3 comments about Tillman Franks: I Was There When It Happened.

1. This is one of those books that is long overdue. I was just beginning in radio when I first met Tillman Franks. It was through this legendary bass-fiddle player, personal manager of super stars, songwriter and country music promoter ... all-in-one ... that I met most of those mentioned in this book. Tillman was not only "there when it happened" ... in many instances, he was responsible for many good things in country music "happening" in the first place! It was through Tillman that I first met Elvis. I would appear on several show with 'Old El'. It was also Tillman who introduced me to Johnny Horton, David Houston and so many others. Although I never met my idol, Hank Williams, Sr., Tillman Franks was also responsible for much of Hank's super stardom. This book, written in the easy, Louisiana speaking style of the author, not only takes you backstage with so many legends, it takes you to the dressing rooms! Yes, Tillman was there when it happened ... and I'm glad he was. You don't have to be a fan of country music to enjoy this very good book. It's musical history, told by a man who belongs in our Country Music Hall-of-Fame ... which will eventually "happen", of course.



2. This book was so easy to read and I really could not put it down until I was finished! Tillman Franks did a great job of telling his story and it is absolutely fascinating. I can highly recommend this book!



3. I attended this book's release party, which was also a birthday party for Tillman Franks. It was a wonderful day, filled with great music. As Faron Young's biographer, I made many contacts who were later helpful to me. Franks wrote an important story, and I enjoyed reading about all the familiar names. What detracted from the book was its lack of editing--numerous typos and other errors. Still, it contains much valuable information about people like Jerry Kennedy, Glenn Sutton, David Houston, Johnny Horton, Claude King, and many others.

5 comments about Grounded: Frank Lorenzo and the Destruction of Eastern Airlines.

1. Overall this book gives an sufficent explantian on the events that led up to Eastern's Shutdown. However, it is bias toward the unions without exposing there arrogance. If you ignore this fact and simply rely on the facts given this is a fairly good book. And also, it ends before the shutdown of the company in January 1991. It does not show the final stage of the Eastern Airlines saga between where Frank Lorenzo loses power and the company shutsdown. 3 stars.



2. One of the most unfair treatments of the demise of Eastern Airlines ever written and the second worst book on the subject. Biased towards labor from the beginning, Bernstein paints Goya-like pictures of an evil Frank Lorenzo and his henchmen cackling over a cauldron late at night, thinking up ways to lie, cheat and steal Eastern away from the hearths of America. At the same time, Charlie Bryan is portrayed as some mythic hero who ". . .read Ghandi and Kahlil Gibran and even Sun-tzu. . .". Right. Bias shows in the fact that no Texas Air management are quoted; no personal attributes are ever given, making Lorenzo, Bakes et all appear as soulless corporate thugs, while the stalwart union defenders with defiant chins thrust forth, are given warm wonderful hearts and the purest of intentions. I'm surprised Bernstein didn't have pictures of Bryan petting a puppy and holding a baby. Of slight redeming value is the fact that the book does tell an accurate story. Eastern didn't have to die and maybe Lorenzo didn't have to kill it, but the interpretation and presentation are designed only to support an intransigent group of labor leaders in their refusal to see the reality of the world. This book is only marginally better than the worst book written about Eastern, "Freefall".



3. Excellent book, well researched and very well written. Accurately portrays the events that lead to Eastern's demise. I am no fan of unions. But, Lorenzo displayed a blatant calloused disregard for Eastern, it's people, and everything connected with it.



4. This is a study in an ego taken over. I view is that the games he played could almost be criminal. I would have liked more information for the company as the author does seem to set out to make Frank be the bad guy. I would also have liked more details on the business end of the airline industry. I thought the writing was above average, he moved the story along through some topics that could be considered dull, union negotiations etc. All and all not a bad book and if you find the airline industry interesting then you should read this book.



