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Tycoons and Business Dynasties
Lives of industrialists, moguls and business families who held great fortunes, from Rockefeller, Carnegie and Vanderbilt to Murdoch, Onassis and the Tatas.
91 books on Tycoons and Business Dynasties, 4 of them tier 1, recommended by 24 people including Mohnish Pabrai and Charlie Munger.
91 books · 7 parts · 29 experts
Start here
- Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.Ron Chernow, 1998
- Howard Hughes: His Life and MadnessDonald L. Barlett, James B. Steele, 2004
- Andrew CarnegieDavid Nasaw, 2006
- The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius VanderbiltT. J. Stiles, 2009
- My Life and WorkHenry Ford, Samuel Crowther, 1922
The best books on Tycoons and Business Dynasties 91
Ron Chernow · 1998
The definitive Rockefeller biography and Standard Oil narrative.
“Very compelling biography on John D. Rockefeller, a must read.”Mohnish Pabrai
Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele · 2004
Reissue of Empire (1979); the definitive investigative biography.
Recommended byElon Musk
David Nasaw · 2006
The standard modern life, built on newly opened papers.
T. J. Stiles · 2009
Pulitzer and National Book Award winner; the definitive life.
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Henry Ford, Samuel Crowther · 1922
Insider account: Henry Ford's own manifesto on mass production.
T2 God's Gold
John T. Flynn · 1932
The hostile Depression-era life that Nevins was commissioned to answer.
Matthew Josephson · 1934
The framing of Rockefeller's generation that shaped US policy.
Recommended byLarry Ellison
Joseph Frazier Wall · 1970
The scholarly biography Nasaw's book displaced but did not erase.
Robert Hessen · 1975
The operator Carnegie promoted; the best view of how the mills ran.
Nicholas Fraser, Philip Jacobson, Mark Ottaway, Lewis Chester · 1977
Sunday Times Insight team; the most rigorously reported of the lives.
Peter Evans · 1986
The standard biography; Evans interviewed Onassis directly.
Robert Lacey · 1986
Full-dress dynastic history from Henry I through Henry II.
Peter Collier, David Horowitz · 1987
Four generations of the family and the succession that nearly sank the company.
R. M. Lala · 1992
Authorized biography of the chairman who ran Tata for fifty years.
David E. Hoffman · 2002
Six men and the mechanics of how post-Soviet wealth was assembled.
Steven Watts · 2005
Scholarly biography placing Ford in American cultural history.
Rich Cohen · 2012
Samuel Zemurray and United Fruit; the banana trade as empire
David Nasaw · 2012
Joseph Kennedy: film, liquor, market operations and the first SEC chairmanship
T2 Red Roulette
Desmond Shum · 2021
Insider account of doing deals through Party patronage, and losing everything.
Allan Nevins · 1940
The major revisionist defence written against Tarbell.
Wheaton J. Lane · 1942
The standard mid-century life, still useful on the steamboat years.
T3 Insull
Forrest McDonald · 1962
The man who invented the regulated-return utility bargain, and the holding company that killed him.
Peter Collier, David Horowitz · 1976
The family and trusts that outlived the operating company.
Frank Brady · 1977
Contemporary biography written the year after his death.
John Ensor Harr, Peter J. Johnson · 1988
Family-archive history of the fortune across three generations.
Arthur T. Vanderbilt II · 1989
How the heirs dispersed the fortune; written by a descendant.
Patrick Reynolds, Tom Shachtman · 1989
Family insider account of the Reynolds fortune and the company it built.
Robert Maheu, Richard Hack · 1992
Insider memoir by the man who ran the Hughes empire day to day.
Nadège Forestier, Nazanine Ravaï · 1992
The takeover battles that assembled the group under Arnault.
Charles Higham · 1993
Sensational and disputed on sourcing, but widely read and still cited.
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Anthony B. Chan · 1995
The only dedicated English biography; stops before the handover.
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Gita Piramal · 1996
Profiles of the family houses that still dominate the index.
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Peter Harry Brown, Pat H. Broeske · 1996
Archive-based life; the standard popular biography after Barlett and Steele.
Jacquie McNish · 1998
Robert Friedland and the Voisey's Bay nickel discovery.
T3 Titans
Peter C. Newman · 1998
The next generation of Canadian owners after the Establishment volumes.
Lawrence G. Foster · 1999
Authorized biography by the company's PR chief; origin of the Credo.
Paul Klebnikov · 2000
Berezovsky and the looting of the Yeltsin state; the author was later murdered.
Sumner Redstone, Peter Knobler · 2001
Owner's memoir; Redstone's own case for buying and then shedding Blockbuster.
Neil Baldwin · 2001
Open Library merges this record with Albert Lee's 1980 book of the same title.
