Ronald A. Heifetz

Leadership Without Easy Answers

The economy uncertain, education in decline, cities under siege, crime and poverty spiraling upward, international relations roiling: we look to leaders for solutions, and when they don’t deliver, we simply add their failure to our list of woes. In doing do, we do them and ourselves a grave disservice. We are indeed facing an unprecedented crisis of leadership, Ronald Heifetz avows, but it stems as much from our demands and expectations as from any leader’s inability to meet them. His book gets at both of these problems, offering a practical approach to leadership for those who lead as well as those who look to them for answers. Fitting the theory and practice of leadership to our extraordinary times, the book promotes a new social contract, a revitalization of our civic life just when we most need it.

Drawing on a dozen years of research among managers, officers, and politicians in the public realm and the private sector, among the nonprofits, and in teaching, Heifetz presents clear, concrete prescriptions for anyone who needs to take the lead in almost any situation, under almost any organizational conditions, no matter who is in charge, His strategy applies not only to people at the top but also to those who must lead without authority–activists as well as presidents, managers as well as workers on the front line.

Michael D. Watkins

The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter

Arundhati Roy

The God of Small Things 

Compared favorably to the works of Faulkner and Dickens, Arundhati Roy’s modern classic is equal parts powerful family saga, forbidden love story, and piercing political drama. The seven-year-old twins Estha and Rahel see their world shaken irrevocably by the arrival of their beautiful young cousin, Sophie. It is an event that will lead to an illicit liaison and tragedies accidental and intentional, exposing “big things [that] lurk unsaid” in a country drifting dangerously toward unrest.

Lush, lyrical, and unnerving, The God of Small Things is an award-winning landmark that started for its author an esteemed career of fiction and political commentary that continues unabated.

Kenichi OHMAE

The Mind Of The Strategist: The Art of Japanese Business

An account of global business domination that reveals the thinking processes and planning techniques of prominent companies, showing why they work, and how any company can benefit from them. This book uses case studies of strategic thinking in action.

Donald C. Kieffer, Repenn

There’s Got to Be a Better Way: How to Deliver Results and Get Rid of the Stuff That Gets in the Way of Real Work 

The chaos of everyday business forces people into an exhausting, ineffective, seemingly never-ending cycle of work-arounds, firefighting, and Whac-a-Mole. The irritatingly urgent crowds out the lastingly important.

There has to be a better way.

And there is: the game-changing discipline of dynamic work design improves productivity, reduces costs, and increases efficiency, ensuring that all parts of a company can work in concert. It has been used in organizations around the world to close the gap between results promised and results delivered.
The five principles of dynamic work design-solve the right problem, structure for discovery, connect the human chain, regulate the flow, visualize the work-have yielded breakthrough results in settings ranging from biotech labs and hospitals to oil refineries, homeless shelters, and casinos.
Large-scale change initiatives, reorganizations, and productivity programs rarely improve productivity, are expensive, and always add a lot of busy work. There’s Got to Be a Better Way is an antidote, enabling you to rethink basic beliefs about your tasks, changing the way you see and think about the flow of work in your organization, and allowing you to redesign your work to boost productivity and profit.

Chris Miller

Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology

The Financial Times Business Book of the Year, this epic account of the decades-long battle to control one of the world’s most critical resources–microchip technology–with the United States and China increasingly in fierce competition is “pulse quickening…a nonfiction thriller” (The New York Times).
You may be surprised to learn that microchips are the new oil–the scarce resource on which the modern world depends. Today, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. Virtually everything–from missiles to microwaves–runs on chips, including cars, smartphones, the stock market, even the electric grid. Until recently, America designed and built the fastest chips and maintained its lead as the #1 superpower, but America’s edge is in danger of slipping, undermined by players in Taiwan, Korea, and Europe taking over manufacturing. Now, as Chip War reveals, China, which spends more on chips than any other product, is pouring billions into a chip-building initiative to catch up to the US. At stake is America’s military superiority and economic prosperity.

Economic historian Chris Miller explains how the semiconductor came to play a critical role in modern life and how the US became dominant in chip design and manufacturing and applied this technology to military systems. America’s victory in the Cold War and its global military dominance stems from its ability to harness computing power more effectively than any other power. Until recently, China had been catching up, aligning its chip-building ambitions with military modernization. Here, in this paperback edition of the book, the author has added intriguing new material focused on “America’s Chip Comeback,” which overviews the global consequences of the just passed CHIPS Act, the new export controls on China, and the effort to rally allies to better guard chip technology.

Cal Newport

Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

Do Fewer Things. Work at a Natural Pace. Obsess over Quality.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Digital Minimalism and Deep Work, a groundbreaking philosophy for pursuing meaningful accomplishment while avoiding overload

Our current definition of “productivity” is broken. It pushes us to treat busyness as a proxy for useful effort, leading to impossibly lengthy task lists and ceaseless meetings. We’re overwhelmed by all we have to do and on the edge of burnout, left to decide between giving into soul-sapping hustle culture or rejecting ambition altogether. But are these really our only choices?

Long before the arrival of pinging inboxes and clogged schedules, history’s most creative and impactful philosophers, scientists, artists, and writers mastered the art of producing valuable work with staying power. In this timely and provocative book, Cal Newport harnesses the wisdom of these traditional knowledge workers to radically transform our modern jobs. Drawing from deep research on the habits and mindsets of a varied cast of storied thinkers – from Galileo and Isaac Newton, to Jane Austen and Georgia O’Keefe – Newport lays out the key principles of “slow productivity,” a more sustainable alternative to the aimless overwhelm that defines our current moment. Combining cultural criticism with systematic pragmatism, Newport deconstructs the absurdities inherent in standard notions of productivity, and then provides step-by-step advice for cultivating a slower, more humane alternative.