5. While I lived in Dallas, I read Bernstein's book around the same time time that filmmaker Oliver Stone was in town filming the movie "J.F.K.". I submitted Bernstein's book along with a detailed proposal that included optioning the book rights for a movie with actors Daniel J. Travanti as Lorenzo, Brian Dennehy as Charles Brian and Michael Douglas as Trustee Marty Shugrue. Stone responded 5 days later to me through his assistant Kristina Hare that while this was a meaty subject, the political bent of the book ran counter to his convictions. I found this response puzzling. The book details how Lorenzo, a brilliant financial manipulator, rose from Queens, New York to the heights of owning the world's largest commercial airline empire second only to Russia's Aeroflot. This book is clearly a portrayal of how Lorenzo's get tough tactics with Eastern's notoriously militant IAM led by Charles Bryan from 1980 forward led to a war with Texas Air Management. Lorenzo ended up dismantling the very asset he bought by striking blows against labor in a bitter showdown. Eastern under CEO Frank Borman had 43,000 employees. By the time the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York ousted Lorenzo as "incompetent to reorganize Eastern's estate", only 18,500 employees remained and over $700 million of assets were either sold or dubiously transferred at little or no cost to Texas Air's Continental Airlines. So, Oliver Stone's rationale is quite strange. He is pro-union and this book details how Lorenzo started an unnecessary war with Eastern's unions rather than allow a professional manager to run the airline. Bernstein had unprecedented access to Frank Lorenzo and former managers of Texas Air as he delivers a step by step cautionary tale of how a well educated albeit, a brutal minded executive became his own worst enemy. It is a well paced and well written book that should become required reading for any business school management class.

2 comments about Jack Corbett: Mariner.

1. Although it may read like fiction, Jack Corbett, Mariner is pure memoir. In November 1849, a 20-year-old Vermonter ventured down to New York City's bustling commercial waterfront and got his first, faint whiffs of sea air. He was on a mission. His physician father had dispatched young Alfrederick Hatch to crew aboard a sailing ship in hopes of ridding his son of various youthful infirmities, including asthma. According to family lore, Dr. Horace Hatch proclaimed, it would "either cure him or kill him."

   Very luckily, young Fred quickly found the ideal mentor and protector in Jack Corbett -- "a rollicking, reckless, horny-handed, hairy-chested product of wind and storm and sea and the rough and tumble of a sailor's life." The two signed on aboard a three-masted, 1,400-ton sailing ship bound for Liverpool and back. The crossing was about 3,300 miles, made all the more challenging by the late-fall, early-winter season. Hatch, under Corbett's dogged tutelage, thrived in his role as apprentice sailor, standing up to all that the sea threw at him.

   Hatch and Corbett developed a solid relationship on the crossings, but on return to New York, Corbett mysteriously disappeared, only to reappear 30 years later, knock on the office door of his former charge and now very successful financier, and become an intimate part of Fred's household as guardian for his 11 children.

   Jack Corbett, Mariner is Hatch's tribute to Corbett, penned when Hatch was in his 60s, after Corbett's death. The manuscript has remained unpublished until now.

   What could have been a workmanlike document of family history turns out to be a solid piece of literature and a page-turner to boot. Hatch's and Corbett's lives intersected with true mutual benefit, but the saga could have gone horribly wrong at many points. Hatch's father had vested a lot of faith in his asthmatic son when posting him to New York to go to sea. This gem of a book reveals just how fully that faith was justified and how a crusty sailor played a key and loving role.
   
   Written in first-person narrative, young Hatch, proves to be a fast learner aboard the 187-foot ship and quickly gains the grudging respect of his fellow crew in often harrowing conditions. His descriptions of those crew members, including the captain, the passengers, fellow crew, and most immediately, Corbett himself, reveal a canny observer of the human condition and sailors in particular:

   "The majority of sailors are naturally religious in sentiment, though they may be far from it in practice. They are firm believers in the supernatural, both divine and diabolical. To them, both God and the devil are personal realities, There are a few, however, who like their skeptical brethren ashore, believe in nothing that cannot be seen or handled or demonstrated to the senses and the reason."

   And consider this passage on sailors' temperament:

   "The sailor is not naturally brutal. For the most part he is kindhearted, submissive to authority, disposed to be peaceable when you will let him, and susceptible to decent treatment. It is only when he is goaded and bullied beyond endurance and exasperated by a sense of injustice, that the brute in him rises up and snaps at the other brute [in authority] that is worrying him ... [but] it is true that there are exceptions."

   Hatch's egalitarianism allows him to see the essential goodness that may lie behind an individual's coarse exterior. That innate attitude informs Hatch's later charity work with sailors and allows the relationship with Corbett to be rekindled after the 30-year separation.

