Searching for the best marketing books? This list of the best marketing books for beginners gives you a short & simple overview so that you can get back to focusing on your business.
In this guide, we review the aspects of Best Books To Learn Marketing For Beginners, best marketing books of all time, best books to learn stock market for beginners, and what are the best books to learn economics.
Best Books To Learn Marketing For Beginners
To be honest, marketing can be both a hard and fun topic to learn. It’s difficult because there are so many things to know (and Google), but it’s also fun because you get to learn how businesses work and how they try to sell their products to you. These seven books will give you the foundation that is needed in order for anyone who wants to learn about marketing from scratch.
Seth Godin’s Free Prize Inside
Seth Godin’s Free Prize Inside is a great book to learn marketing. It’s all about the art of marketing and how to get your product or service in front of your customers. It covers everything from how to market yourself, your ideas, and even your services.
If you’re looking for a good book on learning marketing for beginners, then this is it!
Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy
The book is a classic and you will get a lot of value out of it. It’s not a book about how to make an ad, but rather how to write one that works. The author is David Ogilvy, who was the founder of Ogilvy & Mather and one of the most famous advertising men in history.
In this book he explains what makes for a good ad and how you can use this knowledge to create your own ads that are better than those made by your competitors. It’ll help you understand what your target audience wants from their advertising, so when you write their ads you’ll be able to speak directly to their needs—making it far more likely that they’ll respond positively or purchase whatever product or service you’re selling as a result.
Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
This book is about web design, but it’s also about what makes a website easy to use and enjoyable to browse. It’s an eye-opening guide that teaches you how to make your websites more user-friendly by eliminating all the unnecessary stuff that gets in your way when you’re trying to navigate them. The main goal of this book is for readers to learn how to make their websites less complicated so that people actually want to stay on them for longer periods of time.
The best thing about this book is its simplicity and straightforwardness: it doesn’t use any jargon or technical terms, which makes it very approachable even if you’re completely new at marketing or web design. It doesn’t try too hard either—it uses simple language without dumbing down content; instead, it just clears up any confusion around these topics so that anyone can understand what they mean without having some sort of background knowledge beforehand (which is often required by other books).
As a result, there are many good takeaways from this book: one thing I liked was how Krug addressed problems like “information overload” which can often lead people off track when searching online because there’s so much information available already out there already! He showed me ways around these hurdles by explaining how important it is not only providing relevant information but also being concise about what needs attention most urgently! In short: Don’t Make Me Think has helped me become better at converting visitors into customers through clear navigation between pages on my website; ultimately making sure our users get exactly what they need quickly before leaving us forever —
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing is a great book to learn marketing for beginners and beyond. Written by Al Ries and Jack Trout, the book explains how to make your business a success. It’s a bestseller that has been translated into 16 languages.
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing is based on research conducted over many years, which shows that successful companies have common traits no matter what industry they are in or where they are located. Here are some of the laws:
- * Law 1: The Law Of Leadership: Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?
- * Law 2: The Law Of Focus (or Single Aim): Know Your Customer Better Than He Knows Himself; Tell Him Everything He Needs To Know And More; Make Sure No One Else Can Do What You Do Better Than You Do It Yourself; Aim At Being Number One In Your Field And Let Others Catch Up With You Later On When They Are Ready For A Challenge!
Contagious Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger
If you want to learn how to make your message go viral, the first step is understanding that nothing is guaranteed. This book will help you understand why some ideas catch on and others don’t.
You’ll learn about the six elements of contagiousness, which include:
- Social Currency – people sharing because it gives them something of value in return
- Triggers – an external stimulus that makes someone think of your message
- Emotion – stories are emotional, and emotions move people to action
- Public – sharing something with the world makes it more likely that others will share it as well
The One Thing You Need to Know by Marcus Buckingham
This book is all about time management. It’s about getting more done in less time, and achieving more results in less time. It teaches you how to be more efficient, and how to make the most of your day.
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook written by Gary Vaynerchuk
“Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” by Gary Vaynerchuk is a great book for beginners. It’s about social media marketing and it provides tons of examples of how to use social media effectively.
In the book you’ll learn that when you take the time to interact with your audience on social platforms like Twitter or Facebook, they will be more likely to follow you and engage with your content in the future. This also allows you to build an audience that knows what kind of content they can expect from you so they’ll know when something new comes out.
