008
I'm glad I read this book, the chronology of it flows exceptionally and it's like finding a real gem of understanding reading his anecdotes and reactions to situations that come his way. The most interesting parts for me was understanding his business start-up and development (the first half I would say), this could sell the book on its own.

Problems: Ok, I'm not sure about everyone else's reasons, but the reasons why I chose to read this book in the first place was to understand how and why Mr Branson approaches business in the way he does and what EXACTLY his methodology and thought processes are/were. Perhaps it's curiosity, tips, self-evaluation, whatever. Anyway, all the other peripheral stuff like his ballooning trips (multiple and repetitive) and the social conscience he develops and promotes toward the end just really slow down the momentum of the book.

I guess I wanted consistent and unadulterated nitty gritty insight into the grey matter of a stupendously successful businessman but there were only snippets and cryptic clues throughout that verged on frustrating. But whatever, it's Richard: he and his philosophies are awesome and you should buy this book just to contribute to the Virgin Empire.

Highly readable personal and business reflections, 23 Apr 2008
This book seems to give a "warts and all" view of Branson's start in business ventures, his early escapades and narrow escapes and his subsequent successes. From one-time album importer to multi-millionaire, multi-business owner, this review touches on his feelings and beliefs as well as his ways of making personal and business success.

I picked up the book when I was working at Virgin Holidays, and actually expected little from it. But I found the style and personal history fascinating ... at least initially. The book drifts midway, going into some self-justification over BA vs Virgin, and a little too much of the ballooning adventures, but opens up fascinating accounts of helping evacuate hostages from Iraq in the first Gulf war. The clash of old bureaucratic business vs the Virgin style is exemplified! Definitely worth the investment, and 4 stars from me.

If you ony buy one book on Organisational Behaviour, make it this one, 07 Jul 2008
Charles Handy is arguably the UK's top business "guru", but in my opinion this title somewhat diminishes his life's work, which has gone beyond matters of simple business administration into a philosophy of life and work, and is imbued with a spirituality that I find infectious (even though I am not a very spiritual person). This, however, is his seminal management text, and there is but a hint of the philosophical musings of "The Empty Raincoat" and "The Hungry Spirit".

Understanding Organisations was first published in 1976, and my fourth edition (I don't know why Amazon describes this as the third edition - that must be an error) was published in 1993, with a revised introduction in 1999. It cannot claim to be entirely up to date, therefore, but it remains valid both as a commentary on previous work on motivation, roles, leadership, power groups and organisations as well as contributing many of Handy's own ideas on the subject. I think that it was here that he first used analogies with the ancient Greek gods to describe the cultures of organisations, which he later developed in "Gods of Management". I've dipped into this book in the past, and have worked through it systematically recently as one of the key texts for a course on "Organisational Behaviour". My impression is that there are few more recent developments in this field than were taken into account in the writing of the book.

I have few quibbles. Handy's style is scholarly - I had wondered if this was his doctoral thesis but in fact he did not do one (he has an honorary one from Trinity College Dublin). It is accessible - and I do like the dry humour with which he delivers some of his case studies - but it is not as an easy or entertaining a read as some of his subsequent works. This is an excellent book, whether to use as a course text or to dip into as you experience and reflect on "trouble at mill" in your working life.


A great place to start learning about organisations, 27 May 2007
Charles Handy has been very influential shaping my attitudes to work, life styles and the management of organisations. This is a great primer for new students. I also highy recommend reading all his books and listening to his audio recordings.

His later works outline succinctly the demands changing corporations and globalization place on individuals and society. A very inspirational and thought provoking commentator, he positions the world of work in the larger context of ethics and morality. He also explores the human struggle to maintain individuality, spirituality, choice, freedom and dignity


The Star, 26 Sep 2006
Easier to understand than other management books,
Excellent aptitude and examples

Down to Earth and Practical

When I got bored with the rest this was the best


Essential, effortless reading, 27 Apr 2006
This is truly a remarkable book. Handy has compiled a great body of classic management theory and practice - and made it effortless to absorb.

