Kay provides a sweeping history of the modern firm, informed by deep economics expertise. Ironically the book doesn't get to the 21st century until the end of the book, and the vast majority of the book is from the macro perspective. Boards, legal structure, and firm goals are analyzed from a more or less traditional economics perspective, although Kay does point out many of the faults of these simplified models. Unfortunately there's only a cursory treatment of behavior within the firm, which given that that's the whole point of companies seems like a big oversight (although if the book title were "The Corporate Form in the 21st Century" it would be more understandable). In addition, while Kay provides decent if oblique criticism of the neoliberal turn, he still avoids directly grappling with the massive failures (both professional and ethical) of the leaders of that school, and the less said about the sections on religion and minorities the better (they read like they were written in 1960). Overall, however, this book is unmatched in its consideration of the evolution of the corporation and our understanding of how to manage and evaluate them at the macro scale. Highly recommend