From the aggressive rethinking of workload management, to introducing seasonal variation, to shifting your performance toward long-term quality, Slow Productivity provides a roadmap for escaping overload and arriving instead at a more timeless approach to pursuing meaningful accomplishment. The world of work is due for a new revolution. Slow productivity is exactly what we need.

Jose Saramago

Blindness

A city is hit by an epidemic of “white blindness” which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven strangers-among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears-through the barren streets, and the procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. A magnificent parable of loss and disorientation and a vivid evocation of the horrors of the twentieth century, Blindness has swept the reading public with its powerful portrayal of man’s worst appetites and weaknesses-and man’s ultimately exhilarating spirit. The stunningly powerful novel of man’s will to survive against all odds, by the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Michael H Posner

Conscience Incorporated: Pursue Profits While Protecting Human Rights 

A guide for business leaders working to create socially conscious, sustainable companies–while pursuing profits

Amid growing international concerns about income inequality, labor abuses, racial injustice, and disinformation online, Conscience Incorporated examines the gaps in current corporate social responsibility measures and what more needs be done to address these challenges. The rise of new technologies such as smartphones and social media have made it easier than ever to document and spread awareness of corporate actions. Despite these developments, large corporations often fail to meaningfully address the human rights abuses linked to their business models and practices. In Conscience Incorporated, Michael Posner addresses what lies at the root of these challenges, drawing on his extensive personal experience as a human rights lawyer, State Department official under President Obama, chair of the Fair Labor Association and Director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at NYU Stern School of Business.

Drawing from research into the history of business ethics and anchoring his argument with examples of companies publicly accused of human rights abuses–Nike, Coca-Cola, Walmart, Meta, and more–Posner provides a blueprint for global business leaders to navigate human rights challenges and adopt sustainable corporate practices. Conscience Incorporated highlights the need for increased protections for outsourced workers in faraway nations, greater attention to harmful online content, and prioritization of human rights by investors. He argues that growing public awareness has not been enough to enforce ethical practices for global businesses. As a result, governments, especially in Europe, are becoming more involved in regulating global business practices in various industries.

Posner proposes a series of concrete reforms and argues compellingly for why businesses need to devote greater time and resources to protecting basic human rights. Conscience Incorporated is a powerful challenge to the status quo and advocates for a fundamental shift in the principles that govern global businesses.

Jan Lucassen

The Story of Work: A New History of Humankind

The first truly global history of work, an upbeat assessment from the age of the hunter-gatherer to the present day

We work because we have to, but also because we like it: from hunting-gathering over 700,000 years ago to the present era of zoom meetings, humans have always worked to make the world around them serve their needs.

Jan Lucassen provides an inclusive history of humanity’s busy labor throughout the ages. Spanning China, India, Africa, the Americas, and Europe, Lucassen looks at the ways in which humanity organizes work: in the household, the tribe, the city, and the state. He examines how labor is split between men, women, and children; the watershed moment of the invention of money; the collective action of workers; and at the impact of migration, slavery, and the idea of leisure.

From peasant farmers in the first agrarian societies to the precarious existence of today’s gig workers, this surprising account of both cooperation and subordination at work throws essential light on the opportunities we face today.

Caroline Criado Perez

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men

Data is fundamental to the modern world. From economic development, to healthcare, to education and public policy, we rely on numbers to allocate resources and make crucial decisions. But because so much data fails to take into account gender, because it treats men as the default and women as atypical, bias and discrimination are baked into our systems.

And women pay tremendous costs for this bias in time, money, and sometimes with their lives. Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates the shocking root cause of gender inequality and research in Invisible Women, diving into women’s lives at home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor’s office, and more. Chapters here include:

Can Snow-Clearing Be Sexist
The Myth of Meritocracy
The Henry Higgins Effect
One-Size-Fits-Men
Yentl Syndrome
From Purse to Wallet
Women’s Rights Are Human Rights
Perez writes in her preface, “It’s when women are able to step out from the shadows with their voices and their bodies that things start to shift. The gaps close. And so, at heart, Invisible Women is also a call for change. For too long we have positioned women as a deviation from standard humanity and this is why they have been allowed to become invisible. It’s time for a change in perspective. It’s time for women to be seen.”
Built on hundreds of studies in the US, the UK, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, unforgettable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.

Cordelia Fine

Testosterone Rex – Myths of Sex, Science, and Society

Many people believe that, at its core, biological sex is a fundamental, diverging force in human development. According to this overly familiar story, differences between the sexes are shaped by past evolutionary pressures―women are more cautious and parenting-focused, while men seek status to attract more mates. In each succeeding generation, sex hormones and male and female brains are thought to continue to reinforce these unbreachable distinctions, making for entrenched inequalities in modern society.

In Testosterone Rex, psychologist Cordelia Fine wittily explains why past and present sex roles are only serving suggestions for the future, revealing a much more dynamic situation through an entertaining and well-documented exploration of the latest research that draws on evolutionary science, psychology, neuroscience, endocrinology, and philosophy. She uses stories from daily life, scientific research, and common sense to break through the din of cultural assumptions. Testosterone, for instance, is not the potent hormonal essence of masculinity; the presumed, built-in preferences of each sex, from toys to financial risk taking, are turned on their heads.

Moving beyond the old “nature versus nurture” debates, Testosterone Rex disproves ingrained myths and calls for a more equal society based on both sexes’ full, human potential.

