Private Equity: History, Governance and Operations.

• Position: Brief article - Book review

Private Equity: History, Governance and Operations. By Henry Cendrowski, James P. Martin, Louis W. Petro and Adam A. Wadecki. John Wiley & Sons, 479 pages. $90.

There's nothing particularly fancy about Private Equity. It's really a basic text on the history of private equity, how it works and its principal objectives and interests. Along the way, it looks at some basic concepts and entities like fraud, risk management, internal controls and the role of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Of course, PE was one of the biggest engines of economic activity in recent years--until the credit crunch slammed the capital markets, jacked up borrowing rates and made high leverage (a key arrow in private equity's quiver) almost as verboten as...