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SIMON & SCHUSTER Tearing Down the Walls by Monica Langley
He is one of the worlds most accomplished figures of modern finance. As chairman and chief executive officer of Citigroup Sanford Sandy Weill has become an American legend a banking visionary whose innovativeness opportunism and even fear drove him from the lowliest jobs on Wall Street to its most commanding heights. In this unprecedented biography acclaimed Wall Street Journal reporter Monica Langley provides a compelling account of Weills rise to power. What emerges is a portrait of a man who is as vital and as volatile as the market itself. Tearing Down the Walls tells the riveting inside story of how a Jewish boy from Brooklyns back alleys overcame incredible odds and deepseated prejudices to transform the financialservices industry as we know it today. Using nearly five hundred firsthand interviews with key players in Weills life and career including Weill himself Langley brilliantly chronicles not only his success and scandals but also the shadows of his hidden self: his fathers abandonment and his loving marriage; his tyrannical rages as well as his tearful regrets; his fierce sense of loyalty and his ruthless elimination of potential rivals. By highlighting in new and startling detail one mans life in a narrative as richly textured and compelling as a novel Tearing Down the Walls provides the historical context of the dramatic changes not only in business but also in American society in the last half century.show more