Jill Elaine Hasday

We the Men: How Forgetting Women’s Struggles for Equality Perpetuates Inequality

In a nation whose Constitution purports to speak for “We the People,” too many of the stories that powerful Americans tell about law and society include only We the Men. A long line of judges, politicians, and other influential voices have ignored women’s struggles for equality or distorted them beyond recognition by wildly exaggerating American progress. Even as sexism continues to warp constitutional law, political decisionmaking, and everyday life, prominent Americans have spent more than a century proclaiming that the United States has already left sex discrimination behind. Jill Elaine Hasday’s We the Men is the first book to explore how forgetting women’s struggles for equality—and forgetting the work America still has to do—perpetuates injustice, promotes complacency, and denies how generations of women have had to come together to fight for reform and against regression. Hasday argues that remembering women’s stories more often and more accurately can help the nation advance toward sex equality. These stories highlight the persistence of women’s inequality and make clear that real progress has always required women to disrupt the status quo, demand change, and duel with determined opponents. America needs more conflict over women’s status rather than less. Conflict has the power to generate forward momentum. Patiently awaiting men’s spontaneous enlightenment does not. Transforming America’s dominant stories about itself can reorient our understanding of how women’s progress takes place, focus our attention on the battles that are still unwon, and fortify our determination to push for a more equal future.

Robert C. Solomon

Ethics and Excellence: Cooperation and Integrity in Business

The Greek philosopher Aristotle, writing over two thousand years before Wall Street, called people who engaged in activities which did not contribute to society “parasites.” In his latest work, renowned scholar Robert C. Solomon asserts that though capitalism may require capital, it does not require, much less should be defined by the parasites it inevitably attracts. Capitalism has succeeded not with brute strength or because it has made people rich, but because it has produced responsible citizens and–however unevenly–prosperous communities. It cannot tolerate a conception of business that focuses solely on income and vulgarity while ignoring traditional virtues of responsibility, community, and integrity. Many feel that there is too much lip-service and not enough understanding of the importance of cooperation and integrity in corporate life. This book rejects the myths and metaphors of war-like competition that cloud business thinking and develops an “Aristotelean” theory of business. The author’s approach emphasizes several core concepts: the corporation as community, the search for excellence, the importance of integrity and sound judgment, as well as a more cooperative and humane vision of business. Solomon stresses the virtues of honesty, trust, fairness, and compassion in the competitive business world, and confronts the problem of “moral mazes” and what he posits as its solution–moral courage.

Richard Rumelt

Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy clarifies the muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world.
Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader. A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to–and approach for–overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.”

In Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, he debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy.” He introduces nine sources of power–ranging from using leverage to effectively focusing on growth–that are eye-opening yet pragmatic tools that can easily be put to work on Monday morning, and uses fascinating examples from business, nonprofit, and military affairs to bring its original and pragmatic ideas to life. The detailed examples range from Apple to General Motors, from the two Iraq wars to Afghanistan, from a small local market to Wal-Mart, from Nvidia to Silicon Graphics, from the Getty Trust to the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Cisco Systems to Paccar, and from Global Crossing to the 2007-08 financial crisis.

Reflecting an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology, history, and the brilliance and foibles of the human character, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy stems from Rumelt’s decades of digging beyond the superficial to address hard questions with honesty and integrity.

T. J. Stiles

The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt 

In this groundbreaking biography, T.J. Stiles tells the dramatic story of Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt, the combative man and American icon who, through his genius and force of will, did more than perhaps any other individual to create modern capitalism. Meticulously researched and elegantly written, The First Tycoon describes an improbable life, from Vanderbilt’s humble birth during the presidency of George Washington to his death as one of the richest men in American history. In between we see how the Commodore helped to launch the transportation revolution, propel the Gold Rush, reshape Manhattan, and invent the modern corporation. Epic in its scope and success, the life of Vanderbilt is also the story of the rise of America itself.

Richard R. John

Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications

The telegraph and the telephone were the first electrical communications networks to become hallmarks of modernity. Yet they were not initially expected to achieve universal accessibility. In this pioneering history of their evolution, Richard R. John demonstrates how access to these networks was determined not only by technological imperatives and economic incentives but also by political decision making at the federal, state, and municipal levels.

In the decades between the Civil War and the First World War, Western Union and the Bell System emerged as the dominant providers for the telegraph and telephone. Both operated networks that were products not only of technology and economics but also of a distinctive political economy. Western Union arose in an antimonopolistic political economy that glorified equal rights and vilified special privilege. The Bell System flourished in a progressive political economy that idealized public utility and disparaged unnecessary waste.

The popularization of the telegraph and the telephone was opposed by business lobbies that were intent on perpetuating specialty services. In fact, it wasn’t until 1900 that the civic ideal of mass access trumped the elitist ideal of exclusivity in shaping the commercialization of the telephone. The telegraph did not become widely accessible until 1910, sixty-five years after the first fee-for-service telegraph line opened in 1845.

Network Nation places the history of telecommunications within the broader context of American politics, business, and discourse. This engrossing and provocative book persuades us of the critical role of political economy in the development of new technologies and their implementation.

Cory Doctorow

Picks and Shovels

Here, Martin Hench will reinvent the forensic accountant – what a bounty hunter is to people, he will be to tech money – but for now he’s an MIT dropout odd-jobbing his way around a city still reeling from the invention of a revolutionary new technology that will change everything about crime forever.

When Martin is hired by a Silicon Valley startup, Fidelity Computing, to investigate a group of disgruntled ex-employees who’ve founded a competitor, he quickly realises he’s on the wrong side. Martin ditches the greasy old guys running Fidelity Computing without a second thought, utterly infatuated with the electric atmosphere of Computing Freedom. Located in the heart of the Mission, this group of brilliant young women have set out to beat Fidelity Computing at their own game. But they have no idea of the depth of evil they’re seeking to uproot. Or the risks they run.

In this company-eat-company city, Martin and his friends will be lucky to escape with their lives.

