The Deal Maker: How William C. Durant Made General Motors

Author:   Axel Madsen
Publisher:   John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Edition:   New edition
ISBN:  

9780471395232


Pages:   320
Publication Date:   01 December 2000
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Out of print, replaced by POD   Availability explained
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The Deal Maker: How William C. Durant Made General Motors


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Overview

The roller-coaster life of the flamboyant creator of General Motors William C. Durant did big things the big way: he overreached, but, until his final failure, he picked up the pieces time after time to confound his competitors. From a turbulent childhood in the small town of Flint, Michigan, to his phenomenal success in creating General Motors, Durant's meteoric career easily rivals the success stories of modern legends like Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, and Bill Gates. With his trademark smile and personal charisma, Durant assembled General Motors in a few short years, buying companies at the rate of one every thirty days. Durant's deal-making artistry even tempted Henry Ford, and had Durant upped his acquisition price Ford would be a division of GM today. Durant's story illuminates the conflict between innovation and control of innovation -of the uneasy alliances struck again and again between inventors and their sources of capital. His years of heady success building General Motors were marked by epic struggles with bankers. But he depended on only a few sources of big money to finance his exploding business, and pitted himself against forces he underestimated or refused to consider. Gambling on a run on GM stock, he was finally forced into a buyout that ousted him from his role in the GM empire. Into the dramatic tale of this early twentieth-century mogul come the fascinating automotive pioneers -Henry Ford, David Buick, Charles Nash, Albert Champion, Louis Chevrolet, and Alfred P. Sloan. On Wall Street, J. P. Morgan turned down Durant's request for a loan while Pierre du Pont invested in Durant's expansion. Tracing the fortunes of a man and his era, The Deal Maker is a fast-paced, rousing tale of Durant's dizzying success and ultimate failure.

Full Product Details

Author:   Axel Madsen
Publisher:   John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Imprint:   John Wiley & Sons Inc
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Width: 15.40cm , Height: 2.10cm , Length: 23.00cm
Weight:   0.506kg
ISBN:  

9780471395232


ISBN 10:   0471395234
Pages:   320
Publication Date:   01 December 2000
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print
Availability:   Out of print, replaced by POD   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufatured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

The Man. Rebecca's Boy. Testing the Waters. D & D. Madison Square Garden. David Buick. Private Lives. Carmaking. The Selden Cartel. Competition. Affair of the Heart. Checkered Flags. Thinking Big. Darwinian Lessons. A New Baby . Back in the Saddle. A Different Animal. Du Pont. Into the Roaring Twenties. November Storm. Forget Mistakes . Feeding Frenzy. Stock Pools. Bubble Economy. A Lion in Winter. Afterimages. Notes on Sources. Bibliography. Index.

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Author Information

AXEL MADSEN has written fifteen biographies, including Chanel: A Woman of Her Own; Gloria and Joe: The Star-Crossed Love Affair of Gloria Swanson and Joe Kennedy; Cousteau; and Malraux. He lives in Los Angeles.

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