Biography & Autobiography : Business

Here is history that reads like fiction: the riveting story of two founding fathers of American industry—Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick—and the bloody steelworkers’ strike that transformed their fabled partnership into a furious rivalry. more...

Price: $13.95

In his wry and funny memoir, Edward Ugel tells the story of America's addiction to the lottery from an astonishing angle. At age twenty–six, Ed found himself broke, knee–deep in gambling debt, and moving back into his parents' basement. It all changed, however, when he serendipitously landed a job as a salesman for The Firm – a company that offered up–front cash to lottery winners in exchange for their prize money, often paid in agonizingly small annual payments, some lasting up to twenty–five years. For the better part of the ensuing decade, Ed spent his time closing deals with lottery winners, making a lucrative and legitimate – if sometimes not–so–nice – living by taking advantage of their weaknesses... weaknesses he knew all too well. Ed met hundreds of lottery winners and saw up–close the often hilarious, sometime sad outcome when great wealth is dropped on ordinary people. Once lottery winners realized their "dream–come–true" multimillion jackpots were not all that they were cracked up to be, Ed would knock on their door, offering them the cash they wanted–and often desperately need. This cash sometimes came at a high price, but winners were rarely in a position to walk the other way. As Ed learned, few of them had the financial savvy to keep up with the lottery–winner lifestyle. In fact, some just wanted their old lives back. A charmingly neurotic gambler, Ed traveled deep into the heart of the country where he discovered the American Dream looks a lot like a day at the casino. And Ed knows casinos. In fact, his own taste for gambling gave him a unique insight into lottery winners: he intimately understood their mindset, making it that much easier to relate to them. And like lottery winners, Ed struggled to find balance in his own life as his increasing success earned him a bigger and bigger salary. Even as he relished his accomplishments, he grappled with th more...

Price: $11.99

From his spectacular launch of Playboy magazine to his recent television hit The Girls Next Door, Hugh Hefner has attracted public attention and controversy for decades. But how did a man who is at once socially astute and morally unconventional, part Bill Gates and part Casanova, also evolve into a figure at the forefront of cultural change?. Granted unprecedented access to the man and his enterprise, historian and biographer Steven Watts argues that Hefner has profoundly altered American life and values. Punctuated with anecdotes of life at the Playboy Mansions, the book tells the compelling and uniquely American story of how one person with a provocative idea, a finger on the pulse of popular opinion, and a passion for his work altered the course of modern history. more...

Price: $29.95

In the wake of his incredibly successful TV show, The Apprentice, Donald Trump has gone beyond celebrity to become a true legend. He is the one billionaire everyone recognizes, the only one whose name is its own global brand. But, for all the ink that's been spilled about him, nobody's ever fully captured the man -- until now. Robert Slater has written the first book on Trump that's worthy of this outsized American figure. Slater convinced Trump to give him unprecedented access: over 100 hours of private conversations and meetings. Wherever Trump went, Slater was there: as a 'fly on the wall' at secret deal-making sessions, on a Gulfstream jet trip to the dedication of Trump's newest skyscraper, everywhere. Slater interviewed 150 Trump employees and colleagues -- even top competitors such as Kirk Kerkorian and Steve Wynn. Now, he reveals the man in full: the businessman and dealmaker, strategist and survivor, celebrity and personality always striving for more attention and success, whatever the obstacles. Learn how Trump transformed himself from an unknown local real estate developer to a global magnate. See how he really does business, discovering lessons that go far beyond anything he's let the public see before. Witness his brilliant media management... watch him leverage his celebrity to save his casino business from billion-dollar debts, not once but twice. Most remarkable of all, discover how Trump really feels about his celebrity, his empire, his life. more...

Price: $19.96

How a Michigan farm boy became the richest man in America is a classic, almost mythic tale, but never before has Henry Ford’s outsized genius been brought to life so vividly as it is in this engaging and superbly researched biography. The real Henry Ford was a tangle of contradictions. more...

Price: $18.00