And it is this accessibility and clarity that Handy brings to the subject.

I thoroughly recommend this book for serious management students (as the depth is here) and also business people who want a compact volume that is easy to read.

Overview of organisational behaviour, 01 Dec 2003
Handy's book is well-written and highly readable. By putting all litterature references at the end of the book the book becomes more readable as the book is free from reference insertions that might disturb the flow of reading. However, for academic use this convention makes it significantly more complicated to reference to any other than Handy himself. One has to cross-reference between sections of the book to try to find the original inventor of a concept. Hence, the book is highly recommended for practitioners that wants to read the book as a novel. The structure of the book makes it less user-friendly for academic work.

Well worth the money - a good read., 09 Oct 2008
The book starts well although it reads a bit like a hagiography written by Arthur Hailey. That is ok by me I like Arthur Hailey and have always regarded Buffett as a saint. I laughed out loud several times during the first 50 pages.

After this it gets a bit heavier going. There are many insights and many surprises. I had not realised that Berkshire Hathaway lost money from the start and wound up having the textile mill shut down. I had not reliased that Buffett was first a director of Salomon brothers and then became chairman appointed to clean up the mess which he seems to have done with great honour distinction and dignity. I liked the account of the arbitration with the former director Gutfreund who seems to have had it coming. His views on how derivatives spawn risk rather than remove it are very current today. Also his views on the Efficient Market Hypothesis have always been my own and not current orthodoxy.

A trifle over-written but very moving at the death of this friend Kay Graham and at the death of his wife Susie. Remarkable for the close friendship he enjoys with Bill and Melinda Gates and his partner Charlie Munger.


Good but..., 08 Oct 2008
I can't agree more with 1nnovator' review. This is a good book on Buffett but it could be better. Particularly liked the first 1/3 because it concentrated on his character and how he came to be the man he is. The 2/3 it did became more factual and felt a bit padded like it was written quickly she wanted to finish the book quickly.

Liked the one by Roger Lowenstein better but this is the only 'official' biography with direct interviews with Buffett so it is as close as it gets to the man.

More Buffalo News than Washington Post, 04 Oct 2008
How can the most comprehensive biography of the world's most remarkable allocator of capital be disappointing? Alice Schroeder has used her several years of access to Buffett to good, but not great effect.
This is a terrific human interest story, but how many purchasers will be buying the book for that reason?
For those of us spoiled by Buffett's ability to say all with few words, wading through Schroeder's work is frustrating. Ultimately, the return per word read matches the index of Buffett biographies, nothing more. For the book to live up to the man a greater return was required.
Everyone should understand Buffett, but start with the main feature: his own words and books that add value. This is the equivalent of the bonus disc: not as good as the feature, but with lots of background detail for enthusiasts.

A Lesson Not To Be Missed in Difficult Times, 29 Sep 2008
Warren Buffett is one of the most important and successful people in the business world. His life is a story of success - not a single lucky hit but a career going from one victory to another. One would be very irrational to miss an opportunity to have a glimpse of what made him the person he is and what made his success so huge. This book offers more then just a glimpse - it is a full scale portrait of the man. Full scale in more than one sense - this is a book of almost a thousand pages.
Alice Schroeder has done a marvelous job putting together this biography - it is insightful and thought-provoking. People pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the honour of lunching with Buffett - you can get to know him (inasmuch as he was ready to reveal himself, obviously) for much less so why not give it a try?

Essential Reading, 01 Sep 2008
I found this book captivating, in a "gallows humor" sort of way.

Although written many years ago, and recounting events in the distant past, it should be required reading for anyone in the markets today. More specifically, it should have been required reading a year ago (mid 2007) for those invested in finance and property sectors.

Whether the malaise in those sectors (some stocks down 90%) spreads eventually to the general indexes remains to be seen.