All seven books are about marketing.
The first book, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout, is about marketing. The second book, Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy, is also about marketing. The third book, Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug, is about web design (and therefore has nothing to do with marketing).
The fourth book, The One Thing You Need to Know by Marcus Buckingham was recommended as an “alternative” reading choice—because who doesn’t like a good self-help book? There’s no reason why this shouldn’t be included in your list of recommended books for beginners in marketing!
best marketing books of all time
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If you are new to marketing, it can be tough to know where to start. Marketing is the bread and butter of any business, and it is always evolving. There are a lot of marketing books out there, but which are the best marketing books for beginners?
The best marketing books combine tried and true methods with a digital world approach. They provide a well-rounded view of the marketing landscape that is based on experience and research. Most importantly, they will walk you through each step of planning and executing your marketing strategy.
To save you the time and effort of finding the best marketing books for beginners, I’ve compiled a list of 29 picks that will take your skills to the next level. These books will teach you everything from how to create a marketing plan to how to use social media for marketing purposes.
So whether you are just getting started in marketing or you want to learn more about a specific aspect of it, these books will help!
Best Marketing Books for Beginners
Without further ado, here are the top 29 marketing books for beginners. These books will teach you the ins and outs of each aspect of marketing as well as the core principles so that you can take your business to the next level.
1. Marketing for Tomorrow, Not Yesterday by Zain Raj
If you are looking for a book that will help you understand how marketing has changed in recent years, then this is the book for you. Zain Raj dives into how technology has disrupted marketing and what that means for businesses. He also provides a framework for creating a modern marketing strategy.
Raj focuses on helping the reader to identify the core values of their customers so that they can better connect with them. He illustrates the same techniques that he uses as chief executive officer of SolutionSet, a major marketing agency that serves some of the top brands in the world.
This book will walk you through decisions such as social media, brand-building, and cultivating customer loyalty in the modern world.
Marketing for Tomorrow, Not Yesterday is the perfect book for anyone who wants to understand how marketing has changed and what they need to do to stay ahead of the curve.
2. Content Chemistry: An Illustrated Handbook for Content Marketing by Andy Crestodina
This book doesn’t just tell you how to develop a stellar content marketing plan. It shows you.
Andy Crestodina starts by explaining what content marketing is and why it’s so important. He then dives into how to develop a strategy, create compelling content, and measure your results.
He also includes a ton of helpful illustrations to drive home his points.
This is the perfect guide for visual and spatial learners who want a peek into the inner workings of content marketing.
3. Digital Marketing for Dummies by Ryan Deiss and Russ Henneberry
This book reads not only as a guide but as a workbook. It provides an overview of major forms of digital marketing such as advertising, social media marketing, SEO, and email marketing.
It then provides you with plenty of personal audits and checklists so you can assess the effectiveness of your current digital marketing strategy. Ryan Deiss and Russ Henneberry also include a ton of helpful resources throughout the book such as templates, case studies, and content writing tools.
This book is ideal for the budding entrepreneur that wants an overview of business marketing so they can assess which areas to dive into and focus on next.
4. Growth Hacker Marketing by Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday teaches marketers about the mindset of marketing in this book and helps redefine what marketing really is.
Growth Hacker Marketing is all about thinking outside the box and using creative strategies to reach your target market. He provides case studies of companies such as Airbnb and Dropbox which used growth hacking to achieve massive success.
Are you looking for ways to bypass the traditional formats including billboards, press releases, and TV commercials? Then this book is for you.
This book helps marketers who want to think outside the box and find new and creative ways to reach their target market.
If you are looking for case studies on how companies have used growth hacking to achieve success, this book is a great resource.
5. The 1-Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib
In the overwhelming world of digital marketing, it can be challenging to get started. That’s why Allan Dib created the 1-Page Marketing Plan.
Allan Dib walks the reader through how to create a marketing plan that is focused, effective, and easy to implement.
Simply fill out 9 questions about your business and target market on a single page and you will have a complete marketing plan that you can use to grow your business.
This book encourages clarity and action over lengthy marketing plans that sit on a shelf and collect dust.
If you are looking for a simple and effective way to create a marketing plan, this book is for you.
