Books like Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller Sr.

01

Alexander Hamilton

Ron Chernow · Biography

Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton — immigrant, orphan, Revolutionary War aide-de-camp, first Secretary of the Treasury, founder of the American financial system, and victim of Aaron Burr's bullet — is the most comprehensive single-volume account of Hamilton's life and the book that most directly sparked the Hamilton revival in popular culture, including Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical.

A kindred biography read.

02

Grant

Ron Chernow · Biography

Ron Chernow's biography of Ulysses S.

A kindred biography read.

03

Empire of Cotton: A Global History

Sven Beckert · History

Sven Beckert's Empire of Cotton argues that cotton was not just the raw material of the Industrial Revolution but the commodity through which modern capitalism was invented.

A kindred biography read.

04

Empires of Light

Jill Jonnes · History

Empires of Light is Jill Jonnes's history of the War of Currents — the late-nineteenth-century battle between Thomas Edison's direct-current electrical system and George Westinghouse's alternating-current system, with Nikola Tesla as the third figure whose genius made AC practical.

A kindred biography read.

05

American Prometheus

Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin · Biography

Kai Bird and Martin J.

A kindred biography read.

06

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

Patrick Radden Keefe · History

Empire of Pain is Patrick Radden Keefe's account of the Sackler family — the dynasty behind Purdue Pharma and the opioid crisis — told across three generations.

Both dig into philanthropy.

07

The Prize

Daniel Yergin · History

The Prize is Daniel Yergin's comprehensive history of the oil industry from its origins in Pennsylvania in 1859 through the Gulf War of 1990 and 1991.

Both dig into business history.

08

The Soul of Money

Lynne Twist · Self-help

The Soul of Money is Lynne Twist's argument that most people's relationship with money is rooted in a psychology of scarcity — a background hum of "there is not enough, I am not enough, I need more" — and that this orientation, not lack of money itself, is what generates financial anxiety and a life that feels perpetually incomplete.

Both dig into philanthropy.

09

Where the Suckers Moon

Randall Rothenberg · Business

Where the Suckers Moon is Randall Rothenberg's exhaustive account of a single advertising account review: Subaru of America's 1991 search for a new agency.

Both dig into business history.

10

A Beautiful Mind

Sylvia Nasar · Biography

Sylvia Nasar's biography of the mathematician John Nash — Nobel laureate, game theory pioneer, and paranoid schizophrenic — is one of the finest accounts of genius and mental illness in biographical literature.

A kindred biography read.

11

American Kingpin

Nick Bilton · Biography

American Kingpin is Nick Bilton's account of the rise and fall of Silk Road, the dark-web drug marketplace run by Ross Ulbricht under the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts." Bilton traces the story from its ideological origins — Ulbricht's libertarian belief that a free market for drugs would reduce violence, cut out cartels, and let individuals make their own choices — through its rapid growth into a billion-dollar operation, and finally to the multi-agency investigation that culminated in Ulbricht's arrest in a San Francisco public library in 2013.

A kindred biography read.

12

Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War

Robert Coram · Biography

Boyd is Robert Coram's biography of Colonel John Boyd, the Air Force fighter pilot who became one of the most influential military strategists of the twentieth century without ever having commanded a major unit, written a best-selling book, or achieved the rank that would have made him famous while alive.

A kindred biography read.