The Rich and How They Got That Way : How the Wealthiest People of All Time--from Genghis Khan to Bill Gates--MadeTheir Fortunes
Author: Cynthia Crossen
List Price: $25.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0812932676
Publisher: Crown Business (18 July, 2000)
Sales Rank: 58,422
Average Customer Rating: 2.83 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Highly Recommended!
Cynthia Crossen presents a one-thousand-year pageant of fortune, focusing on how nine wealthy men - and one woman - gained and kept their wealth. Each person symbolizes an era, and a means of amassing money. Crossen combines their biographies with a discussion of the historical trends that contributed to the changing sources of wealth - from the ancient days when thievery and conquest were the way to riches to the times when trade, manufacturing and new technologies provided the roads to wealth. The book provides a fascinating and leisurely overview of history, as well as a glimpse of the lives of these wealthy people. The discussion sometimes wanders in time and place, with asides comparing different time periods. We [...] recommend this engaging, briskly written book to executives, managers and anyone fascinated by wealth, history or both.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Basically a history book...An easy read
This book is basically a history book with mini-biographies of 10 different people. It was not an insightful guide into how you can use proven techniques to reach the same heights. It was, however, interesting to read profiles on some famous people through history. Many of those documented I previously knew nothing about. In reading the individual stories, I was able to grasp the progression of the global economy although this was not explicitly explained. This was a good pre-bedtime or a bathroom read. I say this because you can read a chapter and pick it up a month later and read another chapter. SInce the chapters are basically separate biographies, you do not have to finish this one at once.
I would recommend this boojk for anyone who enjoys historical stories about business people and events. However, this is not a guide in any way that can be used to help you improve your business skills.
Rating: 1 out of 5
Little truth in this title
I bought this book because I saw it mentioned in Barron's as containing a chapter on Hetty Green, "the Witch of Wall Street". I knew a little of her story, how she bought cheap and sold dear, and was a famous miser.So I bought the book. It turns out to be more a collection of magazine article length peices about what these people were like, not how they got rich.
For example, after describing how Hetty inherited some money, married and moved to England, says:"Hetty eagerly bought up US government bonds, which, in the years after the civil war were being sold for as little as forty cents on the dollar. Most investors thought they would never be redeemed at full value. Hetty also began buying American railroad stocks and bonds. In one year in London, she made more than $1.25 million on her investments."
That's it. Nothing about how she chose to buy that particular investment, nothing about the other choices she rejected. Also nothing about how, when, or for how much she sold the bonds. Nothing at all useful to today's investor trying to choose what to buy cheap and when to sell dear.
My advice to you: don't invest in this book.
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