Where to Start with Andrew Ross Sorkin: A Reading Guide

Andrew Ross Sorkin (born 1977) is an American financial journalist, columnist, and television host who is the founder of the DealBook newsletter and conference at the New York Times and a co-anchor of CNBC’s Squawk Box. Too Big to Fail (2009) is his account of the 2008 financial crisis, researched through hundreds of interviews with the major participants — giving him access to reconstructed scenes inside the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department, and the boardrooms of the major banks during the days and weeks when the global financial system came closest to collapse.

Where to Start: Too Big to Fail (2009)

The essential Sorkin — and the definitive narrative account of the 2008 financial crisis. Too Big to Fail is built on extraordinary reporting: Sorkin spoke to virtually every major participant — Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, New York Fed President Tim Geithner, and the CEOs and senior executives of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, AIG, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and every other major institution involved — and reconstructed their conversations, arguments, and decisions with a level of detail that gives the book the immediacy of fiction and the authority of journalism.

The book’s centre of gravity is the September 2008 weekend when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. Paulson, Bernanke, and Geithner spent that weekend trying to arrange a private-sector rescue for Lehman — the approach that had worked with Bear Stearns six months earlier. The rescue failed because the potential acquirers (Barclays, Bank of America) pulled back, and because Paulson had decided publicly that no further government bailouts would be forthcoming. On Monday morning, Lehman filed for bankruptcy, and what followed was the worst financial crisis since 1929.

Sorkin’s account of these events is remarkable for the intimacy of its access. He reconstructs the specific arguments — who thought what, who pushed back on whom, what information was available and what was not — with enough precision to give the reader a genuine sense of what it felt like to be making those decisions under those pressures with that level of uncertainty. The human portraits that emerge — Paulson’s physical anxiety, Tim Geithner’s analytical composure, Dick Fuld’s denial about Lehman’s situation — are drawn with the complexity of nonfiction that takes its subjects seriously.

The book’s analytical weakness — acknowledged by its critics — is that it is closer to the decision-makers than to their critics, and does not fully engage with the structural causes of the crisis or the question of whether the bailouts were the right response. Michael Lewis’s The Big Short, which covers the same crisis from the perspective of the people who saw it coming, provides the analytical counterpart. But as a document of what happened inside those rooms and what those decisions felt like to the people making them, Too Big to Fail has not been surpassed.

Why Too Big to Fail Is the Ideal First Book

For a reader new to Andrew Ross Sorkin, Too Big to Fail is the ideal and essential first book because it is his major work, a definitive account of the 2008 financial crisis, and the fullest expression of his distinctive gift, the rendering of a complex and consequential event through deep reporting and gripping narrative. Too Big to Fail tells the inside story of the financial crisis, reconstructing the dramatic days in which the global financial system teetered on the edge of collapse and the bankers and officials who scrambled to save it. As an entry point, it is the natural and essential place to begin, for it is Sorkin’s defining work, the acclaimed account on which his reputation rests. It welcomes the newcomer with its dramatic story, its deep reporting, and its gripping narrative, drawing the reader into a definitive account of a momentous event. It is his major book and the fullest expression of his gifts, so that the new reader encounters Sorkin’s achievement directly. For the newcomer interested in the financial crisis or in narrative nonfiction, then, Too Big to Fail is the natural and ideal starting point.

What to Expect as a New Reader

As a new reader, you can expect Too Big to Fail to be a definitive, deeply reported, and gripping account of the 2008 financial crisis. You can expect an inside story, for Sorkin reconstructs the dramatic days in which the global financial system teetered on the edge of collapse, drawing on extensive reporting and access to render the events from the inside. You can expect deep reporting, for the book is grounded in extensive interviews and sources, lending its account authority and detail. You can expect gripping narrative, for Sorkin renders the complex and consequential events with the tension, momentum, and immediacy of a thriller, following the bankers, officials, and decisions that shaped the crisis. You can expect insight into the workings of high finance and the people at the center of the crisis. You can expect a substantial but compelling account of a momentous event. Expect, in short, a definitive, deeply reported, and gripping account of the 2008 financial crisis, a compelling introduction to Sorkin’s gifts.

Going Deeper After Your First Book

Once Too Big to Fail has introduced you to Sorkin’s gifts, the reader who wishes to go deeper can explore the wider literature on the 2008 financial crisis and on finance and business to which his work belongs, reading other accounts and analyses in the light of the definitive narrative that his book provides. The financial crisis generated a rich body of books, from other narrative accounts to analyses of its causes and consequences, and the reader gripped by Too Big to Fail can pursue the subject further through these works, which complement and contextualize Sorkin’s inside story. Reading more deeply deepens your understanding of the crisis, the world of high finance, and the forces that shaped them. Sorkin’s gripping, deeply reported account provides an ideal entry, and the reader who has absorbed it is well equipped to explore the wider literature. Building your reading journey from Too Big to Fail is a matter of carrying its narrative into the wider literature on the financial crisis and finance. The reader who begins with Too Big to Fail will have a definitive and gripping account of one of the most consequential events of recent history.

Reading Andrew Ross Sorkin

Too Big to Fail is Sorkin’s essential work. It stands alone and requires no prior reading.

For the full Andrew Ross Sorkin bibliography, reviews, and biography, visit the Andrew Ross Sorkin author page on Editors Reads.

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