Tim Wu

The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age

We live in an age of extreme corporate concentration, in which global industries are controlled by just a few giant firms–big banks, big pharma, and big tech, just to name a few. But concern over what Louis Brandeis called the “curse of bigness” can no longer remain the province of specialist lawyers and economists, for it has spilled over into policy and politics, even threatening democracy itself. History suggests that tolerance of inequality and failing to control excessive corporate power may prompt the rise of populism, nationalism, extremist politicians, and fascist regimes. In short, as Wu warns, we are in grave danger of repeating the signature errors of the twentieth century.

In The Curse of Bigness, Tim Wu explains how figures like Brandeis and Theodore Roosevelt first confronted the democratic threats posed by the great trusts of the Gilded Age–but the lessons of the Progressive Era were forgotten in the last 40 years. He calls for recovering the lost tenets of the trustbusting age as part of a broader revival of American progressive ideas as we confront the fallout of persistent and extreme economic inequality.

Jonathan Haidt, Greg Lukianoff

The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure 

Something has been going wrong on many college campuses in the last few years. Speakers are shouted down. Students and professors say they are walking on eggshells and are afraid to speak honestly. Rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide are rising–on campus as well as nationally. How did this happen?

First Amendment expert Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, show how the new problems on campus have their origins in three terrible ideas that have become increasingly woven into American childhood and education: What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker; always trust your feelings; and life is a battle between good people and evil people. These three Great Untruths contradict basic psychological principles about well-being and ancient wisdom from many cultures. Embracing these untruths–and the resulting culture of safetyism–interferes with young people’s social, emotional, and intellectual development. It makes it harder for them to become autonomous adults who are able to navigate the bumpy road of life.

Lukianoff and Haidt investigate the many social trends that have intersected to promote the spread of these untruths. They explore changes in childhood such as the rise of fearful parenting, the decline of unsupervised, child-directed play, and the new world of social media that has engulfed teenagers in the last decade. They examine changes on campus, including the corporatization of universities and the emergence of new ideas about identity and justice. They situate the conflicts on campus within the context of America’s rapidly rising political polarization and dysfunction.

This is a book for anyone who is confused by what is happening on college campuses today, or has children, or is concerned about the growing inability of Americans to live, work, and cooperate across party lines.

Michael Easter

The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort To Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self

In many ways, we’re more comfortable than ever before. But could our sheltered, temperature-controlled, overfed, underchallenged lives actually be the leading cause of many our most urgent physical and mental health issues? In this gripping investigation, award-winning journalist Michael Easter seeks out off-the-grid visionaries, disruptive genius researchers, and mind-body conditioning trailblazers who are unlocking the life-enhancing secrets of a counterintuitive solution- discomfort.

Easter’s journey to understand our evolutionary need to be challenged takes him to meet the NBA’s top exercise scientist, who uses an ancient Japanese practice to build championship athletes; to the mystical country of Bhutan, where an Oxford economist and Buddhist leader are showing the world what death can teach us about happiness; to the outdoor lab of a young neuroscientist who’s found that nature tests our physical and mental endurance in ways that expand creativity while taming burnout and anxiety; to the remote Alaskan backcountry on a demanding thirty-three-day hunting expedition to experience the rewilding secrets of one of the last rugged places on Earth; and more.

Along the way, Easter uncovers a blueprint for leveraging the power of discomfort that will dramatically improve our health and happiness, and perhaps even help us understand what it means to be human. The Comfort Crisis is a bold call to break out of your comfort zone and explore the wild within yourself.

Stephen R Covey

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, service, and human dignity–principles that give us the security to adapt to change and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.

MICHAEL J. SANDEL

WHAT MONEY CANT BUY: The Moral Limits of Markets 

In What Money Can’t Buy, renowned political philosopher Michael J. Sandel rethinks the role that markets and money should play in our society.

Should we pay children to read books or to get good grades? Should we put a price on human life to decide how much pollution to allow? Is it ethical to pay people to test risky new drugs or to donate their organs? What about hiring mercenaries to fight our wars, outsourcing inmates to for-profit prisons, auctioning admission to elite universities, or selling citizenship to immigrants willing to pay?

In his New York Times bestseller What Money Can’t Buy, Michael J. Sandel takes up one of the biggest ethical questions of our time: Isn’t there something wrong with a world in which everything is for sale? If so, how can we prevent market values from reaching into spheres of life where they don’t belong? What are the moral limits of markets?

Over recent decades, market values have crowded out nonmarket norms in almost every aspect of life. Without quite realizing it, Sandel argues, we have drifted from having a market economy to being a market society.

In Justice, an international bestseller, Sandel showed himself to be a master at illuminating, with clarity and verve, the hard moral questions we confront in our everyday lives. Now, in What Money Can’t Buy, he provokes a debate that’s been missing in our market-driven age: What is the proper role of markets in a democratic society, and how can we protect the moral and civic goods that markets do not honor and money cannot buy?

Mariana Mazzucato

The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy

Modern economies reward activities that extract value rather than create it. This must change to ensure a capitalism that works for us all.
Shortlisted for the FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award

A scathing indictment of our current global financial system, The Value of Everything rigorously scrutinizes the way in which economic value has been accounted and reveals how economic theory has failed to clearly delineate the difference between value creation and value extraction. Mariana Mazzucato argues that the increasingly blurry distinction between the two categories has allowed certain actors in the economy to portray themselves as value creators, while in reality they are just moving around existing value or, even worse, destroying it.

The book uses case studies-from Silicon Valley to the financial sector to big pharma-to show how the foggy notions of value create confusion between rents and profits, reward extractors and creators, and distort the measurements of growth and GDP. In the process, innovation suffers and inequality rises.

