Search
Log in
  • Home

  • Categories

  • Audiobooks

  • E-books

  • For kids

  • Top lists

  • Help

  • Download app

  • Use campaign code

  • Redeem gift card

  • Try free now
  • Log in
  • Language

    🇨🇭 Schweiz

    • DE
    • EN

    🇧🇪 Belgique

    • FR
    • EN

    🇩🇰 Danmark

    • DK
    • EN

    🇩🇪 Deutschland

    • DE
    • EN

    🇪🇸 España

    • ES
    • EN

    🇫🇷 France

    • FR
    • EN

    🇳🇱 Nederland

    • NL
    • EN

    🇳🇴 Norge

    • NO
    • EN

    🇦🇹 Österreich

    • AT
    • EN

    🇫🇮 Suomi

    • FI
    • EN

    🇸🇪 Sverige

    • SE
    • EN
  1. Books
  2. History
  3. General history

Read and listen for free for 30 days!

Cancel anytime

Try free now
4.2(5)

Barbarians at the Gate : The Fall of RJR Nabisco

#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.


Authors:

  • Bryan Burrough
  • John Helyar

Narrator:

  • Eric Jason Martin

Format:

  • Audiobook

Duration:

  • 22 h 19 min

Language:

English

Categories:

  • History
  • General history
  • Business
  • Business history

Others have also read

Skip the list
  1. People, Power, and Profits

    Joseph E. Stiglitz

    audiobook
  2. The Independent Thinker

    Patrick King

    book
  3. Projektmanagement : Soft Skills für Projektleiter

    Tomas Bohinc

    book
  4. The Wires of War: Technology and the Global Struggle for Power

    Jacob Helberg

    audiobookbook
  5. Business Secrets from the Bible : Spiritual Success Strategies for Financial Abundance

    Daniel Lapin

    audiobook
  6. Bauvorhaben mithilfe von Lean Projektmanagement neu denken

    Martin Mohrmann

    book
  7. Ich und glücklich : 50 Strategien für ein besseres Leben

    Louis Victor

    audiobook
  8. Agile Projekte mit Scrum, XP und Kanban  : Erfahrungsberichte aus der Praxis

    Henning Wolf

    book
  9. Trauma: Befreie deine verletzte Seele - Wie du dein Trauma auflöst und endlich glücklich wirst dank bewährter Methoden

    Anette Hofmann

    audiobook
  10. Tag auf Tag im Hamsterrad : Wie das Geld- und Wirtschaftssystem funktioniert und uns zu Hamstern macht: Geldsystem verstehen 2.0

    Christopher Klein, Jens Helbig

    audiobook
  11. Atrocity on the Atlantic

    Nate Hendley

    audiobook
  12. Aufstehen, Krone richten, weitermachen : Entwaffnend ehrliche Gedanken, die helfen, das Leben zu meistern.

    Glennon Doyle Melton

    book

  • 1 book

    Bryan Burrough

    Bryan Burrough is a special correspondent at Vanity Fair and the author of five books.

    Read more

  • 1 book

    John Helyar

    John Helyar is a columnist for Bloomberg News. He previously wrote for the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and ESPN, and is the author of Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball.

    Read more

Help and contact


About us

  • Our story
  • Career
  • Press
  • Accessibility
  • Partner with us
  • Investor relations
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

Explore

  • Categories
  • Audiobooks
  • E-books
  • Magazines
  • For kids
  • Top lists

Popular categories

  • Crime
  • Biographies and reportage
  • Fiction
  • Feel-good and romance
  • Personal development
  • Children's books
  • True stories
  • Sleep and relaxation

Nextory

Copyright © 2025 Nextory AB

Privacy Policy · Terms · Imprint ·
Excellent4.3 out of 5