It's incredibly interesting to read the history of an industry or stories of an individual and it often gives me ideas. While some of the books on this page are commonly recommended, most of them I think are not so easy to stumble on.

That said, most of them also have audiobook versions since that is my preferred way to read long books.

For the most part I've omitted books that I've rated lower than a 3/5 review. The page is limited to books I've read since 2016 when I started keeping track.

Industry

• ★★★★★ Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
• ★★★★★ Empires of the Sky: Zeppelins, Airplanes, and Two Men's Epic Duel to Rule the World
• ★★★★★ Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
• ★★★★☆ Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba: The Biography of a Cause
• ★★★★☆ Empire of Cotton: A Global History
• ★★★★☆ Panama Fever: The Epic Story of One of the Greatest Human Achievements of All Time-the Building of the Panama Canal
• ★★★★☆ The Intel Trinity: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built the World's Most Important Company
• ★★★☆☆ Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology
• ★★★☆☆ The Arms of Krupp: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Dynasty that Armed Germany at War
• ★★★☆☆ The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers
• ★★★☆☆ Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America
• ★★★☆☆ The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger
• ★★★☆☆ The Soul of a New Machine

Biography

• ★★★★★ Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination
• ★★★★★ My Years with General Motors
• ★★★★☆ The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century
• ★★★★☆ Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
• ★★★★☆ Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams
• ★★★★☆ Andrew Carnegie
• ★★★★☆ The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
• ★★★★☆ 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
• ★★☆☆☆ Edison†

Philosophy

• ★★★★★ The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business
• ★★★★★ Toyota Production System: Beyond large-scale production
• ★★★★★ The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production -- Toyota's Secret Weapon in the Global Car Wars That Is Now Revolutionizing World Industry)
• ★★★★★ No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention††

Humans

• ★★★★★ The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering
• ★★★★★ The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change
• ★★★★★ Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams
• ★★★★☆ High Output Management

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.

†† I'm a little suspicious of my review to be honest. Too many of these books written by the founder about their own company are quite the coolaid trip. I'll give myself a little credit and not drop this one from this page like I did the Starbucks book.