Tearing Down the Walls: How Sandy Weill Fought His Way to the Top of the Financial World. . .and Then Nearly Lost It All (Wall Street Journal Book) - Softcover

Langley, Monica

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743247264 ISBN 13: 9780743247269

Publisher: Free Press, 2004

Synopsis

He is one of the world's most accomplished figures of modern finance. As chairman and chief executive officer of Citigroup, Sanford "Sandy" Weill has become an American legend, a banking visionary whose innovativeness, opportunism, and even fear drove him from the lowliest jobs on Wall Street to its most commanding heights. In this unprecedented biography, acclaimed Wall Street Journal reporter Monica Langley provides a compelling account of Weill's rise to power. What emerges is a portrait of a man who is as vital and as volatile as the market itself.
Tearing Down the Walls tells the riveting inside story of how a Jewish boy from Brooklyn's back alleys overcame incredible odds and deep-seated prejudices to transform the financial-services industry as we know it today.
Using nearly five hundred firsthand interviews with key players in Weill's life and career -- including Weill himself -- Langley brilliantly chronicles not only his success and scandals but also the shadows of his hidden self: his father's abandonment and his loving marriage; his tyrannical rages as well as his tearful regrets; his fierce sense of loyalty and his ruthless elimination of potential rivals. By highlighting in new and startling detail one man's life in a narrative as richly textured and compelling as a novel, Tearing Down the Walls provides the historical context of the dramatic changes not only in business but also in American society in the last half century.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

"No single figure looms larger in Wall Street history over the last thirty years than Sandy Weill, and until now no single book has captured his boundless energy, street-savvy intellect and towering ambition. More than a riveting narrative of one man's relentless climb to the top of the financial world, Tearing Down the Walls is also a fascinating chronicle of how Wall Street changed in the 90s. Any business person interested in the current world of finance will want to devour the book now, and I suspect it will be mandatory reading on trading floors and in business school for years to come."
-- Bryan Burrough, co- author of Barbarians at the Gate

"At last, the defining business book of the decade is here. Sandy Weill emerges as not just the most compelling character on Wall Street today, but a King Lear-like figure of towering ego, voracious appetite and ruthless ambition who embodies the transformative power of American capitalism. The behind-the-scenes reporting is unparalleled, placing the reader in top-secret board meetings, lunches at the Four Seasons, and on board the corporate jets where real financial power is wielded. As fresh as today's scandal-filled headlines, Tearing Down the Walls is also a meticulously detailed history and a powerful narrative that grips the reader right up to the revelations of its final pages."
--James B. Stewart, author of Den of Thieves

"Monica Langley has written what will surely be a contender for the best business book of 2003. Tearing Down the Walls is like a Chinese menu in which the reader is offered everything from column A and B -- a vivid biography of Wall Street titan Sandy Weill, an illuminating history of Wall Street, an inside-the-executive-suite look at how decisions are made, an explanation of why corporate America is sometimes ethically obtuse, a book that is anchored in fact yet reads like a novel. And, unlike a Chinese meal, readers will feel full hours later."
--Ken Auletta, author of Greed and Glory on Wall Street

About the Author

Monica Langley has written for The Wall Street Journal for twelve years. Her investigative reports on a wide array of subjects have regularly appeared on the Journal's front page. Formerly a practicing attorney for eight years, she lives with her husband and daughter in New York City.

Edition details

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0743247264
• ISBN 13: 9780743247269
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 480