6. Marketing 4.0: Moving From Traditional to Digital by Philip Kotler
In the digital age, consumers spend less attention and time on every piece of media they come across. Rather than feeling discouraged and giving up, Philip Kotler shows marketers how to evolve their strategies to match the changes in consumer behavior.
He provides a framework for understanding how consumers have changed and what needs to be done to reach them where they are at.
This book walks you through the customer journey from awareness of your services to becoming a loyal customer.
This book is a great psychological primer for beginning marketers looking to better understand their target market.
7. The Zen of Social Media Marketing by Shama Kabani
Social media is one of the primary branches of digital marketing and Shama Kabani takes you through step-by-step strategies that will reduce stress and burnout in this area.
You’ll learn the basics of marketing on LinkedIn (don’t miss out on InMail on LinkedIn), Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and beyond. Each section provides actionable tweaks you can make to your accounts that can dramatically increase your traffic.
By the end of this book, Kabani will help you to develop a simple routine for social media that will only take 30 minutes each day. This way you can focus on other areas of your online marketing strategy.
8. This Is Marketing by Seth Godin
Seth Godin is one of the leading marketing minds of our time and this Is Marketing is his magnum opus.
In this book, Godin challenges the traditional ways that marketers have been taught to think about their craft. He encourages marketers to focus on providing value and building relationships with their target market.
By solving problems for customers rather than focusing on the company’s bottom line, marketers can create loyalty and trust. Seth Godin writes some of the best marketing books for beginners and you can check out his other texts if you’d like to dive into these topics even further.
This book encourages small business owners to see these relationships as collaborations and not transactions.
9. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
Marketing can often involve going under the surface to understand what motivates people. In Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely dives into the psychology of why we make the choices that we do.
This book is a great resource for understanding human behavior. Many of the anecdotes can be transferred to the personal relationships you build with customers. This way, you can predict patterns and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.
Ariely provides case studies and experiments that show how our emotions, social norms, and even placebos can affect our decision-making.
10. Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene M Schwartz
Don’t let the word advertising fool you. this is one of the most coveted marketing books of all time. Written in 1966, Eugene M Schwartz’s Breakthrough Advertising is still relevant today.
Schwartz breaks down the principles of effective advertising and provides case studies of some of the most successful campaigns in history.
This book is a must-read for anyone serious about marketing. It will give you a foundation in the basics of creating ridiculously good content and teach you how to craft headings that effortlessly attract your clients to you.
11. The 10x Rule by Grant Cordone
If you want to create a digital marketing strategy that will provide you with serious dividends on your marketing efforts, this is the book for you.
Grant Cardone argues that in the marketing world, we don’t set high enough goals. Rather than giving the bare minimum of marketing efforts, we should be aiming for a ten-fold output.
This approach is perfect for those who want to be brave in their marketing outreach and see some real results.
With the right attitude, this book undoes any limitations you’ve put on your marketing potential. And can help you to achieve bigger results than you’ve ever thought possible.
12. Uncloned Marketing by Audria Richmond
The launch and marketing strategist Audria Richmond aims to help you to establish yourself as an expert and authority through irresistible offers and marketing campaigns.
She then provides advice to scale marketing strategies for both small and large businesses.
This book is perfect for those who want to bridge their digital marketing with their branding in order to increase visibility, impact, and engagement with their audience.
13. Content Marketing Engineered by Wendy Covey
Wendy Covey is the CEO of TREW Marketing and in this book, she uses her years of experience to provide an actionable framework for a content marketing strategy that works.
Covey’s focus is on creating quality content that is aligned with your business goals.
There is also a specific focus on technical writing for those looking to improve their skills in this area. However, it is broad enough to be helpful for any beginner in the digital marketing space.
Wendy Covey will teach you how to build social proof and authority, generate leads, and close deals.
14. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary Vaynerchuk is well known for his brash and in-your-face approach to social media marketing. In this book, he breaks down how to tell your story on each different social media platform.
The metaphor of “jab, jab, jab, right hook” can be translated to “give, give, give, then ask”. He used this specific formula in order to achieve success with social media marketing and is providing a step-by-step guide on how you can do the same.
