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DisneyWar
by James B. Stewart


10.0

based on 15 reviews
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The former Wall Street Journal editor and author of "Den Of Thieves" turns his attention to the recent internal power struggles at the Walt Disney Company. Stewart bases this highly critical expose not just on thousands of documents, but also first-hand interviews with the primary players in the saga, including Michael Eisner and Roy Disney.

Simon & Schuster, 416 pages
02/22/2005
$29.95

ISBN: 0684809931

Nonfiction
Business & Professional
Current Events & Politics
Entertainment & Media

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Publishers Weekly

Stewart has an astonishing story to tell. His notable accomplishment is that he tells it so well. [14 Feb 2005, p.61]

Washington Post Bob Woodward

DisneyWar is a compelling and often brilliant tale... a monumental achievement of in-depth reporting.

Wall Street Journal Andy Kessler

Can be tedious at times, although worth the effort, for the details show something startling about Mr. Eisner's executive style.

The Economist

Mr Stewart's history is farce as well as morality tale.

Boston Globe Peter J. Howe

A rigorously reported account that pulls no punches.

Houston Chronicle Alcestis Oberg

Exhaustively researched and well-written, it's a complicated tale told by someone with a thorough understanding of both business and writing.

The New York Times Book Review John Leonard

Those of us with a taste for abuse can revel in what James Stewart expertly culls from a multitude of interviews, the verbatim notes the journalist Tony Schwartz took for Eisner's autobiography, transcripts of court hearings and correspondence with lawyers.

The Onion A.V. Club Nathan Rabin

Disney War is a show-business story heavy on business and light on show. Stewart adopts a lean, economical, just-the-facts, hard-news approach that perfectly suits the material's innate drama.

The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Joe Flower

Stewart's excellent and exacting account seethes with intimate corporate detail. [26 Mar 2005, p.D12]

The Guardian Jay Parini

Stewart tells this story with an almost indecent gusto, and the result is a thoroughly readable and entertaining book.

Daily Telegraph Tom Shone

Eisner is, however, too diffuse to hold it all together. What was Disney's problem is now Stewart's: he needed a fabulous monster at dead-centre if his book was to sustain its 500-plus pages, hurling desks and journalists as it goes. Instead of which, he gets a sniper.

Entertainment Weekly Steve Daly

Tenacious reporting can't overcome a fatal narrative problem: Eisner, while wounded, is still standing.... That ultimately makes DisneyWar a dead-end read.

Los Angeles Times Richard Schickel

On the one hand, this portrait of the executive suite as rat's nest has an undeniably hypnotizing effect; you eagerly turn the pages -- almost every one of which contains a new betrayal, a new example of human wretchedness. On the other hand, at a certain point in the book, men behaving badly become men behaving predictably, therefore tediously. [11 Feb 2005, p.E1]

The New York Times Janet Maslin

Mr. Stewart recapitulates all this with more studiousness than flair, to the point where the book comes to resemble one of the PowerPoint boardroom presentations that it describes.

Chicago Tribune David Greising

Stewart, an accomplished piano player, seems to have forgotten in his writing the technique that turns piano playing into art: dynamics. Too often, he unfolds events for us with the steadiness of a metronome.

The average user rating for this book is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
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DisneyWar by James B. Stewart

DisneyWar
by James B. Stewart