   Hatch the writer develops a colorful voice for Corbett. One example is from a scene where Hatch is recuperating from an illness contracted after going ashore during the ship's normal turnaround and refitting in Liverpool. Corbett is caring for Hatch on the captain's orders and telling some of Hatch's sailor friends not to overstay their welcome at Hatch's sickbed:
   Now look a-here, you youngsters ... this ain't no fo'c's'le for spinnin' yarns in, nor yet no concert hall for c'rousin' an' jollyfyin', an' this `ere boy ain't no haudience fer a v'ri'ty show, not wile Jack Corbett's `esponsible fer `im to the skipper, an' you boys has got ter be qui't wen yer in `ere an' git out w'en I tells ye, or get yer `eads punched.

   A five-page glossary of nautical terms at then end of the book unravels arcane sea language.

   Hatch lays out the illiterate Corbett's weaknesses, particularly for alcohol and cursing, often hilariously, but never with disdain. That equanimity informs the whole text and makes the book a morality tale of sorts. Whether the subject is temperance or tattoos, the humor never lapses into ridicule.

   Hatch brings the same balance of respect and humor to his portrayal of Corbett ashore, after the 30-year separation, the last third of the text. It is a situation rife for comedy: the old salt plunked down in a family of thirteen. Naturally, Corbett remakes his new world in nautical terms. The initial transition is made easier by Corbett's being appointed "captain of the pier and boat landing" at the Hatch waterfront estate. When the family moves inland, his title becomes "quartermaster of the castle." Hatch's daughters try various stratagems to reform Corbett, still given to the occasional cursing rant and alcohol binge, and the humor flows. By this time, Corbett has become a trusted family intimate, and his death is truly mourned.

   Hatch's skills as a mature author leave the reader yearning for more. Pity that Hatch had not also directed his talents to analyzing his formative Vermont childhood or those very successful years as a Wall Street financier. All the more reason not to forgo this very satisfying single sample of his work.




2. Our entire family loved this book (2 adults, chlidren ages 15, 13, 10 and 8) and we were so intrigued by Alfredrick Hatch we did a little further research. Mr. Hatch liquidated much of his amazing fortune after a stock market crash to make sure none of his investment clients lost money. The Rockefellers didn't do this. The Goulds didn't do this. The Kennedys didn't do this. But for Alfredrick Hatch, his word was vastly more important than his money. By the way, you won't find this story in Mr. Hatch's book. This book wasn't written to impress. It was written to entertain and entertain it does!

1 comments about Bold Entrepreneur: A Life of James B. Duke.

1. Bold Entrepreneur: A Life Of James B. Duke by Robert F. Duren (Emeritus Professor of History, Duke University) is the scholarly biography of the prominent businessman who created the globe-spanning British-American Tobacco Company at the turn of the twentieth century. Robert Duke's labors, loves, and legacy are all deftly chartered in this meticulously researched and impeccably presented portrait, which unflinchingly presents the good with the bad.

2 comments about Wall Street People: True Stories of Today's Masters and Moguls.

1. Writing with James R. Vertin, author Charles D. Ellis presents brief profiles of 85 Wall Street leaders who contributed to the growth of the world's major financial marketplace. The authors divide these individuals - all men, which tells a tale right there - into four slightly arbitrary groups: masters of investing, movers and shakers, business builders, and wisemen and rascals. The collection is drawn from the other writers' pieces about these men, and includes occasional articles the featured financiers wrote themselves. Apart from a few brief notes about some patterns that the author observed, these excerpts from various sources stand alone, with no overarching theme or exposition. We [...] keenly feel the lack of a few analytical essays that might have pulled the collection together and integrated it thematically, but even so, this serves as a useful research tool and an interesting introduction to a unique confluence of powerful men.



2. I understoodd that it would be stupid to expect something close to the  "Market Wizard" standard from a 342 page book covering over 80 big names intriguing enough for 180 more books. However, I did expect a summary or two about the life, trading or investment methods of the people covered in the book. The passage devoted to Bernard Baruch is a rare exception to the above. A pity that it was mostly copy and paste from the work of other authors. Even worse, the content is not timely. For e.g., the article of Robertson was written nearly a decade before the Tiger Fund got drown in Russia. It would be much better if the author had written several volumes and covered more and timely of each guru.

5 comments about Ben & Jerry's: The Inside Scoop: How Two Real Guys Built a Business with a Social Conscience and a Sense of Humor.

1. Although Ben & Jerry's: The Inside Scoop was a little long-winded at times, I thought it was a good easy-to-read book for non-business majors wanting to start a business. Lager's style of writing makes Ben & Jerry seem like two regular guys up the street who had a dream and went after it with all the gusto they could muster. The book would not serve as a business plan protocol necessarily, however, it does display the true entrepeneriual spirit needed in order to make a business successful. Lager does a wonderful job of showing how Ben & Jerry fed off of each other and when one door closed in their face, they found another way in through a different door or window -- exactly what has to be done if you are going to grow a successful business.