The lesson here is urgent and sobering: to rescue our economy from the next inevitable crisis and to foster long-term economic growth, we will need to rethink capitalism, rethink the role of public policy and the importance of the public sector, and redefine how we measure value in our society.

Matt Stoller

Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy

A startling look at how concentrated financial power and consumerism transformed American politics, resulting in the emergence of populism and authoritarianism, the fall of the Democratic Party—while also providing the steps needed to create a new democracy.

Americans once had a coherent and clear understanding of political tyranny, one crafted by Thomas Jefferson and updated for the industrial age by Louis Brandeis. A concentration of power, whether in the hands of a military dictator or a JP Morgan, was understood as autocratic and dangerous to individual liberty and democracy. This idea stretched back to the country’s founding. In the 1930s, people observed that the Great Depression was caused by financial concentration in the hands of a few whose misuse of their power induced a financial collapse. They drew on this tradition to craft the New Deal.

In Goliath, Matt Stoller explains how authoritarianism and populism have returned to American politics for the first time in eighty years, as the outcome of the 2016 election shook our faith in democratic institutions. It has brought to the fore dangerous forces that many modern Americans never even knew existed. Today’s bitter recriminations and panic represent more than just fear of the future, they reflect a basic confusion about what is happening and the historical backstory that brought us to this moment.

The true effects of populism, a shrinking middle class, and concentrated financial wealth are only just beginning to manifest themselves under the current administrations. The lessons of Stoller’s study will only grow more relevant as time passes. Building upon his viral article in The Atlantic, “How the Democrats Killed Their Populist Soul,” Stoller illustrates in rich detail how we arrived at this tenuous moment, and the steps we must take to create a new democracy.

Marc Levinson

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger

In April 1956, a refitted oil tanker carried fifty-eight shipping containers from Newark to Houston. From that modest beginning, container shipping developed into a huge industry that made the boom in global trade possible. The Box tells the dramatic story of the container’s creation, the decade of struggle before it was widely adopted, and the sweeping economic consequences of the sharp fall in transportation costs that containerization brought about.

Published on the fiftieth anniversary of the first container voyage, this is the first comprehensive history of the shipping container. It recounts how the drive and imagination of an iconoclastic entrepreneur, Malcom McLean, turned containerization from an impractical idea into a massive industry that slashed the cost of transporting goods around the world and made the boom in global trade possible.

But the container didn’t just happen. Its adoption required huge sums of money, both from private investors and from ports that aspired to be on the leading edge of a new technology. It required years of high-stakes bargaining with two of the titans of organized labor, Harry Bridges and Teddy Gleason, as well as delicate negotiations on standards that made it possible for almost any container to travel on any truck or train or ship. Ultimately, it took McLean’s success in supplying U.S. forces in Vietnam to persuade the world of the container’s potential.

Drawing on previously neglected sources, economist Marc Levinson shows how the container transformed economic geography, devastating traditional ports such as New York and London and fueling the growth of previously obscure ones, such as Oakland. By making shipping so cheap that industry could locate factories far from its customers, the container paved the way for Asia to become the world’s workshop and brought consumers a previously unimaginable variety of low-cost products from around the globe.

Max DePree

Leadership Is an Art

In what has become a bible for the business world, the successful former CEO of Herman Miller, Inc., explores how executives and managers can learn the leadership skills that build a better, more profitable organization.
Leadership Is an Art has long been a must-read not only within the business community but also in professions ranging from academia to medical practices, to the political arena. First published in 1989, the book has sold more than 800,000 copies in hardcover and paperback. This revised edition brings Max De Pree’s timeless words and practical philosophy to a new generation of readers.

De Pree looks at leadership as a kind of stewardship, stressing the importance of building relationships, initiating ideas, and creating a lasting value system within an organization. Rather than focusing on the “hows” of corporate life, he explains the “whys.” He shows that the first responsibility of a leader is to define reality and the last is to say thank you. Along the way, the artful leader must:

– Stimulate effectiveness by enabling others to reach both their personal potential and their institutional potential

– Take a role in developing, expressing, and defending civility and values

– Nurture new leaders and ensure the continuation of the corporate culture

Leadership Is an Art offers a proven design for achieving success by developing the generous spirit within all of us. Now more than ever, it provides the insights and guidelines leaders in every field need.

Robert C. Townsend

Up the Organization: How to Stop the Corporation from Stifling People and Strangling Profits

Although it was first published more than thirty-five years ago, Up the Organization continues to top the lists of best business books by groups as diverse as the American Management Association, Strategy + Business (Booz Allen Hamilton), and The Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management. 1-800-CEO-READ ranks Townsend’s bestseller first among eighty books that “every manager must read.”

This commemorative edition offers a new generation the benefit of Robert Townsend’s timeless wisdom as well as reflections on his work and life by those who knew and worked with him. This groundbreaking book continues to remind us not to get mired in all those sacred organizational routines that stifle people and strangle both profits and profitability. He shows a way to humanize business and a way to have fun while making it all work better than it ever worked before.

Paul ’t Hart (Author), John Uhr (Author)

Public Leadership: Perspectives and practices 

‘Leadership’ is routinely admired, vilified, ridiculed, invoked, trivialised, explained and speculated about in the media and in everyday conversation. Despite all this talk, there is surprisingly little consensus about how to answer basic questions about the nature, place, role and impact of leadership in contemporary society. This book brings together academics from a broad array of social science disciplines who are interested in contemporary understandings of leadership in the public domain. Their work on political, administrative and civil society leadership represents a stock-take of what we need to know and offers original examples of what we do know about public leadership. Although this volume connects scholars living in, and mostly working on, public leadership in Australia and New Zealand, their contributions have a much broader scope and relevance.

