Before there was Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling at Enron, before Bernie Ebbers at WorldCom, or Dennis Kozlowski at Tyco, there was Al Dunlap -- the notorious business executive whose actions foreshadowed a ruinous period in business when illusion seemed to matter more than reality.

Al Dunlap -- a.k.a. "Chainsaw Al" -- was ruthless in downsizing corporations for short-term shareholder profit. While reviled on Main Street, Dunlap was loved on Wall Street for bringing huge returns to investors and shareholders ... until the dark side of his actions began to emerge. With a new afterword by the author -- Business Week writer John A. Byrne -- Chainsaw dramatically documents the rise and fall of Dunlap, the havoc he wreaked on companies and people's lives, and how he came to power in the first place.