''The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron'' is a book by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, first published in 2003 by

Portfolio Trade Portfolio may refer to: Objects * Portfolio (briefcase), a type of briefcase Collections * Portfolio (finance), a collection of assets held by an institution or a private individual * Artist's portfolio, a sample of an artist's work or a c ...

. In 2005, it was adapted into a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

, '' Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room''. McLean and Elkind worked on the book when they both were ''Fortune'' senior writers. McLean had written a March 5, 2001 article for ''Fortune'' called, "Is Enron overpriced?" The book is not only about the

Enron scandal The Enron scandal was an accounting scandal involving Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas. Upon being publicized in October 2001, the company declared bankruptcy and its accounting firm, Arthur Andersen then ...

, but also describes the authors' effort in following the developing story as it happened. It is based on hundreds of interviews and details from personal calendars, performance reviews, e-mails, and other documents. ''BusinessWeek'' called it, "The best book about the Enron debacle to date." It hit the New York Times bestseller list and was named one of ''strategy+business'' magazine's best business books of 2003.

References

External links

Interview with McLean about ''The Smartest Guys in the Room'', June 19, 2005
on

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

talk show ''Q&A'' 2004 non-fiction books Non-fiction books adapted into films Books about the Enron scandal Finance books {{business-book-stub