Mark H. Moore

Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government

A seminal figure in the field of public management, Mark Moore presents his summation of fifteen years of research, observation, and teaching about what public sector executives should do to improve the performance of public enterprises. Useful for both practicing public executives and those who teach them, this book explicates some of the richest of several hundred cases used at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and illuminates their broader lessons for government managers. Moore addresses four questions that have long bedeviled public administration: What should citizens and their representatives expect and demand from public executives? What sources can public managers consult to learn what is valuable for them to produce? How should public managers cope with inconsistent and fickle political mandates? How can public managers find room to innovate?

Moore’s answers respond to the well-understood difficulties of managing public enterprises in modern society by recommending specific, concrete changes in the practices of individual public managers: how they envision what is valuable to produce, how they engage their political overseers, and how they deliver services and fulfill obligations to clients. Following Moore’s cases, we witness dilemmas faced by a cross section of public managers–William Ruckelshaus and the Environmental Protection Agency, Jerome Miller and the Department of Youth Services, Miles Mahoney and the Park Plaza Redevelopment Project, David Sencer and the swine flu scare, Lee Brown and the Houston Police Department, Harry Spence and the Boston Housing Authority. Their work, together with Moore’s analysis, reveals how public managers can achieve their true goal of producing public value.

Richard Powers

Playground

The playgrounds of the world—spaces of laughter, learning, and exploration—are increasingly becoming battlegrounds for issues of equity, safety, and development. In Playground: The Politics, Power, and Promise of Childhood’s Stage, we uncover the hidden dynamics shaping these seemingly simple spaces, revealing the critical role they play in society’s future.

From debates over design and access to struggles with commercialization and cultural clashes, playgrounds have become arenas where societal values and priorities collide. These shared spaces, intended to nurture childhood joy and creativity, are increasingly influenced by urbanization, economic disparity, and evolving views on education and play.

The book delves into how playgrounds reflect broader social conflicts, from unequal funding in communities to debates over safety regulations that stifle creativity. It also examines how corporations and policymakers wield influence over these spaces, often prioritizing profit or policy over the needs of children.

With climate change, rising inequality, and changing demographics, the challenges and opportunities for playgrounds have never been greater. Playground combines on-the-ground reporting and insightful analysis to explore the pivotal role of these spaces in fostering inclusivity, resilience, and imagination for the next generation.

This thought-provoking book calls for a renewed commitment to playgrounds as vibrant, equitable spaces for all children, urging us to reconsider what it means to truly support the potential of childhood in a rapidly evolving world.

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures

What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures offers a powerful and inspiring exploration of the world we could create if humanity rises to meet the challenge of climate change. Instead of focusing on disaster and despair, this groundbreaking book envisions a future shaped by innovation, collaboration, and resilience—a future where we succeed in building a sustainable planet.

Through vivid storytelling and expert insights, the book takes readers on a journey to a world transformed by bold climate action. From thriving renewable energy economies to revitalized ecosystems and equitable communities, it paints a picture of what is possible when science, policy, and human ingenuity align.

Drawing from real-world examples, cutting-edge technologies, and forward-thinking policies already being implemented, What If We Get It Right? demonstrates that a brighter future is not only achievable but within our grasp. It highlights the key decisions, innovations, and cultural shifts needed to move from crisis to opportunity.

With optimism grounded in practicality, this book challenges readers to rethink the narrative of climate change and embrace the potential of a sustainable future. What If We Get It Right? is both a call to action and a hopeful blueprint for the world we can build if we act with urgency, courage, and determination.

Dan Davies

The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions – and How The World Lost its Mind

Today’s world is dominated by vast, complex systems—governments, corporations, and global networks—that often fail, even when run by smart people. Why do these enormous institutions make such terrible decisions, leading to economic crises, environmental disasters, and social instability?

The Unaccountability Machine explores the hidden dysfunction within these systems. Whether it’s bureaucracies or AI-powered corporations, decision-making is increasingly controlled by opaque processes that shield those in power from responsibility. These systems pass the burden of failure onto individuals while protecting decision-makers from accountability.

As new technologies like AI and automation continue to integrate into these structures, the problem worsens. We are heading toward a future where decision-making is dominated by unaccountable systems—both human and machine—that leave us powerless.

This book not only highlights these dangers but also offers a roadmap to reclaim agency. The author shows how we can dismantle unaccountable systems and build governance structures that prioritize transparency and human-centered decision-making.

Can we restore control before it’s too late, or will we continue to lose our way in a world dominated by machines and faceless bureaucracies? The Unaccountability Machine urges us to take action.

Naomi Oreskes

THE BIG MYTH

The bestselling authors of Merchants of Doubt offer a profound, startling history of one of America’s most tenacious-and destructive-false ideas: the myth of the “free market.”

Merchants of Doubt exposed the origins of climate change denial. Now, its authors unfold the truth about another disastrous dogma. Why do Americans believe in the “magic of the marketplace”?

The answer, as The Big Myth reveals: a propaganda blitz. Until the early 1900s, the U.S. government’s guiding role in economic life was largely accepted. But then business elites, trade associations, wealthy powerbrokers, and media allies combatted regulation by building a new orthodoxy: down with “big government,” up with unfettered markets. Unearthing eye-opening archival evidence, Oreskes and Conway document campaigns to rewrite textbooks, combat unions, and defend child labor. They detail the ploys that turned hardline economists Hayek and Friedman into household names, recount the libertarian roots of the Little House on the Prairie books, and tune into the General Electric-sponsored TV show that beamed free-market doctrine (and the young Ronald Reagan) to millions.