   Lager captured the realism of the trials and tribulations experienced by most individuals who begin their own business. I would recommend this book to anyone who was thinking of beginning his/her own business because it gives a look at the real side of starting your own business by making Ben & Jerry two real guys who simply wanted to start their own business so they did not have to work from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. for someone else. By putting all the business jargon aside, I felt this was a worthwhile read for someone who needs the reassurance that anyone can start a business and this is how Ben & Jerry started theirs.




2. This was a really good book that shows "How Two Real Guys Built a Business With a Social Conscience and a Sense of Humor." This should be required reading for MBA's along with Hawkin's Growing a Business.



3. It's a chronicle of the intriguing journey of junior high friends who split the $5 cost of a home study course in making homemade ice cream and turn it into a $237 million company (1999 sales). Ben & Jerry's antics of giving away ice cream so they can 'get the ice cream into people's mouths so they will buy it,' take on some unusual situations. Free cones are offered to folks who register to vote, donate books to Head Start, or send postcards to elected officials for a variety of causes, and to celebrate at Fall Down Festivals with block long stilt walking races, music and other amusements. Solar-powered mobiles are used to transport the ice cream and a show on the road. They still sponsor customer appreciation day once a year when free cones are dipped all day.

   It's hard to resist a bowl or cone of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough or Cherry Garcia as you read this humorous show and tell of two guys who really want (and do) make a difference. You'll be ready to book a snow shoe tour of the Vermont plant by the time you finish reading about these guys' mission. Their values-led business (in addition to having fun) is to produce the best ice cream from Vermont dairy products, to increase the value of the of the company for the stockholders and create career opportunities and financial rewards for employees, and to improve the quality of life for the community. (They donate 7.5% of pretax profits to Ben & Jerry's Foundation that supports a variety of causes that improve the quality of life for children.)

   I'm using this book as a project for an organizational communications course and enjoyed the reading (and eating) more than I ever expected. It was the most fun I've had doing homework!




4. I read this book at the suggestion of a business school professor. It was supposedly a great illustration of the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurs.

   I found that the book tried more to be humorous than to convey any business knowledge to the reader. Everything seemed to be an inside joke. Rather than producing a well thought-out account of a business experience, the book fell flat with dumb humor. I was very unimpressed with how the company was run, and I don't feel like I got much from the book.




5. A good recount of how the company got going, but the last few chapters dragged.

   There are things to learn about how Ben and Jerry developed their company:
   1)They are geniuses at this. They actually figured out mass production without knowing what they were doing, they figured out marketing from scratch, they encountered financing and survived.
   2)They had a near masochistic willingness to work. Boy did these guys work hard (it would kill me to do what they did, even if I had the will to do it).
   3)They could adapt incredibly.

   4) and finally: There are pitfalls and prices to trying to make social profits and business profits at the same time and to not planning your company to be as big as it already is.

   You can learn about businesses in their growth phase from this book. You can learn about making sure a company has sufficient controls in place for its size. You may be able to learn whether you have what it takes to be an entrepeneur.

   The first 3/4th of the book were fun to read but for some reason the last couple of chapters, when Ben and Jerry were playing less of a part in the business, were slow and boring (I don't exactly know why but I know they dragged).

1 comments about Encyclopedia of American Women in Business [Two Volumes]: From Colonial Times to the Present.

1. Specialized business collections or those seeking biographies of notable women will find Carol H. Krisman's two-volume reference invaluable: women have been active in American business since the 18th century, but overcoming great obstacles to success in the process. Entries discuss both their lives and careers, plus add topics central to American businesswomen's issues, from career planning and childcare to flexible work arrangements and even golf. The result's a substantial reference key to any in-depth understanding of the American business environment.

5 comments about Siberia Bound: Chasing the American Dream on Russia's Wild Frontier.

1. I was offended by the authors apparantly huge sales of contraceptions. Russia is the fastest declining population in the world. I guess if I wanted to write as a capitalist without morals, I would say that there was much that was funny and interesting in the book, but now that I've lived in Siberia for almost a year, I don't think things very here.



