My favorite business books

If you limit yourself to the Business section of a bookstore you're going to miss numerous impactful stories and lessons. This page collects the books that have taught me the most about business and processes and humans.

This list consists of books I read between 2016 and 2025. I omit books I read and gave less than a 3-star rating.

Industry

• ★★★★★ Empire of the Air
• ★★★★★ Empires of the Sky
• ★★★★★ Creativity, Inc.
• ★★★★★ Hollywood: The Oral History
• ★★★★★ The Great Railroad Revolution
• ★★★★★ Empire of Cotton
• ★★★★☆ Empires of Light
• ★★★★☆ Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba
• ★★★★☆ Panama Fever
• ★★★★☆ The Intel Trinity
• ★★★☆☆ Chip War
• ★★★☆☆ The Arms of Krupp
• ★★★☆☆ The Victorian Internet
• ★★★☆☆ Railroaded
• ★★★☆☆ The Box
• ★★★☆☆ The Soul of a New Machine

Biography

• ★★★★★ Walt Disney
• ★★★★★ My Years with General Motors
• ★★★★★ The Power Broker
• ★★★★☆ The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived
• ★★★★☆ I. Asimov
• ★★★★☆ The People's Tycoon
• ★★★★☆ Titan
• ★★★★☆ Hershey
• ★★★★☆ Andrew Carnegie
• ★★★★☆ The House of Morgan
• ★★★★☆ Play Nice But Win: A CEO's Journey from Founder to Leader
• ★★★★☆ The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company
• ★★★★☆ Steve Jobs
• ★★★☆☆ Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla
• ★★★☆☆ The Wright Brothers
• ★★☆☆☆ Edison†

Philosophy

• ★★★★★ The Innovator's Dilemma
• ★★★★★ Toyota Production System
• ★★★★★ The Machine That Changed the World

Humans

• ★★★★★ The Mythical Man-Month
• ★★★★★ The Manager's Path
• ★★★★★ Peopleware
• ★★★★☆ High Output Management
• ★★★★☆ Invisible Women

Uncategorized

• ★★★★★ On Writing Well

Footnotes

† The only reason this is rated so poorly is because the book is written backwards. Realistically it's probably a 3 or 4 out of 5 but the structure made me angry.