By the 1970s, this crusade had succeeded. Its ideology would define the next half-century across Republican and Democratic administrations, giving us the opioid scourge, climate destruction, giant tech monopolies, and a baleful response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Only by understanding this history can we imagine a future where markets will serve, not stifle, democracy.

Paul Polman

Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take

In an era where business often means taking more than giving, can companies truly make a positive impact on the world while still thriving? Net Positive argues that they can—and must. But how can organizations become forces for good in a system that rewards profit above all else?

The book delves into the concept of “net positive” businesses, where companies aim to give back more to society and the environment than they consume. Through case studies and innovative examples, Net Positive explores how forward-thinking leaders are redefining success. Instead of simply minimizing harm, these companies are actively finding ways to contribute to social well-being, environmental health, and sustainable growth, creating a ripple effect of benefits that extend far beyond their bottom lines.

Yet, shifting toward a net positive model isn’t easy. The book highlights the challenges and resistance companies face from traditional mindsets, resource constraints, and short-term pressures. But as we see the increasing effects of climate change and social inequities, embracing this new model is no longer optional—it’s essential.

With insights on transforming challenges into opportunities, Net Positive provides a roadmap for courageous leaders ready to make a difference. It leaves us with a critical question: Will businesses rise to the challenge of being truly net positive, or will they remain locked in outdated frameworks? The future of our planet and society may depend on their answer.

Leila Philip

Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America

In today’s world, the beaver might seem like just another quirky woodland creature, but this remarkable rodent has shaped North American history in ways few realize. How did one animal come to influence everything from our geography to the growth of the economy?

Beaverland dives into the transformative role of beavers in the making of America. From their fur trade spurring early colonial expansion to the ingenious ways their dams shape landscapes, beavers are responsible for environmental and economic impacts still visible today. The book explores how these animals helped carve the path of rivers, influenced water rights, and even set the stage for modern ecological conservation.

Yet, the influence of beavers isn’t just a relic of the past; today, as we face climate challenges, beavers are being re-evaluated as natural engineers that can help restore wetlands and reduce flooding. But the resurgence of this once-targeted species highlights a deeper conflict—between natural ecosystems and the demands of urban expansion.

With climate resilience now a pressing issue, Beaverland offers insight into how the beaver, an unsung hero, may help us address future challenges. The book calls us to reflect: Will we recognize the beaver’s ecological value, or continue overlooking a creature that has quietly shaped our world?

This isn’t just an animal story; it’s an invitation to rethink our relationship with nature and learn from one of America’s most industrious builders.

Rosie Batty

A Mother’s Story

In A Mother’s Story, Rosie Batty shares her poignant and powerful account of the heartbreaking journey she endured after the tragic loss of her son, Luke, to domestic violence. With unwavering courage and raw honesty, Batty recounts her experiences as a mother grappling with grief, loss, and the complexities of a broken system. The book not only sheds light on the personal devastation caused by domestic abuse but also serves as a powerful call to action for societal change. Batty bravely addresses the cultural and systemic issues surrounding domestic violence in Australia, advocating for stronger protections for victims and increased awareness of this pervasive issue. Through her story, she highlights the urgent need for reform, drawing attention to the struggles faced by countless families affected by violence. A Mother’s Story is not just a memoir; it is a rallying cry for justice and a testament to the strength of a mother’s love in the face of unimaginable loss.

Robert B Cialdini

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert B. Cialdini unveils the psychological principles that drive human behavior and explains why people say “yes.” Drawing on decades of research and real-world examples, Cialdini explores the tactics used by marketers, politicians, and salespeople to influence decisions—often without us even realizing it. From the power of reciprocity to the allure of scarcity, Influence uncovers the six universal principles of persuasion that shape our everyday lives. By understanding these forces, Cialdini not only empowers readers to recognize when they are being manipulated but also teaches how to apply these principles ethically in business, relationships, and everyday interactions. A classic in the field of psychology, Influence remains an essential read for anyone seeking to understand and harness the power of persuasion.

Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears) 

In A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear, Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling tells the bizarre, hilarious, and eye-opening story of a group of libertarians who set out to transform a small New Hampshire town into a utopia of limited government—and ended up with a town overrun by bears. Blending sharp wit with deep investigative reporting, Hongoltz-Hetling explores how the promise of complete freedom collided with the harsh realities of nature, community, and governance. What begins as an experiment in libertarian ideals quickly spirals into chaos as the town’s lack of regulations, particularly around waste management, attracts a growing population of aggressive bears. With a colorful cast of characters and absurd situations, A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear offers a cautionary tale about the unintended consequences of ideological extremism, while also providing insight into broader debates about governance, freedom, and the limits of human control over the natural world.

Tim Jackson

Prosperity without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet

In Prosperity without Growth, Tim Jackson presents a radical challenge to the conventional belief that economic growth is the sole path to prosperity. In a world facing environmental collapse and widening inequality, Jackson argues that endless growth is not only unsustainable but also incompatible with true human well-being. Drawing on decades of research, the book dismantles the myth that GDP growth equates to progress and prosperity, offering a new vision for economies that prioritize ecological balance and social justice. Jackson presents compelling evidence that we can thrive within the limits of a finite planet by embracing sustainable practices, reducing consumption, and redefining success beyond material wealth. Prosperity without Growth is a groundbreaking work that reimagines what it means to live well in the 21st century and offers a roadmap for achieving prosperity in harmony with the Earth’s boundaries.

Kate Raworth

Doughnut Economics

Economics is broken. It has failed to predict, let alone prevent, financial crises that have shaken the foundations of our societies. Its outdated theories have permitted a world in which extreme poverty persists while the wealth of the super-rich grows year on year. And its blind spots have led to policies that are degrading the living world on a scale that threatens all of our futures.

