Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The RJR Nabisco takeover was not a crime, and that is what makes it useful. In Bryan Burrough and John Helyar’s account nobody breaks a law. The chief executive, the buyout firms, the investment banks and the directors all behave rationally given what each personally stood to gain — and the company still ends up sold at a record price paid with borrowed money, its chief executive gone, its new owners holding a deal they would later say they would not repeat. The argument underneath the storytelling is structural. When the people making a decision are paid on a different basis from the people who own the asset, the decision stops being about the asset.

Bryan Burrough on SummaryShelf

Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco