Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.


or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.
Tell the Publisher!
I'd like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Shades of Black: Conrad Black - His Rise and Fall [Hardcover]

Richard Siklos (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
List Price: CDN$ 36.99
Price: CDN$ 29.59 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save: CDN$ 7.40 (20%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Usually ships within 1 to 3 weeks.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.

Book Description

Release Date: Nov 9 2004
At the turn of the new millennium, Conrad Black was living the dream he had imagined for his entire life: he was married to a beautiful, intelligent woman who shared his political outlook and love of a lavish lifestyle; a Gulfstream jet ferried the couple among palatial homes in London, Toronto, Palm Beach, and New York; and he owned, among many other newspapers, the Daily Telegraph in London, England, the Jerusalem Post, and the Chicago Sun-Times. He would soon be granted a peerage and a seat in Britain’s House of Lords, his parties and company boards were packed with luminaries, and he was planning to write a biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt that would build his stature and presence in the United States, the country he worshipped.

What a difference four years make. Today, Conrad Black’s career and reputation are in free fall. He has been kicked out of Hollinger International, his main U.S. company, by its board of directors, and his prize possession, the Daily Telegraph, has been sold out from under him. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the FBI are investigating, and lawsuits are flying in every direction. In this definitive biography of the most famous Canadian businessperson of this generation, Richard Siklos delivers a riveting account of Black’s life and, for the first time, the inside story of his humiliating downfall, drawing on scores of new interviews conducted in four countries and on newly disclosed materials.

It is the story Siklos started to write in the 1995 edition of his bestselling biography of Conrad Black, Shades of Black, and now tells in full, gripping detail in this completely revised, updated, and vastly expanded edition, now subtitled Conrad Black – His Rise and Fall.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Product Details

Product Description

From Amazon

In 1995, Richard Siklos published Shades of Black, an account of Conrad Black's meteoric rise through the Canadian business establishment to the rank of newspaper baron. It was a portrait of a ruthless but successful businessman, a man you couldn't help but admire as much as you loathed him. Much has happened since the first edition of the book. Black continued building his media empire with the launch of Canada's National Post and his takeover of Britain's esteemed Telegraph newspaper--and then his empire crumbled as quickly as he built it, amidst allegations that Black and his cronies were using the company as a personal bank account and living extravagant lifestyles at the expense of shareholders. Now Siklos has expanded on his original biography to give the most complete account yet of Black's rise and fall. It's a comprehensive portrait of a man bent on wealth and power, from his early student days--marked by a cheating-for-profit scandal and a general disregard for playing by the rules--to his boardroom maneuverings as he desperately sought to maintain control of his empire in the face of shareholder investigations. It also provides insight into the more human side of Black, taking readers through his various relationships and revealing how his approach to both his lifestyle and his businesses changed after his marriage to his second wife, Barbara Amiel. Readers interested only in Black's fall would be better served by Wrong Way, an account of the scandal that toppled Black. But readers more interested in the man than the scandal can ask for no better source than Shades of Black. It's positively Shakespearean in its depictions of Black's grandiose aspirations to power and his undoing, and its story is always first and foremost a human one. --Peter Darbyshire

Review

From the reviews of the original edition:

“Exhaustive and strangely riveting… a fine book.”
–Toronto Sun

“Black’s wheelings, dealings and bluffs make for entertaining reading.”
–Ottawa Citizen

“Lively, thoroughly researched and fair… Siklos writes with confidence about Black’s often convoluted financial operations.”
–Times Literary Supplement (UK)
See all Product Description

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Customer Reviews

5 star
1
4 star
0
3 star
0
2 star
0
1 star
0
5.0 out of 5 stars
1 review
5.0 out of 5 stars
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Authoritative April 3 2007
By D. M. Ryan
Format:Hardcover
Mr. Siklos' biography, for those who want to get the measure of Conrad Black, is close to definitive. He not only corrects minor inaccuracies in Peter Newman's THE ESTABLISHMENT MAN, but he also extends the story right up to the 2004 ouster.

