Back room deals... check. Corporate greed.... check. While it may be a new take on things you might already know or have heard about, this book will provide you details and perspective that you had not thought of. If you like books about business and businesses, this is a great read.

The title of Jacques Peretti’s _The Deals that Made the World_, and even mores, it’s subtitle, “Reckless Ambition, Backroom Negotiations, and the Hidden Truths of Business,” promises an exciting behind the scenes look at the makings of some of the most impactful business deals in the world. Alas, it does not live up to the hype.

Peretti’s thesis is essentially that though the world focuses on politics as the driver of change and regulation of social and economic fortunes, it is more frequently businesses, and the deals made within them, that “have changed ow we spend nd think about money; the way we work; how we conceptualize wealth and risk, tax and inequality.” A strong concept that he then explores through the guise of landmark business deals relating to planned obsolescence, food, drugs, cash, work, risk, taxes, wealth, globalizations, and automation, followed by a discongrous epilog that does not seek to wrap up his argument in any coherent way, but merely predicts the next major impacts will come from small entrepreneurs (while using a big-business initiative by FaceBook to support his point).

More disappointing than the weakness of his argument, though, is that the book’s content is not reflective of its title or back matter. Far from an exciting window into how the sausage is made, most is a quasi-academic economic/social history of the impact of various business decisions. Never once are we given a slims of the reckless ambition, the backroom negotiations, or the hidden truths the subtitle promises.

Instead, we get a series of fairly dry essays about various business decisions (some of them aren’t even “deals,” as they do not involve two or more negotiating parties. They are appropriately be named “decisions.”). In fairness, these are some of the decisions with the largest socio-economic impact in the history of the industrial and post-industrial world. But few are not well known already. Thus, each chapter is essentially an essay of a level appropriate for a 500-level graduate seminar in economic history. But not much more enticing or connected than that. This makes for slow reading, as it is easy to read a chapter, then set the book aside for a month or two, and pick back up with the next one (or a random other one), having really missed nothing of the narrative.

The prose is passable, if not particularly interesting. Peretti’s journalistic background is well-revealed there. To his credit, there are some good citations in the form of Chicago Style end notes. However, these are spotty. If one were seeking to use this work as a starting point for academic research, he would find frustratingly frequent facts, statistics, and quotations that are not cited.

Disclaimer: I received a free pre-release copy in exchange for reviewing. The pre-release copy was an unedited proof, so some improvements may be made before publication. There were no restrictions or influence on the content of my review. ( )

We're all dupes, but I, for one, am not surprised to find out. The post-democratic, globalised, money-driven world order is stripped bare in this fascinating and confounding book. Unsurprisingly, the cover quotes Russell Brand who you either think is a prophet or a looney. I tend toward the former characterisation. Read this, and vote.

It's not an easy read as it's dense with information, but Peretti does a good job of contextualising much of the data. I found myself taking it a topic at a time, then putting it down for a week or two. ( )

The book's title is reflective of the author's hubris. In ten chapters, averaging 27 pages each, he attempts to set forth the current state (in the world) of subjects such as FOOD, DRUGS, CASH, WEALTH, WORK. His journalistic device is to tie each subject to a "deal", which is described and dated in a few sentences at the beginning of each chapter. As we read, we learn that most often the "deal" is a consequence, not a precipitator, of the events hurriedly described in the chapter. Far from "making the world", the deals are reflective of complex happenings and forces that are always bubbling in our society.

Because Peretti is attempting, in essence, to describe the current "world", he is hopelessly bogged down by his overreach. Every paragraph is so chuck full of happenings, statistics, dates, names and references that his descriptions make very difficult reading. They do not flow.

Stories of economic events provide some of the most fascinating works in the non-fiction world. I have recently given top reviews on this site to two such books: A FIRST CLASS CATASTROPHE, Donna Henriques (2017); FEAR CITY, Kim Phillips-Fein (2017). And I would rather read a Michael Lewis book on the markets than a fast-moving murder mystery anytime. The authors just mentioned take the time, and the pages, to describe the players, their motivations, their personal quirks and the suspense leading up to the denouement. Peretti doesn't do this.

Yes, the author writes well and has chosen interesting topics, but he has chosen way too many to make his book a satisfying page-turner. ( )

In the world of business, backdoor deals are everywhere. This book takes on the biggest of the businesses with the most reaching global deals ever made. It covers everything from the food we eat, to the drugs we take, to the cash we use, up to the world of business itself. This is one business book that everyone should read! ( )