Political Leaders and Policymakers

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

“Buffett has recommended Franklin's autobiography many times across interviews and letters, citing Franklin's self-improvement program, his frugality, and his approach to reputation as early influences. It is one of the few non-finance books he returns to in public recommendations.”Warren Buffett

The Power Broker

“Caro's biography of Robert Moses is on this list because it shows how infrastructure, regulation, and institutional power actually accumulate and calcify over decades. Andreessen has cited it as essential context for understanding why American cities stopped being able to build things — and why the regulatory environment startups face is the product of deliberate political choices.”Marc Andreessen

Master of the Senate

“Caro's LBJ series is the companion to The Power Broker: it dissects how legislative power is built, traded, and wielded. Andreessen has recommended Caro's work broadly as the best available study of how large institutions actually function versus how they claim to function.”Marc Andreessen

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

“…books I've recommended, highlighted to death, or forced on friends.”Andrew Wilkinson

Team of Rivals

“Among the best historical books I've ever read" — Lincoln's cabinet as a master class in leadership through disagreement.”Stewart Butterfield

The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin

“if you haven't read much about Ben Franklin, that's what I would suggest”Joel Greenblatt

The Path to Power

“The first volume of Caro's Lyndon Johnson series, tracing Johnson's origins in the Texas Hill Country to his first Senate race. Collison has spoken about Caro repeatedly — this volume is the foundation, establishing how ruthless ambition and genuine policy conviction can coexist in a single person.”Patrick Collison

Becoming

“Her own memoir, and the natural anchor for this list. Becoming traces her childhood on Chicago's South Side through Princeton, Harvard Law, and the White House — a sustained inquiry into what it means to build an identity when the world keeps handing you a narrower version of yourself than you recognize.”Michelle Obama

A Promised Land

“Barack Obama's presidential memoir is on this list not as a partner piece but because Michelle features in it as a full character — her doubts about the political life, her protectiveness of their daughters, her own ambitions. Reading it alongside Becoming gives you two perspectives on the same years from inside the same household.”Michelle Obama