Richard Hack · 2001
Document-led; some sourcing has been questioned.
Neil Chenoweth · 2001
The financial engineering behind News Corp, traced by a forensic reporter.
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Richard Bak · 2003
Father and son; how Ford destroyed his own successor.
Bruce Page · 2003
Structural argument about how the papers trade coverage for political favour.
R. M. Lala · 2004
Life of the founder and the origins of the trust structure.
Adam Macqueen · 2004
Biography of William Lever, who built the brand model; Open Library unreachable.
Les Standiford · 2005
Narrative of the Frick partnership and Homestead.
T3 The Tycoons
Charles R. Morris · 2005
Carnegie, Rockefeller, Gould and Morgan and the economy they built
“on how four great builders of the 19th century built the world we live in today”Marc Andreessen
Recommended byMarc Andreessen
Peter M. Ascoli · 2006
Biography of the merchant who built the mail-order machine; Open Library unreachable.
Edward J. Renehan Jr. · 2007
Modern rival to Stiles, two years earlier; Open Library unreachable to verify.
Steve Weinberg · 2008
Dual portrait of Tarbell and Rockefeller and their collision.
Michael Wolff · 2008
Fifty hours of interviews plus the family; the closest to authorised.
T3 The Big Rich
Bryan Burrough · 2009
The Texas fortunes, including the Hunts before and after the silver trade.
Daniel Ammann · 2009
Marc Rich, the founder of modern commodity trading.
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Quentin R. Skrabec · 2010
The partner who did the things Carnegie preferred not to sign.
Adele Ferguson · 2012
Iron ore, royalties and family control at the top of the resource sector.
David McKnight · 2012
Argues the politics drove the business, not the reverse.
Girish Kuber · 2019
Readable outside history of the family and the group.
Harvey Samuel Firestong, Samuel Crowther · 1926
Founder's account of building Firestone; business sense from the tyre trade
Irving Stone · 1956
Narrative of the American West's mining and railroad fortunes
Recommended byCharlie Munger
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Nadège Forestier · 1990
The French original of the above.
Recommended byThe Barefoot Investor
Robert Goldberg, Gerald Jay Goldberg · 1995
Turner Broadcasting, absorbed by Time Warner in 1996.
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Kiki Feroudi Moutsatsos · 1998
Insider memoir by his personal assistant; domestic detail, little business.
Bernard Arnault, Yves Messarovitch · 2000
Insider account: Arnault interview book; French only.
Ulf Olsson · 2000
Marcus Wallenberg and the bank-industry structure that still controls Swedish capital.
Mark Arax, Rick Wartzman · 2003
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Edward J. Renehan · 2005
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Hamish McDonald · 2010
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Jerry Oppenheimer · 2013
Family history rather than company analysis; gossipy in tone.
Richard Snow · 2013
Tight narrative of the Model T years; the best short account.
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Daniel Schulman · 2014
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
T4 Beer Money
Frances Stroh · 2016
Family memoir of a brewer undone partly by its distribution position.
T4 Slim
Diego Enrique Osorno · 2016
Carlos Slim, telecoms concessions and the economics of a licensed monopoly.
Recommended byMohnish Pabrai
Experts 29
The people who wrote this page's books, and the people who recommend them.
Authors 5
Ron Chernowwrote 1 book hereCR
Charles R. Morriswrote 1 book here
Andrew Carnegiewrote 1 book here
Bernard Arnaultwrote 1 book here
Henry Fordwrote 1 book hereRecommenders 24
MP
Mohnish Pabrairecommends 26 books here
Charlie Mungerrecommends 4 books hereAW
Andrew Wilkinsonrecommends 4 books here
Marc Andreessenrecommends 2 books hereMH
Morgan Houselrecommends 2 books here
Ryan Holidayrecommends 2 books hereNH
Nick Huberrecommends 2 books hereJC
Jim Collinsrecommends 1 book here
Paul Grahamrecommends 1 book hereNS
Nick Sleeprecommends 1 book hereAT
Abi Tyas Tunggalrecommends 1 book hereAP
Anthony Pomplianorecommends 1 book hereShow all 24
AA
Austen Allredrecommends 1 book hereCB
Christopher Bloomstranrecommends 1 book hereCS
Codie Sanchezrecommends 1 book here
David Friedbergrecommends 1 book here
Elon Muskrecommends 1 book hereEJ
Eric Jorgensonrecommends 1 book here
Larry Ellisonrecommends 1 book hereNE
Nat Eliasonrecommends 1 book herePO
Patrick O'Shaughnessyrecommends 1 book hereSP
Sam Parrrecommends 1 book hereBI
The Barefoot Investorrecommends 1 book hereRW
The Rational Walkrecommends 1 book hereMore books: ← Political Leaders and Policymakers · Biography and Memoir → · All books