Prize: The British Sociological Association Philip Abrams Memorial Prize 2007 (joint winner) 'John Bone's penetrating study of direct selling in the home improvements industry takes us into a world that makes a mockery of the principles of rationally ordered bureaucracy. This is booty capitalism: irrational, anti-structural, and fixated on short-term gains. Offering a wealth of ethnographic material, Bone's study is a major contribution to our understanding of the dynamics of contemporary capitalism.' Alan Aldridge, University of Nottingham, UK '...for readers who require insights into the day-to-day organization and operations of an important but little-known business type, this provides essential reading...As a contribution to business history, this work of sociology has opened up an aspect of "real life" to academic scrutiny and has exposed a less glamorous part of the retail industry to first-rate effect.' Business History