Tony Loton, author --
DON'T LOSE MONEY! (in the Stock Markets)
Financial Trading Patterns


An excellent book and highly recommended to anyone with any interest whatsoever in economics or the dark days of 1929. , 04 Jan 2007
One of the most surprising and delightful things that I found about the book, particularly in view of the potentially heavy subject matter, was how wonderfully readable Professor Galbraith is. There are not that many world renowned experts in any field who can write as well as they can understand their subject. It's a bit like finding that a world class footballer can also play first violin. This book reads like the work of a top drawer professional writer who has immersed him/herself in the subject for a period and, with ongoing expert guidance and hands-on editing, has brought the subject home in fine style. It reads to me a bit like Tom Wolfe (of the Right Stuff etc), wonderfully literate, sardonic prose. It really is quite unexpected. Marvellous. You will have more than one chuckle out loud which may raise one of the live-in's eyebrows. Chuckling at economics now? Hmmm.

Anyway, the stock market fell, measured by the Times Industrial Average, from 542 down to 224, from October through Nov 1929, and then more gradually to only 58, basically a tenth of its peak 1929 value, by July 1932. Drastic times indeed. This residual value that the market held, 58, in 1932, was roughly the same amount by which the market fell, in only one day, 28/10/1929, Black Thursday. The Professor's contention seems to be that the Depression and the Crash, while not totally unrelated, were less connected than popular opinion held then, or holds now. The contention is that prior to the crash, that the economy was not fundamentally sound. Although there were no glaring warning signs in the economic indicators reported in the first half of 1929, there were some red lights flickering. The Professor goes on to detail and explain those. Of course I am still no expert on what happened in 1929 and why. But due to this book I have a better idea. And it has encouraged me to read more about it. Which I intend to do shortly. And further works by the extremely readable Professor Galbraith will most certainly be on my list.





What Actually Happened in 1929?, 05 Jul 2004
Having recently lived through the crash of the dot-com stocks, I thought it was a particularly appropriate moment to reread John Kenneth Galbraith's famous history of the stock market crash of 1929 in the United States. Professor Galbraith's final words prove to be prophetic as he suggests that as soon as the lessons of 1929 are forgotten, the speculative excesses that led to that debacle will recur. I am sure that when the dot-bomb experience is forgotten, it will be repeated with some new class of speculation in some future generation.

With the recent experience of seeing a market mania, I came away more impressed with this book than before. Professor Galbraith does a fine job of capturing the psychology that builds into and sustains a mania. He also writes like a novelist rather than like an economist. That talent makes the message easy to grasp and appreciate.

I was also impressed by how our popular perceptions of 1929 are so often wrong. For example, most people believe that many "broken" speculators committed suicide. Although some did, there was no significant rise in the suicide rate compared to a general trend in that direction.

Economists often like to fault the Federal Reserve for the crash. That blame seems somewhat misplaced when you learn that there was very little government debt that the Fed could repurchase to create liquidity. Had the Fed acted differently, the crash might have come a little sooner and not been quite so severe . . . but the fundamentals would probably not have changed too much.

Another misperception is that everyone was speculating. By even the most generous measures, the speculators probably never numbered over a million people.

Although this is a history, Professor Galbraith takes on the economic question of how the crash contributed to the Depression. Although we know very little about the economic details of 1929, I was impressed by the point about how much consumer spending was concentrated in the wealthiest people. As they lost vast sums, both spending for consumer goods and savings for capital were decimated. With the broader income distribution of today, such a cataclysm would not be so harmful (as we saw in the aftermath of the dot-com crash).

There is an excellent parallel discussion of the land boom in Florida earlier in the 1920's that is very rewarding. I was intrigued by the ways that ever increasing ways of extending leverage were created so that both bubbles could climb higher. In Florida, people didn't actually buy the land. They bought options to buy the land, and traded those. In the stock market, holding companies sold stock and then floated new holding companies. These were capitalized with common stock, preferred and debt so that all of the appreciation would accrue to the common holders. Naturally, the opposite occurred on the way down. Many stocks fell by over 99 percent, as a result.