2. How refreshing to be treated to a story of a modern adventurist. One of the rare living spirits in todays world who has the guts and passion to take a stab at striking out on his own. Lucky for us, he is also one of the rare individuals with a knack to be able to put it to pen. The author masterly balances his passion with a calm insight to produce subtle observations and quirky annedcotes that draw you in. Each of his varied stories is well told. A fun and engaging read that will leave you pondering.



3. I stumbled across this book while looking for books on the Aral Sea and thought it sounded interesting. I found the writing, descriptions of life, and the adventures very interesting. I would be very interested in a follow-up book since at the end of the book we learn he is living in San Francisco. I can envision a Siberia - San Francisco comparison and perhaps his wife's thoughts on life in San Francisco area. Thanks and it was well worth my time to read.



4. If you haven't read Siberia Bound - you should. This book restored my faith that America can produce authors on a level with Scott Guggenheim and Arash Padahn. This book exudes a heightened sense of awareness of what it means to be American in a foreign land - a concept oft forgotten in today's gingoistic USA - and above all, what it means to be part of the larger community. Humanity.
   
   Kudos to Blakely. This work is epic.



5. I suppose you could call this a business book, and I did find it in the business section of the bookstore. But it is really a memoir, a travel narrative of sorts, and a love story.
   
   Blakely goes to Siberia with a brand new university degree in economics. He became interested in the economics, especially capitalism, as the Soviet Union was collapsing. But it might have been just a passing interest if he had not fallen in love with a Russian woman on a university-sponsored trip. So when capitalism came to Siberia, he was ready. He had learned Russian and he wanted to be a pioneer of the New Russian Capitalism.
   
   Blakely comes across as an optimistic and friendly Minnesotan who is game for anything. He loves the extremes of Siberia: the weather, the hard-drinking, the physical challenges. He and his Russian business partner, Sasha, don't really care what business they get into, as long as they make money. Capitalism for capitalism's sake. Blakely feels like a trail-blazer, bringing nourishing capitalism to the hungry socialists.
   
   Blakely's writing style is easy and light, with lots of conversations and no flowery descriptions. He tells us about the food, the social life, the crime, the beauty of Siberia. It's fascinating.
   
   Particularly revealing is the description of western missionaries in Siberia, who flood the country along with the capitalists. They impose, cajole, pressure, and trick their way into the Siberians' homes and their souls. Blakely has no patience for them at first, then finds that they are so pervasive that he has to deal with them on occasion. They are as zealous in bringing Christ to the Russians as the capitalists are in bringing free enterprise.
   
   Blakely has mixed feelings about the changes capitalism brought to Siberia. He says he knows how Dr. Frankenstein must have felt, as he sees Siberia becoming more like America, with traffic jams and billboards. I think he gives himself a bit too much credit though. Capitalism would have come to Siberia and changed it, with or without Blakely.
   
   Siberia Bound is a readable, enjoyable memoir that, along with The Other Side of Russia by Sharon Hudgins, about pre-capitalist Siberia, and So Many Enemies, So Little Time by Elinor Burkett, about post-9/11 Central Asia and beyond, will begin to give you a real picture of how Americans affect and are affected by people on the opposite side of the planet.

No comments about Clarence Dillon: A Wall Street Enigma.

2 comments about Robber Baron: The Life of Charles Tyson Yerkes.

1. It is amazing that Franch's book is the first serious biography of Charles Tyson Yerkes. Why has the fascinating story of this important man never been told before? Perhaps it is because Yerkes left few letters and diaries behind, or perhaps it is because he spent so much of his life trying to rescue his reputation from all his financial escapades.
   
   No matter. John Franch has done a masterful job of pulling together newspaper accounts, court records, and other sources to present a complete picture. But what's more, Franch's account is a highly readable telling of the story of a self-made man in era of industrial giants. At the same time, Franch brings to life the development of urban life in the post-civil war era. Just as James Green's "Death in the Haymarket," Franch's "Robber Baron" puts one on the streets of Chicago in the boom era after the Fire and gives an immediacy to the people, industry, and financial chicanery that made the city.
   
   In the post-Enron era, this lucid telling of the story of Yerkes is a clear reminder of the foibles of those at the crest of the wave of financial schemes. At the same time, it is a compelling good read.



2. Since first reading Dreiser's fictional biography of this financier, seventeen years ago, I have been impatiently waiting for a real Yerkes biography. IT WAS NOT IN VAIN. This author did a masterful job of putting together the life of this larger-than-life colorful man of business and pleasures. Not too long and not too short, it is as good as any business biography get. I strongly recommend it. Nitsan Ben-Horin, New York.