Family businesses are seen by many as the backbone of the economy. The drawback to this idea is that, like all families, these businesses are more prone to conflict than other firms. That at least is the view of the authors of this potted history of the main conflicts in family businesses.
The family firm is probably the oldest and most widely adopted business model, and this book goes back to the year 578 and covers the entire globe.

The first case is a business riff on the Cain and Abel parable and sets the tone for what follows, with cases presented as informal stories. Each has a comment and useful insight at the end.

Rather than group cases by region or era, the book takes the big issues faced by family firms and explores each with several studies. This has the advantage of allowing comparison, but it does mean some repetition.

Notwithstanding the occasional editing howler and an uncompromising design and font, this is essential reading for anyone keen to get a deeper understanding of what makes family businesses tick.