Category: Business Books
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Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology (2022) by Chris Miller
In Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology (2022) historian Chris Miller delivers a comprehensive and urgent account of how the semiconductor has become the most critical – and contested – resource in the modern world. His central insight is that microchips are not merely the foundation of the digital economy but…
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Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision-Makers (1986) by Richard E. Neustadt
As an avid reader of history, I’ve long struggled with putting my learning to use in day-to-day situations, whether that be in evaluating critical business decisions or in helping me better observe and understand the world around me. On the one hand, there is the familiar aphorism attributed to George Santayana that those who ignore…
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Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster (2007) by Dana Thomas
The early twentieth century anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski studied the yam-based culture of the Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea. Villagers conspicuously displayed their yam harvest in front of their huts as a sign of wealth, but also power and prestige. At roughly the same time Norwegian-American economist Thorsten Veblen famously argued that people in the…
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The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger (2006) by Marc Levinson
Like most inhabitants of earth, I never gave much thought to intermodal shipping. It wasn’t until I served as an economic development officer in southern Afghanistan and began looking into ways we could more efficiently export the high value fruits and nuts grown locally to the lucrative markets of the Middle East that I discovered…
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Creating Modern Capitalism: How Entrepreneurs, Companies, and Countries Triumphed in Three Industrial Revolutions (1999) by Thomas K. McCraw
It is interesting and usually insightful to contrast influential theses on great topics in history. Take business innovation and capitalist-driven growth in the developed western economies. Alfred Chandler won the Pulitzer Prize with “The Visible Hand,” a comprehensive and penetrating review of US economic history, which argued for the powerful impact of two roughly simultaneous…
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The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon (2013) by Brad Stone
Full disclosure: I’m a big Amazon fan. I’ve been writing reviews on the site for over a decade. I’m a highly satisfied shareholder and avid Prime customer. I also happen to believe that Jeff Bezos is among the most visionary and accomplished entrepreneurs and chief executives of modern times. In “The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos…
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Double Entry: How the Merchants of Venice Created Modern Finance (2012) by Jane Gleeson-White
I thought this book was going to be right up my alley. My manager gave it to me as a Christmas gift this year (I hadn’t heard of it before). We are in the business of making small business accounting software and he knows that I’m an avid reader of history. Two of my all-time…
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The Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living (1999) by Randy Komisar
Written in the “olden days” of the Internet (i.e. late 1990s), Randy Komisar’s “The Monk and the Riddle” is a classic with a timeless message: there’s a fundamental difference between passion and drive. The latter is what propels type A personalities to succeed at anything they undertake. The former is more visceral and personal; it…
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Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business (2004) by Danny Meyer
Danny Meyer is a legend in the restaurant business. His bestselling business book, “Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business,” should make him a lower deity in the realm of American business gurus. Beginning with the Union Square Café in 1985 and culminating (for now) with Shake Shack, which went public in…
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