#1 New York Times bestseller and arguably the best business narrative ever written Barbarians
at the Gate is the classic account of the fall of RJR Nabisco at the hands of a buyout from
investment firm KKR. A book that stormed both the bestseller list and the public imagination a
book that created a genre of its own and a book that gets at the heart of Wall Street and the
'80s culture it helped define Barbarians at the Gate is a modern classic--a masterpiece of
investigatory journalism and a rollicking book of corporate derring-do and financial
swordsmanship. The fight to control RJR Nabisco during October and November of 1988 was more
than just the largest takeover in Wall Street history. Marked by brazen displays of ego not
seen in American business for decades it became the high point of a new gilded age and its
repercussions are still being felt. The tale remains the ultimate story of greed and glory--a
story and a cast of characters that determined the course of global business and redefined how
deals would be done and fortunes made in the decades to come. Barbarians at the Gate is the
gripping account of these two frenzied months of deal makers and publicity flaks of an
old-line industrial powerhouse (home of such familiar products a Oreos and Camels) that became
the victim of the ruthless and rapacious style of finance in the 1980s. As reporters for The
Wall Street Journal Burrough and Helyar had extensive access to all the characters in this
drama. They take the reader behind the scenes at strategy meetings and society dinners into
boardrooms and bedrooms providing an unprecedentedly detailed look at how financial operations
at the highest levels are conducted but also a richly textured social history of wealth at the
twilight of the Reagan era. At the center of the huge power struggle is RJR Nabisco's president
the high-living Ross Johnson. It's his secret plan to buy out the company that sets the frenzy
in motion attracting the country's leading takeover players: Henry Kravis the legendary
leveraged-buyout king of investment firm KKR whose entry into the fray sets off an acquisitive
commotion Peter Cohen CEO of Shearson Lehman Hutton and Johnson's partner who needs a
victory to propel his company to an unchallenged leadership in the lucrative mergers and
acquisitions field the fiercely independent Ted Forstmann motivated as much by honor as by
his rage at the corruption he sees taking over the business he cherishes Jim Maher and his
ragtag team struggling to regain credibility for the decimated ranks at First Boston and an
army of desperate bankers lawyers and accountants all drawn inexorably to the greatest prize
of their careers--and one of the greatest prizes in the history of American business. Written
with the bravado of a novel and researched with the diligence of a sweeping cultural history
Barbarians at the Gate is present at the front line of every battle of the campaign. Here is
the unforgettable story of that takeover in all its brutality. In a new afterword specially
commissioned for the story's 20th anniversary Burrough and Helyar return to visit the heroes
and villains of this epic story tracing the fallout of the deal charting the subsequent
success and failure of those involved and addressing the incredible impact this story--and the
book itself--made on the world.
