Ten best business books of 2021

1. Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell

John Preston

This “superb, pacey account” charts the late Robert Maxwell’s “ascent from shtetl boyhood” to self-made publishing billionaire and “eventual cartoon madman”, says The Daily Telegraph. Truly “jaw-dropping”.

£14.99; The Week Bookshop

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2. Empire of Pain

Patrick Radden Keefe

A gripping and “meticulously researched” account of how Purdue Pharma, owned by the Sackler family, marketed the addictive painkiller OxyContin – fuelling the US opioid crisis, says The Times. “Read it and rage.”

£15.99; The Week Bookshop

3. A Shot to Save the World

Gregory Zuckerman

An “appropriately breathless” account of the race to find a Covid vaccine, says Andrew Hill in the FT. Zuckerman shows how “catastrophe” transformed the fortunes of “tiny, visionary ventures”.

£15.99; The Week Bookshop

4. Three Days at Camp David

Jeffrey E. Garten

In this “outstanding book”, says Martin Wolf in the FT, Garten describes the secret 1971 meeting at which President Nixon decided to sever the link between the dollar and gold – beginning “a new monetary order”.

£15.99; The Week Bookshop

5. Toxic

Clive Lewis

A business psychologist’s guide on how to deal with “toxic” colleagues, says The Times: the unkind, the hostile, the “downright abusive”. “Required reading for company bosses.”

£15.99; The Week Bookshop

6. The Future of Money

Eswar S. Prasad

“An invaluable overview” of how digital technologies are transforming currencies and finance, says Martin Wolf in the FT. As Prasad summarises: “A glorious future beckons, perhaps.”

£22.99; The Week Bookshop

7. 12 Bytes

Jeanette Winterson

The novelist’s “anarchically playful” essays cover the history of computing, AI and the cloud, says The Daily Telegraph. She imagines a future in which “sexbots are hacked by feminist programmers”.

£13.99; The Week Bookshop

8. Pugnare: Economic Success and Failure

George Maher

The rise and fall of the Roman Empire – from a financial perspective. When inflation kicked in, stability collapsed, says Merryn Somerset Webb in the FT. “The banking system appears to have completely failed in AD260. And that was that.”

£9.99; The Week Bookshop

9. The Aristocracy of Talent

Adrian Wooldridge

This “sparkling” if disturbing study shows how much less meritocratic our society has become since the late 20th century, says The Daily Telegraph. An elegant defence of talent.

£19.99; The Week Bookshop

10. The Cult of We

Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell

This “modern tale of the emperor’s new clothes” charts how Adam Neumann convinced everyone “that his property start-up was worth $47bn”, says The Times. “Drugs, tequila, private jets and a worrying messiah complex.”

£15.99; The Week Bookshop