Blue Blood and Mutiny

Blue Blood and Mutiny: The Fight for the Soul of Morgan Stanley is a non-fiction book by American journalist and historian Patricia Beard. The book was initially published by William Morrow on September 18, 2007.

Overview
The books focuses on the history of investment bank Morgan Stanley and on how a powerful fight within the firm was orchestrated by a group of eight retired executives, led to the removal of its then CEO, Philip J. Purcell. The group was led by S. Parker Gilbert and Robert Scott, a former Morgan Stanley chairman and president respectively. The group carefully worked behind the scenes to publicise Purcell as a Midwestern rustic lacking sophistication and understanding of elite financial markets. Their efforts were aimed at restoring the ethical foundation of the firm and resulted in the triumphant return of John J. Mack to do "first class business in a first class way".

Criticism
"THERE are insider accounts, and then there are really insider accounts. Patricia Beard's "Blue Blood and Mutiny: The Fight for the Soul of Morgan Stanley," falls into the latter category as it describes the civil war at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter after the firms merged. With the cooperation of the rebels, including Anson Beard, a former brother-in-law of Ms. Beard, "Blue Blood and Mutiny" (William Morrow, $26.95) provides the closest look yet at the former executives who took the fight to Philip J. Purcell, the chief executive of the combined firm.

From 1997 through 2005, Mr. Purcell, the aloof Midwesterner who had run Dean Witter, the retail brokerage, sat atop Morgan Stanley, the bluest of the blue-blood firms. The merger promised to transform the financial industry, but the melding of the consumer and institutional businesses did not go smoothly. As the firm stumbled repeatedly, the rebels began a very public fight to oust Mr. Purcell. Ms. Beard's book is full of meticulous, inside detail — at one point, after the dismissal of two top bankers (in what came to be known as the Monday Massacre) she recounts how Tarek Abdel-Meguid, another senior banker, flew back from vacation, arriving at the office still in an aqua T-shirt and Topsiders. But at times the book drowns in the details, bogging down the narrative."

—The New York Times