In this timely and urgent book, Rohatyn re-creates some of the most dramatic events in our history to show how strong and imaginative political leadership built America and demonstrates that such leadership is essential today to reverse the catastrophic degeneration of America's infrastructure, bridges, tunnels, roads and rails, flood levees and gates. Readers of David McCullough and Stephen Ambrose will revel in his narrative. Although the private sector has been the mainstay of America's economy, Felix Rohatyn argues the country could not have grown into its full destiny without the vision and determination of political leaders who imagined the future and acted to achieve it.

He begins with the Louisiana Purchase by Thomas Jefferson in 1805, which doubled the size of the country, and the construction of the Erie Canal in 1817-1825, which opened a water route to the West. The chartering of the Trans-Continental railroad, the Land Grant Colleges, and the Homestead Act in 1863, led by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, together opened the continent. The Panama Canal, which joined the east and West coasts by sea, was driven by Theodore Roosevelt. FDR's Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and Eisenhower's Interstate Highway program modernized America, and the GI Bill of rights, which came after World War II, remains the greatest investment in intellectual capital and housing in our history.

Rohatyn describes these enterprises as examples of the imagination and decisive leadership that the country is in desperate need of, and, in a final chapter, he predicts the multiple benefits of similarly bold undertakings to secure our nation's future and offers a blueprint for setting priorities and financing them.

One of the most important business and public leaders of the second half of the twentieth century gives us a frank and compelling memoir that tells the story behind the headlines of many of the celebrated and controversial mergers that reshaped American business.

Hailed as "the preeminent investment banker of his generation," Felix Rohatyn's very personal account offers readers a telling look at some of our era's most renowned figures in the worlds of finance, entertainment, and politics. We are alongside as he meets Steve Ross in the back of the funeral parlor Ross is managing as they strategize to take control of Warner Brothers; in the art-filled apartment of legendary financier Andre Meyer as they negotiate with Frank Sinatra; with Harold Geneen as ITT weathers a series of congressional investigations; one step ahead of a canny Michael Ovitz as Matsushita attempts to win control of Lew Wasserman's Universal Pictures; defending the shareholders' interests as the RJR-Nabisco buyout becomes a cautionary tale of executive greed. And we have a front-row seat as Rohatyn and Governor Hugh Carey forge a desperation plan to save New York City from bankruptcy. We also accompany Rohatyn as he serves as ambassador to France, a country he barely escaped alive when as a young boy he and his Jewish family fled from the Nazis.

Full of headline-making revelations, insider stories, keen personal observations, and relevant financial wisdoms, "Dealings" is the page-turning story of a life well-lived.