content: When in 1976 Jerome Kohlberg, Henry Kravis, and George Roberts left Bear Stears to form KKR, Wall Street realized these three dealermakers might become a major force in the restructuring of American big business then beginning. What could not be predicted was the heights KKR would achieve. It has risen from the ranks of upstarts to become a major player in "The New Establishment." While KKR has been the subject of other books and articles, none could be considered "definitive," as is "The New Financial Capitalists." It is more than a history of a bank, however. Baker and Smith have addressed the problem posed by the separation of ownership and management delineated in 1934 by Adolph Berle and Gardner Means in "The Modern Corporation and Private Property," indicating how the leveraged buyout programs of the 1980s helped resolve it.