The Last Tycoons, a secret history of the Lazard banking empire.
This book takes you on a tour of the history of the Lazard Frères banking empire, starting from its origins supporting merchants in the American gold rush through to its eventual IPO. For such a hefty volume it seems to rush through much of the early history up until the escape from occupied France of the partners, who reconvene in New York where they rebuild their empire having abandoned much of their wealth and former lives back in France.
There is a lot of information on some of the machinations behind the scenes during some of the highs and lows of the post war years, including some of the scandals that threatened to bring the bank down and how they supported the Franc during some difficult times and so escaped nationalisation at a time when most French banks got nationalised.
Overall, this was rather more book than I really needed, spending a lot of time on minutiae which will be relevant to anyone joining the modern Lazard, but seems wholly unnecessary outside the context of the company. An abridged version would have been a better choice.
(audio book, unabridged)