As you read through it, you'll see certain parallels in Black's life emerging. Conrad Black was the younger son of a businessman who retired early, at a time when retirement at forty-eight was considered odd. As a child, Black had a capacious memory, honed into perfection by his father's training of him. He was mentored by Bud MacDougald, the top boss of a dividend company named Argus. It was there that Conrad Black hit upon the idea of accumulating cash flow to use for takeovers, and where he developed an inclination for asset shuffles and corporate reorganizations. Previous to Black being ushered into the Argus world, he and his long-time partner, David Radler, had built up a chain of newspapers, Sterling, almost from the ground up. The secret behind their success was, essentially, cost-cutting. Black had found some notoriety as well as fame from his writings, but it was his takeover of Argus, a true coup, that brought him fame as a businessperson in 1978. Notoreity followed fame when two of the companies controlled by Argus began to founder; he also encountered some legal trouble in the early 1980s.

Conrad Black does have a law degree, and is comfortable following precedent or custom, but is also comfortable with grey areas in the law, and in pushing the envelope of custom or tradition. (An example of this last trait would be his supplementation of Mr. MacDougald's strategy, of using the accumulated surpluses in Argus plus some borrowed money to acquire more shares of companies he thought were undervalued, by borrowing copiously instead of sparingly.) These traits are evident throughout Mr. Siklos' book. Those who want to get the measure of Conrad Black would do well to pay close attention to part 1 of the book, as it describes Black's return to the station of a newspaper proprietor after learning much about financing and asset management at Argus, later folded into Hollinger Inc.

I read the original version when it first came out, and can vouch for the claim that it is "expanded and updated." If you're interested in Conrad Black, you may wind up reading this book a few times, not only once.
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 5.0 out of 5 stars  1 review
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Authoritative April 6 2007
By D. M. Ryan - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Mr. Siklos' biography, for those who want to get the measure of Conrad Black, is close to definitive. He not only corrects minor inaccuracies in Peter Newman's THE ESTABLISHMENT MAN, but he also extends the story right up to the 2004 ouster.

As you read through it, you'll see certain parallels in Black's life emerging. Conrad Black was the younger son of a businessman who retired early, at a time when retirement at forty-eight was considered odd. As a child, Conrad had a capacious memory, honed into perfection by his father's training of him. He was mentored by Bud MacDougald, the top boss of a dividend company named Argus. It was there that Conrad Black hit upon the idea of accumulating cash flow to use for takeovers, and where he developed an inclination for asset shuffles and corporate reorganizations. Previous to Black being ushered into the Argus world, he and his long-time partner, David Radler, had built up a chain of newspapers, Sterling, almost from the ground up. The secret behind their success was, essentially, cost-cutting. Black had found some notoriety as well as fame from his writings, but it was his takeover of Argus, a true coup, that brought him fame as a businessperson in 1978. Notoreity followed fame when two of the companies controlled by Argus began to founder; he also encountered some legal trouble in the early 1980s.

Conrad Black does have a law degree, and is comfortable following precedent or custom, but is also comfortable with grey areas in the law, and in pushing the envelope of custom or tradition. (An example of this last trait would be his supplementation of Mr. MacDougald's strategy, of using the accumulated surpluses in Argus plus some borrowed money to acquire more shares of companies he thought were undervalued, by borrowing copiously instead of sparingly.) These traits are evident throughout Mr. Siklos' book. Those who want to get the measure of Conrad Black would do well to pay close attention to part 1 of the book, as it describes Black's return to the station of a newspaper proprietor after learning much about financing and asset management at Argus, later folded into Hollinger Inc.

I read the original version when it first came out, and can vouch for the claim that it is "expanded and updated." If you're interested in Conrad Black, you may wind up reading this book a few times, not only once.
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

    Your Shopping Cart is empty.

    Give it purpose—fill it with books, DVDs, clothes, electronics, and more.

    If you already have an account, sign in.

    View Cart (0 items)

      Listmania!

      Create a Listmania! list

      Look for similar items by category

      Feedback

      Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

      Amazon.ca Privacy Statement Amazon.ca Shipping Information Amazon.ca Returns & Exchanges