The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co.

Published in 2007, one year before the industry-altering financial crisis, William D. Cohan's The Last Tycoons profiles the history of one of the more prestigious investment banks in the world: Lazard Freres. Cohan is himself a former Lazard investment banker, and his 150-year story revolves around primarily the firm's key leaders — Felix Rohatyn (a legendary M&A banker in the 1950s and 1960s), Bruce Wasserstein (Lazard's chairman/CEO who led the firm's 2005 IPO), and Steve Rattner (a former journalist who would leverage his New York Times connections to become one of the most successful deal-makers on Wall Street in the 1980s). Cohen is perhaps is overly enamored with the firm's big personalities — a more interesting book would have focused on Lazard's broader organizational structure and its 3,000+ employees — but this is otherwise an insightful look at the evolution of the company and the role investment banks more generally.