Master of the Game: Steve Ross and the Creation of Time Warner [Paperback]

Connie Bruck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1995

In a career that began in Brooklyn and spanned Wall Street, Hollywood, and the Mafia, Ross built his father-in-law's funeral business and a parking lot company into Time Warner, the largest media and entertainment company in the world. Hard-hitting and compulsive reading, this book takes you into the heart of what made this arrogant yet irresistible man tick.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bruck chronicles the fast-paced career of Time Warner's Steve Ross, who transformed his father-in-law's funeral business into the world's largest media company.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Bruck, famous for her muckraking book about Michael Milken (Predator's Ball, LJ 3/15/89), unveils another power person's reckless spending habits and questionable management actions. Bruck uncovers details about Ross and the Time-Warner merger that are not in Richard Clurman's To the End of Time (LJ 2/1/92). Unfortunately, the abundant detail loses the reader at times, and Bruck is so focused on the wrongdoings of Ross and those at Time, Inc., that she offers little insight about the future of the company. Nonetheless, academics and business people will probably demand this book. Weakly recommended.
--Rebecca A. Smith, Harvard Business Sch. Lib.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 395 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books (April 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140244549
• ISBN-13: 978-0140244540
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #979,957 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gives a good understanding of Warner Communication, March 13, 2003

By 

John D Early (Blacksburg, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Master of the Game: Steve Ross and the Creation of Time Warner (Paperback)

This book gives a good understanding of the history of Warner from Kinney to the creation of Time Warner. This is an excellent book to give an understanding of how a media empire is built.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crazy & thrilling biography., June 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Master of the Game: Steve Ross and the Creation of Time Warner (Paperback)

Anyone in media or entertainment has to read this book. It was, by far, the strangest story I read during two years of business school and it will help Time Warner employees understand how the company & culture was created. M&A people should also check this out since the merger of Time & Warner is the most interesting part of the book. Time was supposedly buying Warner Bros yet the Warner top brass ended up in charge.

3.0 out of 5 stars How May I Serve You?, April 8, 2009

By 

MKM "mad about books" (Bronxville, NY USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Master of the Game: Steve Ross and the Creation of Time Warner (Paperback)

Interesting book about a very interesting man. How may I serve you was Steve Ross's greeting to the family of the departed when he was a funeral director. He used that keen awareness and ability for empathy expand his funeral company into NYC parking garages, rental cars, music business, movies, cable and finally into the largest media company in the world - Time Warner. The book was a biography and well written by Connie Bruck. My 3 stars are mainly because I was more interested in the business side rather than Ross's personal life. The latter part on the Time Warner merger provided a lot of details from her original New Yorker articles and new intererviews for the book. At times she was very enamored of Ross but that was his strength. However this was balanced in the end where Ross's light seemed to have diminished.