Many Americans barely noticed two years ago when InBev of Belgium took over Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Budweiser, for $52 billion. But the deal transformed an industry and represented the failure of a proud but parochial American family dynasty to stave off a foreign threat, says Julie MacIntosh, author of 'Dethroning the King: The Hostile Takeover of Anheuser-Busch, an American Icon' (Wiley, $27.95). 'At certain points in American history, protectionist rhetoric alone might have rustled up enough popular anger to ruin InBev's takeover attempt,' MacIntosh says. 'But this was not a time for political or economic frivolity. People were too distracted by the credit crunch-related turmoil in their own lives to care about whether Budweiser was brewed by an American or Belgian company.' MacIntosh, who covered the Anheuser story as a New York-based mergers-and-acquisitions correspondent for The Financial Times, earns extra credit for staying on the Anheuser-InBev case despite considerable macrocosmic distractions. During most of the takeover negotiations, her colleagues were understandably focused on the 2008 economic crisis. The author's persistence pays off in her account of the Busch family's searing internecine strife. The principal characters in this drama are August Busch Jr., known as Gussie; his son August Busch III; and grandson August Busch IV. In 1975, at the age of 37, August III deposed Gussie as chairman and chief executive of Anheuser-Busch in a boardroom coup. That act was particularly shocking, according to MacIntosh, because Gussie was 'ahead of his time in understanding mass marketing and promotion' -- for example, his development of the Busch Gardens theme parks. Gussie and his son did not speak to each other for the next 10 years, MacIntosh writes. In the interim, the son hired many MBAs, took the company public and built Anheuser's share of the American market to 52 percent in 2002 from 28 percent in 1980. Its celebrated marketing slogan was 'This Bud's for You.' Alas, these domestic successes may have sown the seeds of Anheuser's demise. August III remained so focused on the U.S. market that he seemed blinded to growth opportunities on the international front, MacIntosh says. Although August III acquired a 50.2 percent stake in Grupo Modelo of Mexico, the agreement did not include exclusive U.S. distribution rights to brands like Corona. August III also spent lavishly. An avid airplane pilot, he maintained an expensive fleet of jets dubbed 'Air Bud' and flew to work each day in a helicopter. InBev would enter the Anheuser picture with gradually increasing pressure. Led by a foursome of Brazilians -- chief executive Carlos Brito and three investment bankers -- InBev formed a joint venture with Anheuser in 2006 to distribute brands like Beck's and Stella Artois in the United States. Early on, InBev floated the idea of a merger, but Anheuser brushed it off. In the summer of 2008, InBev announced an unsolicited offer to buy the company. By then, August IV had been named chief executive -- despite investor concerns over 'whether he was well-rounded enough, intellectually or managerially, to handle the top job,' MacIntosh writes. (The job had been outside the family for four years starting in 2002, when August III left it under rules that required the CEO to relinquish the job at age 65.) August III still lorded over his CEO son. August IV seemed 'unwilling to challenge his father's dominance,' rarely made presentations, and 'became increasingly out of touch and distant,' the author writes. Unbeknown to many people, the Busch family was almost powerless to fend off InBev. As MacIntosh notes, the Busch family owned only 4 percent of the Anheuser company stock in the wake of August III's public offering in 1980; most of the outstanding shares were controlled by pension funds and hedge funds. Anheuser flirted with acquiring the 49.8 percent of Modelo it did not already own, and even suggested putting the Modelo chief Carlos Fernandez in charge of the combined companies rather than August IV. But the deal did not win approval from the Anheuser board, in no small part because August III opposed it. The Anheuser board did get InBev to increase its offer to $70 a share, from $65. InBev also agreed to call the new entity Anheuser-Busch InBev and to have its North American headquarters in St. Louis. And then it was all over for the Busch family's 132-year rule. In a replay of generational hostilities, August III and August IV seldom spoke after that. MacIntosh does an admirable job of gathering colorful Busch family anecdotes. There is the story that, in keeping with tradition, both August III and August IV were fed five drops of Budweiser within hours of their births. But the book's narrative structure is flawed. Rather than telling the saga in a straightforward, linear fashion, it jumps back and forth between developments in the InBev takeover and accounts of family history, making both story lines hard to follow. Even so, 'Dethroning the King' makes for a fine yarn with a cautionary message about American business in the age of globalization. InBev began laying off workers less than a month after the deal formally closed, MacIntosh reports. Maybe the next time a foreign entity tries to acquire a major American family company, the public will take notice before it becomes a fait accompli. 