Everyone who is tempted to buy any item primarily because it is thought to represent an opportunity for a quick buck should read this book.

Look for true value in all that you do!

What Actually Happened in 1929?, 10 Apr 2004
Having recently lived through the crash of the dot-com stocks, I thought it was a particularly appropriate moment to reread John Kenneth Galbraith's famous history of the stock market crash of 1929 in the United States. Professor Galbraith's final words prove to be prophetic as he suggests that as soon as the lessons of 1929 are forgotten, the speculative excesses that led to that debacle will recur. I am sure that when the dot-bomb experience is forgotten, it will be repeated with some new class of speculation in some future generation.

With the recent experience of seeing a market mania, I came away more impressed with this book than before. Professor Galbraith does a fine job of capturing the psychology that builds into and sustains a mania. He also writes like a novelist rather than like an economist. That talent makes the message easy to grasp and appreciate.

I was also impressed by how our popular perceptions of 1929 are so often wrong. For example, most people believe that many "broken" speculators committed suicide. Although some did, there was no significant rise in the suicide rate compared to a general trend in that direction.

Economists often like to fault the Federal Reserve for the crash. That blame seems somewhat misplaced when you learn that there was very little government debt that the Fed could repurchase to create liquidity. Had the Fed acted differently, the crash might have come a little sooner and not been quite so severe . . . but the fundamentals would probably not have changed too much.

Another misperception is that everyone was speculating. By even the most generous measures, the speculators probably never numbered over a million people.

Although this is a history, Professor Galbraith takes on the economic question of how the crash contributed to the Depression. Although we know very little about the economic details of 1929, I was impressed by the point about how much consumer spending was concentrated in the wealthiest people. As they lost vast sums, both spending for consumer goods and savings for capital were decimated. With the broader income distribution of today, such a cataclysm would not be so harmful (as we saw in the aftermath of the dot-com crash).

There is an excellent parallel discussion of the land boom in Florida earlier in the 1920's that is very rewarding. I was intrigued by the ways that ever increasing ways of extending leverage were created so that both bubbles could climb higher. In Florida, people didn't actually buy the land. They bought options to buy the land, and traded those. In the stock market, holding companies sold stock and then floated new holding companies. These were capitalized with common stock, preferred and debt so that all of the appreciation would accrue to the common holders. Naturally, the opposite occurred on the way down. Many stocks fell by over 99 percent, as a result.

Everyone who is tempted to buy any item primarily because it is thought to represent an opportunity for a quick buck should read this book.

Look for true value in all that you do!

a must read for any investor, 21 Feb 2001
following the "sudden vanishing" of approximately USD 5 trillion dollars of market capitalization in the NASDAQ since march 2001, this book comes as a somewhat "refreshing" read - especially considering that it was published back in 1954! i have never been one to put too much weight on comments such as "history always repeats itself", but this book was rather scary in that it could have easily been written in 2001. for those of you have been following the "irrationally exhuberant" technology equity markets of the last 3 years, this book shows that the will to participate in "easy money opportunities" lives in all of us.

Very Exciting!, 09 Oct 2008
I got this book at an airport (seem to buy a lot of books in airports!) It was a brilliant read. I could not wait to pick the book up in between holiday stuff!
The only thing I found a little irritating was the fact that Richard Branson seems to write with a real self indulgance. It would be nice to read about his life in a bit more of an unbiased way. But hey who am I to critise a man who has made millions!!

Excellent, 02 Sep 2008
I loved this book. Branson is so honest throughout. He's an amzing person. I could not put the book down from start to finish!

Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography, 17 Jun 2008
Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography. This was gift, I kept putting it off before reading. Once I started I could not put it down. A great book, very well written and interesting. Its time for the updated version or book two.

Jewels of wisdom from Richard, I just craved more!, 03 May 2008
I'm glad I read this book, the chronology of it flows exceptionally and it's like finding a real gem of understanding reading his anecdotes and reactions to situations that come his way. The most interesting parts for me was understanding his business start-up and development (the first half I would say), this could sell the book on its own.

