Book Review: Great Business Disasters

Ya know those books from Playboy that are so good you can't put them down until you finish?

Great Business Disasters: Swindlers, Bunglers and Frauds in American Industry, edited by Isadore Barmash and published by the Playboy Press, is just that kind of book. I would actually say that it's the most interesting book of business history I've ever encountered. And it's out of print.

Great Business Disasters is an anthology of some of the best financial journalism of the era, with a special focus on longer pieces covering frauds and mess-ups. We get a piece by John Brooks (author of the also-excellent Once in Golconda) on the infamous Ford Edsel and a fascinating piece by a very young Andrew Tobias on the National Student Marketing fiasco, who worked as a marketing director for the company.

There are a total of 15 accounts of some of the greatest and most infamous mess-ups in business history. Some of these are more obscure but still fascinating, and you're unlikely to find out about them outside of this book.

Reading Great Business Disasters, I couldn't help but lament the fact that this sort of long-form journalism is dying. Only a few great writers -- Gary Weiss and Herb Greenberg come to mind -- are carrying on this art. With Rupert Murdoch having complained that he finds The Wall Street Journal's feature stories too long, this situation seems likely to get worse.

Someone really needs to get the rights to this book and put it back in print -- It could be updated with some of The Wall Street Journal's accounts of the Enron blow-up and, of course, my coverage of Usana Health Sciences (Kidding...). Fortunately, the book is still available. Here are some places to get it used:

• On eBay
• AbeBooks
• Amazon.com (As low as a penny!)