Your ‘One Click’ Review of Richard Brandt’s Amazon.com book

One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com is a new book by Richard Brandt which delivers an overview of Amazon.com and its founder Jeff Bezos. Although this is a well written overview on both subjects, in my opinion these are both amazing stories that deserve their own more complete books.

Brandt starts with an overview on the background and upbringing of Jeff Bezos. It was interesting to learn of the technical achievements that Jeff attained during his younger years. I did not realize that Jeff is a technical whiz; I always assumed he was an expert on retail or book selling!


In the next section, Brandt reviews the history of Amazon; how it started, got its name, and how it grew. It includes a review of the controversy around the ‘One-Click patent’, along with some of the successful Amazon innovations such as Market Place, Gold Box Deals, and Customer Reviews. Missing from the book was any review of the significant impacts on the decision to offer free shipping on orders over $25. On the other hand some of the failures, such as the auctions to compete with EBay, are also covered.

The ugly side comes out as well during the overview of reported threats against publishing houses that would not agree to lower prices. I was disappointed that the 2005 reports that Amazon offered different prices to different customers based on part purchases was not presented in this book.

The philosophy of why Bezos did not focus on turning a profit and how his approach was forced to change is provided in detail. This discussion is presented in conjunction with the history of how and when Amazon expanded outside of being just a book seller.

After we are caught up to date on Amazon Brandt again returns to Bezos and provides an overview of his leadership style (we learn that he is a hard driving, idea guy) along with his initiatives for space exploration as part of Blue Orbit.

My conclusion is that this is a well done, quick read which provides an overview of the life of Jeff Bezos and the history of Amazon. This book covers more breadth than depth on these topics, though at least a couple of significant topics noted previously are not included, which left wanting me wanting more. If you are interested in an overview of Amazon and/or Bezos this is a good book to start with. If you are looking for a more complete history of Amazon or a full biography of Bezos this one will not fulfill your appetite.

Check out other reviews on Amazon.