Problems: Ok, I'm not sure about everyone else's reasons, but the reasons why I chose to read this book in the first place was to understand how and why Mr Branson approaches business in the way he does and what EXACTLY his methodology and thought processes are/were. Perhaps it's curiosity, tips, self-evaluation, whatever. Anyway, all the other peripheral stuff like his ballooning trips (multiple and repetitive) and the social conscience he develops and promotes toward the end just really slow down the momentum of the book.

I guess I wanted consistent and unadulterated nitty gritty insight into the grey matter of a stupendously successful businessman but there were only snippets and cryptic clues throughout that verged on frustrating. But whatever, it's Richard: he and his philosophies are awesome and you should buy this book just to contribute to the Virgin Empire.

Highly readable personal and business reflections, 23 Apr 2008
This book seems to give a "warts and all" view of Branson's start in business ventures, his early escapades and narrow escapes and his subsequent successes. From one-time album importer to multi-millionaire, multi-business owner, this review touches on his feelings and beliefs as well as his ways of making personal and business success.

I picked up the book when I was working at Virgin Holidays, and actually expected little from it. But I found the style and personal history fascinating ... at least initially. The book drifts midway, going into some self-justification over BA vs Virgin, and a little too much of the ballooning adventures, but opens up fascinating accounts of helping evacuate hostages from Iraq in the first Gulf war. The clash of old bureaucratic business vs the Virgin style is exemplified! Definitely worth the investment, and 4 stars from me.

If you ony buy one book on Organisational Behaviour, make it this one, 07 Jul 2008
Charles Handy is arguably the UK's top business "guru", but in my opinion this title somewhat diminishes his life's work, which has gone beyond matters of simple business administration into a philosophy of life and work, and is imbued with a spirituality that I find infectious (even though I am not a very spiritual person). This, however, is his seminal management text, and there is but a hint of the philosophical musings of "The Empty Raincoat" and "The Hungry Spirit".

Understanding Organisations was first published in 1976, and my fourth edition (I don't know why Amazon describes this as the third edition - that must be an error) was published in 1993, with a revised introduction in 1999. It cannot claim to be entirely up to date, therefore, but it remains valid both as a commentary on previous work on motivation, roles, leadership, power groups and organisations as well as contributing many of Handy's own ideas on the subject. I think that it was here that he first used analogies with the ancient Greek gods to describe the cultures of organisations, which he later developed in "Gods of Management". I've dipped into this book in the past, and have worked through it systematically recently as one of the key texts for a course on "Organisational Behaviour". My impression is that there are few more recent developments in this field than were taken into account in the writing of the book.

I have few quibbles. Handy's style is scholarly - I had wondered if this was his doctoral thesis but in fact he did not do one (he has an honorary one from Trinity College Dublin). It is accessible - and I do like the dry humour with which he delivers some of his case studies - but it is not as an easy or entertaining a read as some of his subsequent works. This is an excellent book, whether to use as a course text or to dip into as you experience and reflect on "trouble at mill" in your working life.


A great place to start learning about organisations, 27 May 2007
Charles Handy has been very influential shaping my attitudes to work, life styles and the management of organisations. This is a great primer for new students. I also highy recommend reading all his books and listening to his audio recordings.

His later works outline succinctly the demands changing corporations and globalization place on individuals and society. A very inspirational and thought provoking commentator, he positions the world of work in the larger context of ethics and morality. He also explores the human struggle to maintain individuality, spirituality, choice, freedom and dignity


The Star, 26 Sep 2006
Easier to understand than other management books,
Excellent aptitude and examples

Down to Earth and Practical

When I got bored with the rest this was the best


Essential, effortless reading, 27 Apr 2006
This is truly a remarkable book. Handy has compiled a great body of classic management theory and practice - and made it effortless to absorb.

