Barbarians at the Gate

Barbarians at the Gate is the story of the leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco in 1988 — at the time, the largest corporate takeover in history. Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, both Wall Street Journal reporters, produced a book that reads like a thriller. The cast includes Henry Kravis, the king of leveraged buyouts; Ross Johnson, the swaggering CEO who triggered the bidding war; and a parade of bankers, lawyers, and advisors all fighting over billions of dollars.

The book is the definitive account of 1980s deal-making culture — the private jets, the celebrity golfers, the sheer insanity of spending $25 billion to buy a company that made cigarettes and cookies. But it is also a masterclass in how corporate incentives misalign when management's interests diverge from shareholders'. If you want to understand private equity, LBOs, or the culture of Wall Street deal-making, start here.