If you’re a beginner in the social media marketing world, this book will be an invaluable resource. It will teach you the value of constantly creating good content and will show you how to offer value to your audience in order to grow your platform.
best books to learn stock market for beginners
1. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by Jack Bogle
One of the best trading books around, Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group, has a simple message. He recommends you go into trading by keeping costs reduced, investing long term. This is a book that risk-averse traders and investors will be attracted to, since it talks about active strategies to keep your losses at bay. In fact, if you are a little apprehensive about trading to begin with, this is one of the best share market books you should read first. A bestseller of a book, it offers practical and sensible ways to make money.
2. A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel
The 10th edition of this book is a great read for those starting portfolios from scratch. Trends, bubbles, indexing, the importance of time and patience while trading, and other key concepts are touched upon. A superbly written share market book, crafted by Burton Gordon Malkiel, a proud Princeton University alumni and key economist, this book is popular due to the “random walk hypothesis”. The author stipulates that the prices of assets typically show indications of a “random walk” and investors have no way to outperform averages in the markets in a consistent fashion. Malkiel stresses on famous investing strategies like fundamental and technical analysis that will ultimately help investors become clever at their game.
3. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
This is the ‘bible’ of investing as far as stock market books go. One of the reasons may be attributed to the author, Benjamin Graham, mentor to Warren Buffett. The book begins by explanations of the basics of the stock market from the perception of value investors. The first few chapters may not have relevance for the Indian scenario, but keep at it and you will find real value in later chapters.
Value investing basically tells you that if you find the “true value” of a stock, you can earn real returns from your holdings. The book goes on to touch upon “Mr. Market”, symbolic of the volatile prices of the stock market, and talks about how investors should not buy or sell on the whims of the markets.
4. One Up On Wall Street by Peter Lynch
Written by one of the most experienced and successful fund managers of all time, Peter Lynch has an impressive record of a return of 30% (on average) annually on his portfolio spanning 13 years. Considered a classic by trading professionals, this book talks about the preparation that comes before investing, along with the author’s distinctive way to choose stocks. One of the best trading books the world has witnessed, the book comprises easy terminology and gives investors clear directions on sorting out long shots and no shots by studying a company’s financial records.
5. The Warren Buffett Way by Robert G. Hagstrom
Whether you’re on the floor or involved in online stock trading, this book gives you deep insights into Warren Buffet’s investment strategies, all bound for success. If the financial success of the bestseller businessman is anything to go by, this book only benefits investors. The key principles outlined in the book stand for value investing by purchasing stocks of promising businesses. Buying stocks at discounted rates is another one of Buffet’s mantras to live by. This is a share market book that you cannot go wrong with as it is based on real-life investment success over a long period.
6. How to Make Money in Stocks by William J. O’Neil
O’Neil describes his own system of investing and finding big stock winners. For new investors, this book should answer all your questions. With a stock brokerage to back up the author’s experience in the industry, you can learn some secrets from a man who has helped millions of investors get wealthy in the past.
7. Stocks to Riches by Parag Parikh
A true-blue book for all Indian investors, this guide is simple to follow and is one of the best stock trading books for beginners. Importantly, the author tells you what mistakes to avoid and the advice comes from years of experience.
Parikh has written the book that all Indian investors have long been looking for, touching upon behaviour while investing, and ideas of how traders should behave in certain situations. These actions would then lead to better trading and investment decisions overall. The author explains the basic concepts investors have to grasp while trading shares, like definitions of trading itself, speculation, sunk cost fallacy and loss aversion, to name a few.
what are the best books to learn economics
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The economy and how it impacts families is a burning issue today, as inflation and high interest rates dominate the news in the United States, becoming a key element in the midterm elections. In the United Kingdom, economics is at the heart of the troubles plaguing the island nation and former empire that welcomed its third prime minister in 2022. Throughout the world, too, it is a major talking point.
As you read through our list of the seven best books that cover economics, you’ll find diverse and in-depth viewpoints covering how this science plays out in everyday life.
In Serious Money: Walking Plutocratic London, our best overall book, sociologist Caroline Knowles takes you through the neighborhoods of the capital city telling stories of how the ultra-wealthy live and work; how they spend their money, marry and divorce; and why London is one of the best places for those with nefarious intentions to hide money from authorities. The Times of London called the book a “latter-day Canterbury Tales.”