And it is this accessibility and clarity that Handy brings to the subject.

I thoroughly recommend this book for serious management students (as the depth is here) and also business people who want a compact volume that is easy to read.

Overview of organisational behaviour, 01 Dec 2003
Handy's book is well-written and highly readable. By putting all litterature references at the end of the book the book becomes more readable as the book is free from reference insertions that might disturb the flow of reading. However, for academic use this convention makes it significantly more complicated to reference to any other than Handy himself. One has to cross-reference between sections of the book to try to find the original inventor of a concept. Hence, the book is highly recommended for practitioners that wants to read the book as a novel. The structure of the book makes it less user-friendly for academic work.

A Journalist's Take on Harvard Business School's MBA Program, 22 Sep 2008

Philip Delves Broughton was on top of the journalism world as the Paris bureau chief for The Daily Telegraph of London when he got itchy feet and decided he wanted to go to business school. Setting his sights on Harvard, he was pleased to get in.

I attended Harvard Business School while in law school many years ago. I was surprised to find out how many things are similar to when I attended. The student complaints were similar, too.

I thought that Mr. Broughton did an excellent job of explaining what the case system is all about and what occurs in preparing for and during a class. If you've always wanted to go to HBS, here's a chance to take a peek.

The book's strength is in exposing the values behind HBS, people seeking the highest-paying jobs despite the personal cost to family life and one's own soul. Mr. Broughton made some half-hearted attempts to seek out such opportunities, but ended his two years at Harvard with a large loan to show for the experience . . . and no job.

The book's weakness comes in Mr. Broughton's desire to teach you some of the basic concepts about business management. I doubt if you are interested. He doesn't always get it right, either.

I found myself comparing What They Teach You at Harvard Business School to One L, Scott Turow's brilliant description of the bad old days of being a first-year law student at Harvard. One L is a better book. But both are powerful in explaining what it feels like to be a student in the middle of the gigantic forces moving to shape you like a vise into a new form that will be attractive to employers.


A fly-on-the-wall view of American's most prestigious business school, 11 Sep 2008
Speaking as someone who is moving from academia to business, and from the UK to Boston, Philip Broughton's book about his experience as an English journalist also moving out to Boston for the MBA resonated very strongly with me. A cultural outsider by virtue of his background, culture, and has he suggests several times, his age (32 vs average of 27 at HBS), this book gives the kind of insight that a prospectus never could. Compressing two years of education into a paperback is quite a tall order, so Broughton gives a flavour of each of the modules he took there, from financial models to ethics and corporate strategy, as well as touching briefly upon the typical case studies he encountered there.

Where this book was at its most interesting for me were in some of the the narrow-minded, self-serving, and even dangerous beliefs of his fellow peers, who have little time for ethical considerations and firmly believe that a free-market business rationale should be applied to all spheres of life, regardless of little externalities like corporate responsibility. I also particularly enjoyed Broughton's almost comical experiences with the "milk round" recruitment circuit, with students all repeating the same rote-learnt mantras to get through rounds of interview. The author, being typically British about it, tries to be honest and open, and doesn't get invited back.

Where I do reserve some judgement, though, is the fact that if I had been in his class, I'd feel a little like the author hadn't fully committed to the process. He came to HBS ostensibly to get away from journalism, and two years later here he is publishing books, hardly a massive change in direction for two years and some £90k in forgone earnings and fees. Of course, this seems to be quite typical for HBS grads; all the bankers, consultants, and hedge-fund managers who came for a career-changing experience all obediently trotted right back to where they'd come from once the mortgage needed paying.

All in all this is an entertaining and engaging read if you have even a remote interest in business, the MBA, or Harvard Business School. Maybe it'll teach you that HBS isn't for you, maybe it'll have you submitting an application when you didn't think you were interested at all. Maybe now I should read "What they DON'T teach you at HBS" just to be thorough!

Doesn't know what it want's to be, 05 Sep 2008
[This review is actually for the US version of the book Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School, but since this is the main UK version I thought I'd post here instead.