Can it be fixed? In Doughnut Economics, Oxford academic Kate Raworth identifies seven critical ways in which mainstream economics has led us astray, and sets out a roadmap for bringing humanity into a sweet spot that meets the needs of all within the means of the planet. En route, she deconstructs the character of ‘rational economic man’ and explains what really makes us tick. She reveals how an obsession with equilibrium has left economists helpless when facing the boom and bust of the real-world economy. She highlights the dangers of ignoring the role of energy and nature’s resources – and the far-reaching implications for economic growth when we take them into account. And in the process, she creates a new, cutting-edge economic model that is fit for the 21st century – one in which a doughnut-shaped compass points the way to human progress.

Ambitious, radical and rigorously argued, Doughnut Economics promises to reframe and redraw the future of economics for a new generation.

Ed Conway

Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future

Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. These fundamental materials have created empires, razed civilizations, and fed our ingenuity and greed for thousands of years. Without them, our modern world would not exist, and the battle to control them will determine our future.

The fiber-optic cables that weave the World Wide Web, the copper veins of our electric grids, the silicon chips and lithium batteries that power our phones and though it can feel like we now live in a weightless world of information—what Ed Conway calls “the ethereal world”—our twenty-first-century lives are still very much rooted in the material.

In fact, we dug more stuff out of the earth in 2017 than in all of human history before 1950. For every ton of fossil fuels, we extract six tons of other materials, from sand to stone to wood to metal. And in Material World, Conway embarks on an epic journey across continents, cultures, and epochs to reveal the underpinnings of modern life on Earth—traveling from the sweltering depths of the deepest mine in Europe to spotless silicon chip factories in Taiwan to the eerie green pools where lithium originates.

Material World is a celebration of the humans and the human networks, the miraculous processes and the little-known companies, that combine to turn raw materials into things of wonder. This is the story of human civilization from an entirely new the ground up.

Seth Goldman

Mission in a Bottle: The Honest Guide to Doing Busin.

It started very small and full of hope. But its daring campaigns have placed Fairtrade goods at the heart of the supermarket shelves. From bananas and coffee beans to cotton and chocolate, Fairtrade has grown to become an important global movement that has revolutionised the way we shop.

As Harriet Lamb, Director of the Fairtrade Foundation, explains in this fascinating story, Fairtrade is about a better deal for workers and famers in the developing world. It’s about making sure the food on our plates, and shirts on our backs, don’t rob people in other countries of the means to feed or clothe themselves. She explores the journey, through an often unjust system, that Fairtrade items make from farm to consumer. And she uncovers the shocking cost of our demand for cheaper food.

There is much still to be done. But by hard work and high ideals, Fairtrade is starting to transform the lives of over 7 million farmers, workers and their families, and is a powerful symbol of how extraordinary change can be achieved against all the odds – by us all.

Harriet Lamb

Fighting the Banana Wars and Other Fairtrade Battles

It started very small and full of hope. But its daring campaigns have placed Fairtrade goods at the heart of the supermarket shelves. From bananas and coffee beans to cotton and chocolate, Fairtrade has grown to become an important global movement that has revolutionised the way we shop.

As Harriet Lamb, Director of the Fairtrade Foundation, explains in this fascinating story, Fairtrade is about a better deal for workers and famers in the developing world. It’s about making sure the food on our plates, and shirts on our backs, don’t rob people in other countries of the means to feed or clothe themselves. She explores the journey, through an often unjust system, that Fairtrade items make from farm to consumer. And she uncovers the shocking cost of our demand for cheaper food.

There is much still to be done. But by hard work and high ideals, Fairtrade is starting to transform the lives of over 7 million farmers, workers and their families, and is a powerful symbol of how extraordinary change can be achieved against all the odds – by us all.

David Deutsch

The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World

The New York Times bestseller: A provocative, imaginative exploration of the nature and progress of knowledge

In this groundbreaking book, award-winning physicist David Deutsch argues that explanations have a fundamental place in the universe—and that improving them is the basic regulating principle of all successful human endeavor. Taking us on a journey through every fundamental field of science, as well as the history of civilization, art, moral values, and the theory of political institutions, Deutsch tracks how we form new explanations and drop bad ones, explaining the conditions under which progress—which he argues is potentially boundless—can and cannot happen. Hugely ambitious and highly original, The Beginning of Infinity explores and establishes deep connections between the laws of nature, the human condition, knowledge, and the possibility for progress.

Alison Taylor

Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World

A fresh, realistic guide to help companies navigate the new ethical challenges and risks in a volatile global landscape. Today’s headlines are full of employee unrest over racial injustice, communities infuriated by corporate environmental impacts, staff anxiety over surveillance, and discoveries of child labor in supply chains. We’ve traveled far and fast from the old world of business ethics, where black-and-white concerns about bribery and fraud could be addressed with rules and processes. Simply maximizing shareholder value while not breaking the law is no longer an option, but we’ve never been so confused about what it means to do the right thing.

In this eye-opening, indispensable book, NYU ethics professor Alison Taylor argues that amid stakeholder demands and transparency pressures, we can no longer treat ethics as a legal and reputational defense mechanism. Leaders at Davos and the Business Roundtable have called for a new corporate responsibility paradigm, but how to implement their ideas remains an open question as organizations struggle in an atmosphere of heightened expectations and intense suspicion.

Offering vivid stories and examples, Taylor brings this complex, risky environment alive to provide a blueprint for how leaders should rethink and reshape their practices. How can CEOs cut through the noise to set robust environmental and social priorities? When should they speak out on contentious social and political issues—and how? What does it really take to build a healthy organizational culture? How are we to approach corporate values when society is so divided? Higher Ground will show leaders how business can navigate this messy paradigm shift, build trust, and achieve long-term strategic advantage in a turbulent world.