The Unofficial Reading List To Learn About The World’s Greatest Leaders
I recently asked a group of smart friends for reading suggestions. Below is a collection of the most recommended autobiographies and biographies of the world’s greatest leaders. Please leave a comment or tweet me if I’ve missed any must-reads.
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Team of Rivals is a Pulitzer Prize winner based on the political genius of Abraham Lincoln. It covers his ability to unite rivals, create a unique cabinet, and eventually save the Union while winning the war.
Washington: The Indispensable Man is an honest, insightful view of the Father of our Country — George Washington. This book won a Special Pulitzer Prize Citation for it’s authentic challenging of one of the most important men in United States history.
The Power Broker looks at Robert Moses and his impact on the physical and political shaping of New York. This relatively unknown man was once considered to be one of the most powerful men of the 20th century.
Robert Caro wrote a trilogy on Lyndon B. Johnson in The Path to Power, Means of Ascent, and Master of The Senate. This collection is widely considered “the most riveting political biography of our time.”
Losing My Virginity is Richard Branson’s autobiography on how he built his business empire. His impressive track record is highlighted by “no central headquarters, no management hierarchy, and minimal bureaucracy.”
Touching the Void is Joe Simpson’s “true story of one man’s miraculous survival after a mountaineering mishap high in the Andes of South America.”
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt was described by The New York Times Book Review as “one of those rare works that is both definitive for the period it covers and fascinating to read for sheer entertainment.”
John Adams is David McCullough’s biography of “the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution.” This Pulitzer Prize winner was the basis for the acclaimed HBO series of the same name.
Long Walk to Freedom is Nelson Mandela’s autobiography covering his fight against racial apartheid in South Africa. His work led to a Nobel Peace Prize, along with the presidency of his country.
Titan takes a deep look at the life of John D. Rockefeller Sr. He is described as “both a rapacious robber baron, whose Standard Oil Company rode roughshod over an industry, and a philanthropist who donated money lavishly to universities and medical centers.”
The Last Lion: Visions of Glory is William Manchester’s biography of Winston Churchill. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s review stated “Manchester has read further, thought harder, and told with considerable verve what is mesmerizing in [Churchill’s] drama. . . . One cannot do better than this book.”
Shoe Dog is Phil Knight’s memoir as the creator of Nike. Lisa Genova describes Knight’s work as “an extraordinary hero’s journey, an epic tale of faith, unparalleled determination, excellence, failure, triumph, hard-earned wisdom, and love.”
Walter Isaacson is one of the best biographers of the modern era. His deep dives on Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and Henry Kissinger are widely lauded as must-reads for any student of history, leadership, and success.
Deng Xiaoping is one of the most influential, albeit unknown, leaders of the 20th Century. Ezra Vogel illuminates “the pragmatic, disciplined force behind China’s radical economic, technological, and social transformation.” The widely untold story of Deng’s historical impact is worth understanding.
The Snowball is the only biography authorized by Warren Buffett. In “an act of courage”, Buffett gave Alice Shroeder “countless hours responding to a writer’s questions, talking, giving complete access to his wife, children, friends, and business associates — opening his files, recalling his childhood.”
The Patriarch is an in-depth profile of Joseph Kennedy, the founder of the 20th century political dynasty that carried his last name. “Drawing on never-before-published materials from archives on three continents and interviews with Kennedy family members and friends, [David] Nasaw tells the story of a man who participated in the major events of his times: the booms and busts, the Depression and the New Deal, two world wars and the Cold War, and the birth of the New Frontier.”
Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed The Art of War is the compelling story of John Boyd, the man often cited as the largest unsung hero in American military history. This must-read showcases “a man of daring, ferocious passion and intractable stubbornness, he was that most American of heroes — a rebel who cared not for his reputation or fortune but for his country.”
The Fish That Ate The Whale is a compelling tale that Amazon describes as “the fascinating, untold tale of Samuel Zemurray, the self-made banana mogul who went from penniless roadside banana peddler to kingmaker and capitalist revolutionary.” It is so well written that Walter Isaacson said “this is a rollicking but brilliantly researched book about one of the most fascinating characters of the twentieth century.”
Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman! is the New York Times Bestselling autobiography from Richard Feynman. In this work, he highlights “what constitutes authentic knowledge: learning by understanding, not by rote; refusal to give up on seemingly insoluble problems; and total disrespect for fancy ideas that have no grounding in the real world.”
Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman is the compelling story of Pat Tillman, who walked away from a multi-million dollar NFL contract to enlist in the US Army. Publishers Weekly claimed that “in this masterful work, bestselling adventure writer Jon Krakauer (Into the Wild) renders an intimate portrait of Tillman and brilliantly captures the sadness, madness and heroism of the post-9/11 world.”
Abraham Lincoln by Lord Charnwood is a 1917 classic that has become known as “a rich, evocative portrait of the man and how actions as a leader were shaped by his character and ideals.” Charnwood’s work has stood the test of time, leading historian Benjamin Thomas to call the book “the best one-volume life of Lincoln ever written.”
Stories I Only Tell My Friends is Rob Lowe’s autobiography. “A teen idol at fifteen, an international icon and founder of the Brat Pack at twenty, and one of Hollywood’s top stars to this day, Rob Lowe chronicles his experiences as a painfully misunderstood child actor in Ohio uprooted to the wild counterculture of mid-seventies Malibu, where he embarked on his unrelenting pursuit of a career in Hollywood.”
Theodore Roosevelt (Robert Morris Trilogy) unveils the man’s accomplishments before the age of 42 in great detail: “Harvard graduate, historian, New York state assemblyman; rancher, Civil Service Commissioner, New York City Police Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy; Commanding officer of the “Rough Riders;” war hero; Governor of New York; Vice President, and then President of the United States.”
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption is Laura Hillenbrand’s New York Times Bestseller that The Washington Post described as “a meticulous, soaring and beautifully written account of an extraordinary life.”
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future covers one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time with unprecedented inside access. Ashlee Vance “argues that Musk — one of the most unusual and striking figures in American business history — is a contemporary amalgam of legendary inventors and industrialists like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs.”
Gandhi: An Autobiography — The Story of My Experiments with Truth is the story of “one of the most inspiring figures of our time. In his classic autobiography he recounts the story of his life and how he developed his concept of active nonviolent resistance, which propelled the Indian struggle for independence and countless other nonviolent struggles of the twentieth century.”
Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader is “a narrative on Jobs’ evolution as a manager and leader, as an astute CEO, as a father, and as a visionary with an unparalleled sense of what consumers wanted — before they knew what they wanted themselves.”
Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination is a deep dive on the man who initially brought imagination to the business world. Disney was the first to build “a synergistic empire that combined film, television, theme parks, music, book publishing, and merchandise.” With so many accomplishments eloquently covered, The Washington Post described Neal Gabler’s work as “mesmerizing.”
Andrew Carnegie is David Nasaw’s New York Times Bestseller on the rags to riches story of the brains behind Carnegie Steel. As the story goes, “he pulled himself up from bobbin boy in a cotton factory to become the richest man in the world.”
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