Another fascinating read is When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe, which investigates the prestigious, powerful consulting firm, revealing where it has failed to live up to its carefully cultivated sterling reputation. The New York Times investigative journalists detail how McKinsey sometimes works for opposing sides, without revealing its very obvious conflicts of interest, and offers its clients advice that can lead to unsafe outcomes.
Cambridge University political economist Helen Thompson has generated buzz for her Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century, which delves into the reasons for the world’s instability. In her telling, that shakiness is tied to geopolitics, which centers on energy; economics; and how the democracies of the most powerful nations work and interact.
Best Overall: Serious Money: Walking Plutocratic London
Coverage of the ultra-wealthy rarely reveals the reality behind their day-to-day lives—their many houses and super-yachts, the tony schools they attend, their memberships in exclusive clubs, traveling adventures, and the ease and perks that being very well-heeled affords them. Here’s a book that shows you just that. It is especially relevant now, as Britain’s richest-ever prime minister (at least in modern times), Rishi Sunak, a former investment banker, and his wife, Akshata Murty, a tech heiress who reportedly is wealthier than King Charles III, take up residence at No. 10 Downing Street.
In Serious Money: Walking Plutocratic London, author and sociology professor Caroline Knowles takes you on a slow, satisfying stroll through super-wealthy London, thanks to interviews with movers and shakers, support staff, and consultants. In the context of the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers, both of which revealed offshore entities used by the global elite, Knowles writes, “London is internationally renowned for its expertise in hiding money.” She is a former professor at Goldsmiths and now a global professorial fellow at Queen Mary, both University of London, and the author of Flip-Flop: A Journey Through Globalisation’s Backroads and co-author of Hong Kong: Migrant Lives, Landscapes, and Journeys.
The book features maps of London neighborhoods and stories from 43 individuals, all of whom remain anonymous and are given nicknames. They include: Boy, a young entrepreneur and owner of a bar in Shoreditch, a hipster neighborhood adjoining The City, London’s Wall Street; Quant, an algorithm writer for a bank; Cake, a former banker and private equities dealer specializing in fintech; Butler, a butler who has worked in some of London’s wealthiest households; Journo, a Russian journalist and chronicler of London’s invisible Russian entrepreneurs; Walker, a family office employee who works on domestic and family services; Palace, a Notting Hill mom, who hails from the landed aristocracy and does volunteer work; Babysitter, a young woman who explains life in a commuter village; and Traveller, who organizes unusual luxury trips and travel experiences for very wealthy clients.
After observing protests outside the Saudi embassy, Knowles notes, “Just as in London, you are supposedly never more than six feet away from a rat, in [moneyed] Mayfair, you are rarely far from a human rights violation.” Another story tells of a London divorce in which the soon-to-be ex-wife, a former model, asks the court for £500 million annually to fund a lavish lifestyle that includes three staffed homes, steady replenishment of her shoe and jewelry stock, and many other excesses, and is awarded £53 million instead.
Knowles also discusses how plutocratic London co-exists side by side with wealth from the Middle East and Britain; how income inequality was at its ugliest in the lead-up and aftermath of the fire at the low-income-housing Grenfell Tower in 2017 that killed 72 people and displaced everyone living there; and how life among some of London’s wealthy has carried on uninterrupted for generations.
Best Exposé of a Powerhouse Company: When McKinsey Comes to Town
Any employee or ex-employee of a corporation knows that “when McKinsey comes to town,” heads are going to roll, and it could be theirs. In Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe’s riveting, heavily annotated book When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm, the authors blow McKinsey’s cover as the good guys with integrity and discretion. They detail how this influential, tight-lipped consulting firm plays both sides of the fence, so to speak, by working for opposing sides without acknowledging conflicts of interest, and renders advice to some unsavory clients at the expense of safety and other unfortunate outcomes, in the interest of driving up short-term profits for the client and collecting high fees for McKinsey.
Both authors are award-winning journalists who now report for The New York Times. They explain how this “company defined by numbers, spreadsheets, and PowerPoint slides” enjoys near-absolute loyalty from its consultants, sometimes years after they have left the firm, and how that steadfastness proved a challenge in their reporting. Fortunately, though, some “McKinseyites” stepped forward to proffer insights into the firm’s practices and personalities.
