Book excerpt: A business history that is both accurate and interesting is a rare find. In this comprehensive volume, Bill Carey tells the inside stories of the most important businesses in Nashville history, mixing fascinating anecdotes with bottom-line analyses to give a perspective of Nashville that has never been captured before. It's a complete history of Genesco, an apparel giant led by Maxey Jarman that fell on hard times in the 1970s. Carey chronicles the National Life & Accident Insurance Co., a business so important that it helped Nashville become the home of country music and a major tourist destination. He also tells the bizarre saga of Minnie Pearl's Fried Chicken, a company founded by brothers John Jay and Henry Hooker that went from stock market darling to legendary failure in only a few months.