William D. Cohan s The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co. is the astonishing story of the world s most elite and legendary investment bank - and the men who reigned over it all.
For over 150 years Lazard Frères had stood apart from other Wall Street firms by offering ultra-wealthy clients the wisdom of its Great Men : from Felix Rohatyn, the escapee from Nazi-occupied France turned financial genius, to Michel David-Weill, the inscrutable French billionaire Sun King ; from Steve Rattner, the boy wonder from Long Island who clashed violently with the old guard, to larger-than-life CEO Bruce Wasserstein, Bid-Em-Up-Bruce , who broke with the bank s traditions and made himself billions in the process. They amassed unimaginable fortunes and would stop at nothing to make a deal, until their titanic egos started to jeopardize everything.