The Best Business Books 0f 2008 - BusinessWeek Edition
December 10, 2008
While we're in the midst of announcing the shortlists for our annual awards, I think it behooves us to look at what others found worthy of the "best" title. Last week, BusinessWeek gave their blessing to what they see as The Best Business Books of 2008 in an article by Hardy Green. The following books made the article: The Trillion Dollar Meltdown by Charles R.
While we're in the midst of announcing the shortlists for our annual awards, I think it behooves us to look at what others found worthy of the "best" title. Last week, BusinessWeek gave their blessing to what they see as The Best Business Books of 2008 in an article by Hardy Green. The following books made the article:
The Trillion Dollar Meltdown by Charles R. Morris, PublicAffairs
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder, Bantam
The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs by Charles D. Ellis, Penguin Press
Hell's Cartel: I.G. Farben and the Making of Hitler's War Machine by Diarmuid Jeffreys, Metropolitan Books
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely, HarperCollins
The Gridlock Economy: How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, and Costs Lives by Michael Heller, Basic Books
The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation by A.G. Lafley & Ram Charan, Crown Business
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America by Thomas Friedman, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie T. Chang, Spiegel & Grau
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell, Little, Brown
Introducing the books, Green writes:
To look back at the books produced in the beginning of 2008 is to glimpse a more innocent world, an Eden seemingly free of financial crisis and the impending gloom of 2009.I don't necessarily agree with that. Though they weren't given much attention, the books were out there, they just weren't getting much attention. The first book Green mentions in the article, The Trillion Dollar Meltdown, was itself published in March. I believe that qualifies as "the beginning of 2008." (In fact, books warning us of a crisis have been out there for a while, including A Demon of Our Own Design, our choice for the best book in the Finance & Economics category last year.) Regardless of my nitpicking, Mr. Green has put together a fine list. To read the rational behind the decisions, head on over to the original article.
