Tearing Down the Walls: How Sandy Weill Fought His Way to the Top of the Financial World. . .and Then Nearly Lost It All

by Monica Langley

He is one of the world's 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 Weill's 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 Brooklyn's back alleys overcame incredible odds and deep-seated prejudices to transform the financial-services industry as we know it today.
Using nearly five hundred firsthand interviews with key players in Weill's life and career -- including Weill himself -- Langley brilliantly chronicles not only his success and scandals but also the shadows of his hidden his father's 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 man's 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.

Genres: Business, Finance, Nonfiction, Biography, History, Economics

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Emma Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

CHUCK SUCKS.

Sandy should have gone with Jamie Dimon.

[Christian Comer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book. Would recommend to people who are interested in business history.

[Brent Lindstrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wouldn't want to be Sandy, but his story is increadible. Getting to know what life was like in this world was eye opening.

[Tirath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, a great biography of a person who isn't in the news anymore.
Extremely detailed about the person who used to be, and may be still is, Sandy Weill.

His chutzpah and his flaws balance each other, but not all the time. He grew a small company with people around him falling to the background, somewhere along the way, he fell and then he came back strong.
Frankly, the book is not at all technical on financials but is more about the manager, the specialist and the fire inside him.

Reading the book is just like watching a movie about Weill. Great read. Buy it.

[Keaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my book they talk about the cold war. I loved my book because it is talking about our president Tremor. In the book the were talking about how world war two end and what every one did after the war. Once the war was over the presidents were talking about what would happen if a cold war did happen. In my book they talked about how one president ended the cold war. I would recommend this book to people that love history.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great read.

[Duff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely well-reported chronicle of the rise of Sandy Weill.

[M]

He did fine by me! Gave a $9,000.00 line of credit on my Citibank card back in 1986!! and I got the letter signed by him to prove it. Lots of haters, but that is the name of the capitalist game.