Business books in a nutshell

By Schumpeter

TEVI TROY, former official in George Bush's administration, now at the Hudson Institute, provides convenient one- or two-sentence summaries of the books that everyone in Washington, DC, claims, falsely, to have read:

• The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama: Liberal democracy has triumphed. End of story.

• Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin: Dissension in an administration can make the sum greater than the parts.

• Bush at War by Bob Woodward: Bush more involved than you'd think.

• Obama's Wars by Bob Woodward: Sure takes the new guy a long time to make a decision.

• Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam:The title says it all.

• The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy: Japan is about to eat our lunch. (Oops.)

It would be easy to provide similar summaries for other business books that everyone claims to have read, but hasn't like Peter Drucker's "The Concept of the Corporation" (treat workers as if they have brains as well as hands) or Michael Porter's "Competitive Strategy" (horses for courses).