McKinsey faced a disaster of its own making in South Africa, detailed in the chapter “Clubbing Seals: The South African Debacle.” McKinsey came to Johannesburg, hoping to establish a lucrative African foothold. Eventually, the firm became the focus of several government investigations involving “tainted contracts” and other irregularities connected to the country’s railroads and electricity utility, the airline South African Airways, and the financial consultancy Regiments Capital. McKinsey publicly apologized to the South African government several times, but the series of faux pas; links to the influential, corrupt South African Gupta family; and other illegal dealings rendered it mortally wounded in South Africa and left a stain on its global reputation.
Best Biography of an Economist: Empathy Economics
Janet Yellen is a rare individual. She is a highly accomplished woman and scholar in a male-dominated profession and is now the first female U.S. Treasury secretary. She has held the other two top economic policy jobs in the nation—chair of both the Federal Reserve and the Council of Economic Advisers—and was the first woman in both posts. In Owen Ullmann’s meticulous and laudatory Empathy Economics: Janet Yellen’s Remarkable Rise to Power and Her Drive to Spread Prosperity to All, he outlines Yellen’s philosophy of lifting up those from the economic ladder’s lowest rung and her humanity, which stands out in the brutal world of Washington politics.
Yellen grew up in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, N.Y. She is the daughter of a physician who employed a pay-what-you-can policy for his patients and a former elementary schoolteacher mother, who also ran her husband’s practice after he had a medical setback. Ullmann, an award-winning journalist, takes the reader from Yellen’s happy, stable childhood, where she observed economic disparities among the patients who visited her father’s office. He recounts the gender discrimination she has faced at universities and throughout her career, and her 1978 marriage to George Akerlof, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics.
He details her stints at the Fed—including her firing by then-President Donald Trump, who said in a staggeringly superficial pronouncement that she was too short to be Fed chair, a job she had been doing well for four years before Trump took office—and her professional life today. Ullman writes of Yellen: “One signature achievement involves climate change: For the first time, she made it the focus of every aspect of the financial world that the Treasury supervises.”
A speech to her Treasury Department staff after her confirmation shows how Yellen’s earliest experiences are still with her. “My father was a doctor in a working-class part of Brooklyn, and he was a child of the Depression,” she said. “He had a visceral reaction to economic hardship, telling us about patients who lost their jobs or who couldn’t pay. Those moments remain some of the clearest of my early life, and they are likely why, decades later, I still try to see my science—the science of economics—the way my father saw his: as a means to help people.”
Best on Economic Fault Lines in Today’s Unstable World: Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century
University of Cambridge political economist Helen Thompson writes about long-standing political rivalries among the great powers in her well-received Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century, which was short-listed in September 2022 as one of the Financial Times’ best books this year. The book’s subtitle is a homage to author Charles Dickens and “his meditation on industrial civilization pitted against ‘the innumerable horsepower of time’” in Hard Times: For These Times.
Today’s pressure points and shocks, writes Thompson, are in economics, technology, military strength, and domestic political resilience. She notes that disruption in the last decade has been wrongfully attributed to populist nationalism, in the context of the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 and the plummeting of a “purportedly liberal international order,” adding that “at the systemic level much remains unexplained, not least because energy has gone unrecognized as an important cause of the geopolitical and economic fault lines at work.” Thompson builds her message around three histories—geopolitical, which centers on energy; economic; and democracies—all of which she ties together to help explain the growing instability in the world today.
Best Collection of Opinions: Economics and the Left
In Economics and the Left: Interviews with Progressive Economists, editor C.J. Polychroniou presents 24 economists “whose lifework has been dedicated to both interpreting the world and changing it for the better,” in their own words and on various topics. These include their home countries, modern monetary theory (MMT), Marxian and Keynesian perspectives, how their upbringing and parents helped to form their economic views, and the impact of COVID-19.
The group includes Brazilian Nelson Fihlo Barbosa; Briton Diane Elson; American, specifically Californian, Teresa Ghilarducci; Chinese, now U.S.-based, Zhongjin Li; and Turkish, now U.K.-based, Ozlem Onaran. Polychroniou is a political scientist, political economist, author, and journalist who has taught and worked at numerous universities and research centers in Europe and the United States. About the economists, the Bloomsbury Publishing website writes that “they are all people dedicated to the principles of egalitarianism, democracy and ecological sanity. The result is a combustible brew of ideas, commitments and reflections on major historical events, including the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting global economic recession.”
