Books like American Moonshot

01

The Right Stuff

Tom Wolfe · Memoir

Tom Wolfe's account of the early years of American manned spaceflight — from the test pilots of Edwards Air Force Base to the Mercury Seven astronauts — is the most celebrated work of New Journalism and one of the essential books about American culture in the twentieth century.

A kindred history read.

02

American Prometheus

Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin · Biography

Kai Bird and Martin J.

Both dig into science.

03

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Doris Kearns Goodwin · Biography

Doris Kearns Goodwin's account of Abraham Lincoln's formation of his cabinet — which included his three main rivals for the 1860 Republican nomination: William Seward, Salmon Chase, and Edward Bates — is one of the most widely discussed leadership books of the twenty-first century and one of the most readable biographies of the Lincoln era.

Both dig into leadership.

04

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution

Walter Isaacson · Science

The Innovators is Walter Isaacson's history of the digital revolution, tracing the development of computers and the internet from Ada Lovelace's conceptualization of programming in the 1840s through the emergence of the modern internet, personal computer, and smartphone.

A kindred history read.

05

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

Alfred Lansing · History

In 1914, Ernest Shackleton led twenty-seven men into the Weddell Sea on a ship called the Endurance with the goal of crossing Antarctica on foot.

Both dig into leadership.

06

Loonshots

Safi Bahcall · Business

Loonshots is physicist and biotech CEO Safi Bahcall's argument that the most transformative innovations — the kind he calls loonshots, after the eccentric northern bird — are fragile ideas that look foolish or impossible until they suddenly aren't, and that organizations systematically kill them long before they get a chance to prove themselves.

Shares leadership and science with American Moonshot.

07

A Man on the Moon

Andrew Chaikin · History

A Man on the Moon is Andrew Chaikin's exhaustive narrative history of the Apollo program, from the first lunar orbit of Apollo 8 in 1968 through the final mission, Apollo 17, in 1972.

Both dig into space exploration.

08

Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

Eric Schlosser · History

Command and Control is Eric Schlosser's investigation into the hidden history of nuclear weapons accidents and the organizations that tried to prevent them from detonating by accident.

Both dig into cold war.

09

Forged in Crisis

Nancy Koehn · History

Nancy Koehn, a historian at Harvard Business School, profiles five historical leaders who were forged — not simply demonstrated — by crisis: Ernest Shackleton, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Rachel Carson.

Both dig into leadership.

10

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

Jack Weatherford · History

Jack Weatherford's argument is that Genghis Khan has been badly misread by history.

Both dig into leadership.

11

Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission

Hampton Sides · History

Ghost Soldiers tells the story of the January 1945 raid on the Cabanatuan prisoner-of-war camp in the Philippines — a mission to rescue 513 American and Allied prisoners, survivors of the Bataan Death March, before the retreating Japanese army could execute them.

Both dig into leadership.

12

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette

Hampton Sides · History

In 1879, the USS Jeannette sailed from San Francisco into the Arctic under the command of Lieutenant George Washington De Long, on a mission to reach the North Pole.

Both dig into leadership.