November 30, 2006
Reviewed by David Zweig
Five years through the grieving process, what have we learned from 9/11? Academy Members Peter and Monika Ressler, who simultaneously lost 95% of their business and dozens of firefighter-friends that morning, have learned volumes.
The revised edition of Spiritual Capitalism is twice the length of its predecessor. The authors’ lens has pulled back. As their breadth of focus has expanded, most of the book actually doesn’t speak about the events of 9/11 and its direct wrenching aftermath. Rather, they view the dilemmas and developments in commerce in the intervening half-decade through a prism of the shift in values that the firefighters, with whom the Resslers are so intimate, invite us to adopt as our own.
The book’s structure follows, in part, the lessons we could learn from New York’s Bravest. But the applications of those lessons now pertain to current events and everyday business — oil shocks, mega-scandals, offshoring, globalism,intensified cost-cutting and more.
The Resslers have crafted a new edition that is current, vital, and handsome to hold and read. It doesn’t flinch from the fact that parts of Wall Street have retreated from the noble example the blue-collar firefighters set. The Resslers view this inevitable backsliding with the equanimity that comes when one is at peace in a respite during a long journey of self-examination. Such wisdom is rare. This is a splendid book.