Dynasties
Fortunes and Misfortunes of the World's Great Family Businesses

This was a frustrating book. The author has exceptional knowledge, and appears to have the ability to make well-reasoned arguments supported by robust analysis. Further, he writes reasonably well and is writing about what should be an interesting subject. However, the book itself is not insightful, i......more

The story of dynasties interests me highly, and the book is very informative, picking a dozen of family-owned business around three themes (banking, automobile, natural resources). If i only gave this book 2 stars, it is not to deny its qualities : it is entertaining and full of anecdotes. But i some......more

difficult not to be intrigued by the stories of great business families such as the Rothschilds, Morgans, Rockefellers, Toyodas and Agnellis. They have helped to shape the world as we know it, enjoyed wealth beyond imagination and often lived highly colourful lives, whether by virtue of extraordinar......more

A fascinating little book that is a lot of fun to read but has serious points to make about the business and economics. Landes clearly knows his subjects well - and what a fascinating source of anecdote they are. If you are looking for a deep dive into one of these companies this is not the book for......more

A nice book to read about families and their effect and legacy in business with entertaining reviews of some of the lost influential families, their origin stories and how they progressed through the generations.......more