Best Business Biography of the Past 5 Years?

Compiling Andrew Wilkinson's tweet replies

I’m trying to be helpful and listing some good Business Biography books recommended by others, sort them into categories and link to them.

I’ve also bolded the books that received numerous mentions.

Comments and book suggestions come from replies to Andrew Wilkinson’s tweet, What’s the best business biography you’ve read in the past 5 years?

Andrew Wilkinson @awilkinson

What’s the best business biography you’ve read in the past 5 years?

Best Business Biographies

Biographies

• American Kingpin by Nick Bilton

• Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender

• Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson

• Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street by John Brooks

• Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw

• Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace

• Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush by Jon Meacham

• Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson

• Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

• Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton

• Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson

• Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America Hardcover by Christopher Leonard

• In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules by Stacy Perman

• Irrational Persistence: Seven Secrets That Turned a Bankrupt Startup Into a $231,000,000 Business by Dave Zilko

• Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson

• Nuts!: Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success by Kevin & Jackie Freiberg

• Prescription for Success: The Life and Values of Ewing Marion Kauffman by Anne Morgan

• Railroader: The Unfiltered Genius and Controversy of Four-Time CEO Hunter Harrison by Howard Green

• Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle by Matthew Symonds

• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

• The Billionaire Who Wasn’t: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune by Conor O’Clery

• The Everything Store by Brad Stone

• The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles

• The Gambler: How Penniless Dropout Kirk Kerkorian Became the Greatest Deal Maker in Capitalist History by William C. Rempel

• The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty by Julia Flynn Siler

• The House of Morgan by Ron Chernow

• The King of Vodka: The Story of Pyotr Smirnov and the Upheaval of an Empire by Linda Himelstein

• The Man Who Gave His Company Away by Susanna Hoe

• The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution by Gregory Zuckerman

• The Outsiders by William Thorndike

• The Players Ball by David Kushner

• The Polyester Prince: The Rise of Dhirubhai Ambani by Hamish McDonald

• The Reichmanns: Family, Faith, Fortune, and the Empire of Olympia & York by Anthony Bianco

• The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: King Solomon’s Secrets to Success, Wealth, and Happiness by Steven K. Scott

• The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Shroeder

• The Fish That Ate the Whale by Rich Cohen

• The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World by Randall E. Stross

• The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

• To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History by Lawrence Levy

• Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow

• Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler

Autobiographies

• Am I being too subtle by Sam Zell

• Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh

• Eat a Peach: A Memoir by David Chang

• Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s by Ray Kroc

• How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis

• I Love Capitalism! by Ken Langone

• Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard

• Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World by Rand Fishkin

• Made in America by Sam Walton

• Made in Japan – Akio Morita and SONY by Mitsuko Morita Akio

• Maverick by Riccardo Semler

• Miracles Happen by Mary Kay Ash

• Personal History by Katharine Graham

• Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio

• Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz

• Setting the Table by Danny Meyer

• Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight (Easily the most recommended)

• That Will Never Work by Marc Randolph

• The CEO Factory: Management Lessons from Hindustan Unilever by Sudhir Sitapati

• The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

• The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time by Jim McKelvey

• The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger

• The Story of Lululemon: Little Black Stretchy Pants by Chip Wilson

• The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future by Steve Case

• Total Recall by Arnold Schwarzenegger

• Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell by Eric Schmidt

• What I Know For Sure by Oprah Winfrey

• What it Takes by Stephen A. Schwarzman

• When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man by Jerry Weintraub

• Who is Michael Ovitz by Michael Ovitz

Misc

• Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar

• Boyd by Robert Coram

• Built to Sell by John Warrillow

• The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Managing Your Business and Your Life by Geshe Michael Roach and Lama Christie McNally

• The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood by James Gleick

• The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron by Bethany McLean & Peter Elkind

• Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World by Mark Pendergrast

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