DISNEYWAR By James B. Stewart Simon & Schuster PP: 572 Price: Rs 885

Everybody has a dark side. It's just a matter of finding out what it is," James B. Stewart quotes Michael Eisner. His book, DisneyWar: The Battle for the Magic Kingdom, a highly critical exposé of the over two-decade-long reign of the Disney boss, is based on one-on-one interviews with all the dramatis personae and on thousands of internal Disney documents that were made available to him.

Stewart, a former editor of the Wall Street Journal and the best-selling author of Den of Thieves, which exposed massive wrongdoings and fraud by the heroes of Wall Street, spins a compelling tale of vaulting ambition, greed, jealousy, back-stabbing and boardroom shenanigans. Eisner comes across as a character from Shakespearean tragedy-a corporate King Lear or Macbeth or Henry IV-who, as absolute monarch, merges his own identity with that of his empire, leading both to near ruin.

DisneyWar is replete with examples of talented executives and partners who Eisner used, manipulated and then cast aside-Jeffery Katzenberg, Michael Ovitz, Roy Disney, Steve Jobs and several others-ethical standards be damned. Stewart also exposes Eisner as a man who will go to any lengths, and stoop to any depths, to preserve his power and authority.

But the first half of Eisner's reign at Walt Disney Company was marked by a series of triumphs. The book relates how he transformed an ailing $2.1-billion (in 1984) animation studio with a couple of theme parks into a $30-billion (Rs 1,32,000 crore) global entertainment and media powerhouse that in 2004 earned $4.5 billion (Rs 19,800 crore) and had a market capitalisation of over $40 billion (1,76,000 crore). His reward over 20 years: $600 million (Rs 2,640 crore). Eisner's problems began in the second half starting 1994. This was the phase when he began to have delusions about being Walt Disney's intellectual heir. He was fond of telling everyone that the name Disney had a French origin: D' Isner, or "Eisner without the D". The company's financial performance also began to falter. In 2004, civil war erupted within Disney. Shareholders, led by Roy Disney, voted to oust him as Chairman, but retained him as Chief Executive till 2006. Why did one of Hollywood's most celebrated and powerful executives fall from grace? Read the book to find out.

WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR INDIAN ECONOMY By P.K. Vasudeva Pearson Education PP: 515 Price: Rs 599

WTO PRIMER

The outcome of the world trade Organization's Sixth Ministerial Summit in Hong Kong in December this year is critical to the future of multilateralism. The world cannot afford fiascos like those in Seattle (1999) and Cancun (2003), where talks had to be aborted because of protests and differences between developed and developing countries.

With so much riding on the Hong Kong round, World Trade Organization: Implications for Indian Economy by P.K. Vasudeva, Principal, Dayanand College of Communication and Management, Chandigarh, is a welcome addition to the list of books on this subject. It stands out for its detailed overview of the Uruguay Round and its successor, the WTO in 1995, and on various agreements and their roles in shaping trade policies in an easy-to-read manner. It also discusses complex issues such as patents, labour clauses, sanitary and phytosanitary conditions. The case studies, in particular, are of great help. A must read for both the layman and the expert alike.

-Ashish Gupta