Firstly, I'm a recent HBS graduate, and like Mr Delves-Broughton, I was also from the UK, though I had more of a traditional business background before attending. This book has been gaining quite a lot of interest from the HBS community with various debates as to how fair a representation it is.

My major criticism is that the book really doesn't know what it wants to be. Is it a description of the day-to-day experience of HBS?, Is it a commentary on American Capitalism and the HBS adminstration? Is it the author's own introspective look at his own life and what he ultimately wants to be? It is in fact of all of these things, but due to lack of consistency in the writing style it ends up feeling quite disjointed and a difficult read as it switches at random from excruciating detail about particular classes to broad ruminations about the author's overall view.

As for the content, everything that's mentioned in the book are fair criticisms of the school. Every single point that is raised is based solidly in fact and the HBS administration would do well to pay heed to many of the observations. In fact the back cover of the US edition, highlights a particular bug-bear of mine, the gaming of the financial aid system by many HBS students who benefit despite having huge financial resources - and these are the same students who debate from the moral high ground in a class about ethics! However, in his haste to highlight these failings of the school I feel that the author is really missing the big picture. As you read you can't help but feel that he decided that he would never fit in before he went to HBS and has written a book that picks out all the bad elements of the school to justify his position.

During my time at HBS I found all the things that the author mentions equally frustrating but they were far out-weighted by the school's positives. The outstanding quality of its faculty, the supberb facilties, my fellow students who were not only academically bright but incredibly active in a huge range of activities (setting up businesses, running charity campaigns etc..) all made it a very rewarding place to spend two years. Sure, there was plenty of idiots who get caught up in the rush to banking or consulting or are ultra-competitive and lacking in social skills, but nobody's perfect and if you let other people ruin your day then you're the idiot.

Overall I'm wavering between 3 and 4 stars. 3 stars because its not that well written and the author seems to never want to be part of it (you can't help the feeling that he always intended to write a book), 4 stars because if you've ever wondered what its like to go HBS its a reasonable expose. Just read it with a pinch of salt.

Takes you inside a top MBA, 01 Sep 2008
Having just finished an MBA myself from London Business School, I saw this book at Heathrow on my way out of the UK and bought it with curiosity. I wanted to see whether my experience at London Business School would have been significantly different from that at a top American school; Harvard, of course, as far as MBA brands go, being number one in my opinion regardless of what competitors or any rankings say.

This book can be recommended to those interested in applying to Harvard or a comparable top MBA program to see if they have the right expectations of an MBA program; as well as to graduates of other programs to see how the experience at their schools compare against the holy grail of MBAs. It really goes inside what the MBA culture is about in general, especially at elitist schools, and at Harvard in particular. Broughton is not the only MBA who feels like this. The unreal world, the pressures, the tendency to go with the herd... despite having studied at a school across the atlantic, I continuously kept on smiling at the commonalities.

I disagree with the notion that this book disses the school, or the MBA in general. It just points out very well some of the absurdities of the program for all those who are not financial crackheads.

Honest and useful, 28 Aug 2008
This book comes across as an honest account of Delves Broughton's experience of, and reaction to, the Harvard Business School MBA course. Delves Broughton highlights well some of the strengths and weaknesses of the institution and the course, though the recent departure of the Dean (Kim Clark) will probably already have lead to changes in the mix.

I would particularly recommend the book to UK readers considering applying to a 'top-tier' US business school, not least because the author highlights some of the cultural differences that hit a British student most forcefully and can come as a bit of a surprise. Delves Broughton's experience also provides a useful reality check. Contrary to the author's apparent expectations, graduation from a business school of this type does not guarantee entree into the well-paid specialised world of hedge funds, private equity, investment banking or consulting. Many of the businesses in these industries have built into their business models recruitment from HBS and other similar schools, but they are looking for a very particular profile and the MBA badge is only one small component. If you don't fit more broadly you probably won't get the job. The author's criticisms of the cost to personal lives entailed in careers of this type are also worth thinking about hard.