Best on Economic Pursuit as the New Religion: Work Pray Code
Religions and their services and rituals are often the go-to destination for many individuals outside of work as a place not only of faith but also of fellowship, and of developing an identity and sense of belonging and purpose. Yet that’s not the case for some tech workers in Silicon Valley, according to University of California-Berkeley sociologist Carolyn Chen in Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley. These white-collar employees, in sync with their employers’ aim in Silicon Valley, have created a “theocracy of work,” she argues, now willingly accepting “spiritual” sustenance from their workplace and employers.
Chen is an associate professor of Asian-American and Asian diaspora and comparative ethnic studies at the San Francisco-area university. She notes that some Silicon Valley employers willingly take on the pastoral roles that ministers, rabbis, priests, and imams once handled. In addition to doling out pay and providing traditional perks such as company cafeterias, which were common in paternalistic companies like the film company Eastman Kodak in the 1950s and ’60s, tech companies now assume maternalistic roles. Their perks can include wellness offerings—yoga, massages, and mindfulness classes—and 24/7 foods and snacks that are often gourmet in quality and cater to a variety of tastes and ethnicities.
Most tech workers at knowledge hubs come from elsewhere, be it a foreign country or another part of the U.S. They arrive in Silicon Valley with virtually no network, so they commence forming their connections and identity in the tech workplace. Chen’s research and interviews show also that some formerly religious individuals abandon their faith practices upon relocating in Silicon Valley. They then put the energy and fervor that they once injected into their spiritual life into tech startups and jobs—a trend more prevalent among workers in their 20s, 30s, and early 40s than in older techies.
“Silicon Valley indeed killed the Buddha,” writes Chen, who also authored Getting Saved in America: Taiwanese Immigration and Religious Experience. “But they have replaced the Buddha with another religion’s leader, the productivity leader in the religion of work. Like the dry cleaners, chefs, masseuses, and executive coaches, he’s there to ‘awaken’ tech workers to their full productivity.”
Best for Making Economics Simple: Talking to My Daughter About the Economy or, How Capitalism Works—and How It Fails
Sometimes the “soft science” of economics warrants a series of simple explanations that build as new concepts are presented. That’s the approach taken by former Greek finance minister and University of Athens economics professor Yanis Varoufakis in Talking to My Daughter About the Economy, or How Capitalism Works—and How It Fails. While nearly everyone can benefit from reading this book, it is the beginner to economics who will gain the most.
The author begins with the chapter “Why So Much Inequality?,” a question that his daughter, Xenia, asked him when she noticed the economic disparities among children in the world. He spells out the ancient beginnings of markets, surpluses, the advent of writing, debt, money, and the state. In subsequent chapters, he delves more deeply into the birth of a market society, the marriage of debt and profit, banking, and pandemics. Varoufakis is also the co-founder with Croatian philosopher Srećko Horvat of DiEM25, the Democracy in Europe 25 organization, a pan-European organization that aims to restructure European treaties.
If you want to pull back the curtain on London’s vast wealth and the secretive world of its mega-rich, then spend time with Serious Money: Walking Plutocratic London, by sociologist Caroline Knowles. She used her interviews with representative individuals in London and surrounding areas and research to paint a vibrant portrait and create a satisfying read about where Londoners spend, hide, save, and invest their “serious money.”
Why Trust Investopedia?
Michelle Lodge knows how to find the best of its kind in the book world. She has been published in Publishers Weekly and was an editor and writer for Library Journal, both of which cover books and the industry. While a book review editor at Library Journal, which recommends books for public library collections, she selected a number of top books on economics for review. She was also the editor of the On Wall Street Book Club, in which she reviewed books and interviewed authors on a podcast.
Seeking out a diversified field of books on economics requires lots of reading, including releases from book publishers and industry consultants, a passel of contenders, as well as publications, such as the Financial Times, The New York Times, the London Review of Books, and Bloomberg, and consultations with many experts. Lodge also pulled her resources together by collecting recommendations from Investopedia Financial Review Board members and Investopedia editors. Lodge’s aim is to present the reader with factual, actionable books that are well-written, enjoyable to read, and cover the bases in subject matter and expertise. Her goal is also to tap into a diverse pool of new and established writers, whose coverage reveals the many influences on and perspectives about economics.