For the general reader, Delves Broughton provides a useful flavour of the mindset and approach taught at these kinds of institution. Don't expect to come away with more than a vague impression though - this is not a primer of what they teach at Harvard Business School (title notwithstanding). He raises concerns that this 'business' mindset leads to problems when applied to other arenas of life, particularly if used naively or by people lacking decent ethical standards. (If HBS alumnus George W. Bush had shown any inclination to use this kind of approach in his decision-making, he would have made an easy stick with which to beat the institution). Whatever the merits of his argument, it's something that the HBS faculty (and many companies) worry about a lot, even if their attempts to discuss such ethical issues lead to stomach churning management-speak. Encouragingly, most of his fellow students seemed to take the point, though, even at this early stage in their careers.

One point of criticism of this book (and others of its kind). By publishing it Delves Broughton has arguably betrayed a tacit contract of confidentiality that exists between participants (faculty and students) in such institutions. 'Betrayals' of this kind are an everyday occurrence for daily newspaper journalists and this is perhaps why Delves Broughton seems unaware of this aspect; a couple of the professors in particular might feel justifiably aggrieved.

Well worth the money - a good read., 09 Oct 2008
The book starts well although it reads a bit like a hagiography written by Arthur Hailey. That is ok by me I like Arthur Hailey and have always regarded Buffett as a saint. I laughed out loud several times during the first 50 pages.

After this it gets a bit heavier going. There are many insights and many surprises. I had not realised that Berkshire Hathaway lost money from the start and wound up having the textile mill shut down. I had not reliased that Buffett was first a director of Salomon brothers and then became chairman appointed to clean up the mess which he seems to have done with great honour distinction and dignity. I liked the account of the arbitration with the former director Gutfreund who seems to have had it coming. His views on how derivatives spawn risk rather than remove it are very current today. Also his views on the Efficient Market Hypothesis have always been my own and not current orthodoxy.

A trifle over-written but very moving at the death of this friend Kay Graham and at the death of his wife Susie. Remarkable for the close friendship he enjoys with Bill and Melinda Gates and his partner Charlie Munger.


Good but..., 08 Oct 2008
I can't agree more with 1nnovator' review. This is a good book on Buffett but it could be better. Particularly liked the first 1/3 because it concentrated on his character and how he came to be the man he is. The 2/3 it did became more factual and felt a bit padded like it was written quickly she wanted to finish the book quickly.

Liked the one by Roger Lowenstein better but this is the only 'official' biography with direct interviews with Buffett so it is as close as it gets to the man.

More Buffalo News than Washington Post, 04 Oct 2008
How can the most comprehensive biography of the world's most remarkable allocator of capital be disappointing? Alice Schroeder has used her several years of access to Buffett to good, but not great effect.
This is a terrific human interest story, but how many purchasers will be buying the book for that reason?
For those of us spoiled by Buffett's ability to say all with few words, wading through Schroeder's work is frustrating. Ultimately, the return per word read matches the index of Buffett biographies, nothing more. For the book to live up to the man a greater return was required.
Everyone should understand Buffett, but start with the main feature: his own words and books that add value. This is the equivalent of the bonus disc: not as good as the feature, but with lots of background detail for enthusiasts.

A Lesson Not To Be Missed in Difficult Times, 29 Sep 2008
Warren Buffett is one of the most important and successful people in the business world. His life is a story of success - not a single lucky hit but a career going from one victory to another. One would be very irrational to miss an opportunity to have a glimpse of what made him the person he is and what made his success so huge. This book offers more then just a glimpse - it is a full scale portrait of the man. Full scale in more than one sense - this is a book of almost a thousand pages.
Alice Schroeder has done a marvelous job putting together this biography - it is insightful and thought-provoking. People pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the honour of lunching with Buffett - you can get to know him (inasmuch as he was ready to reveal himself, obviously) for much less so why not give it a try?

Essential Reading<