The Greatest Books of All Time on Innovation

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
12324 The Unknown Matisse Hilary Spurling 1998 British English
12399 Hot, Flat, And Crowded Thomas L. Friedman 2008 American English
12586 Geeks Jon Katz 2000 American English
12655 The Butchering Art Lindsey Fitzharris 2017 British English
12698 Steve Jobs Walter Isaacson 2011 American English
12724 The Shock of the New Robert Hughes 1980 Australian English
12733 Space James A. Michener 1982 American English
13211 Stuff Matters Mark Miodownik 2013 British English
13256 The Great Escape Angus Deaton 2013 British English
13256 The Spoken Word Revolution Mark Eleveld 2003 Unknown English
13337 The Radioactive Boy Scout Ken Silverstein 2004 American English
13359 Business Adventures John Brooks 1969 American English
13532 The Path Between The Seas David McCullough 1977 American English
13532 Gardner's Art Through The Ages Helen Gardner 1926 American English
13815 The Checklist Manifesto Atul Gawande 2009 American English
13885 Googled Ken Auletta 2009 American English
13941 London Peter Ackroyd 2000 British English
14011 The Life And Times Of Little Richard Charles White 1984 British English
14051 The Power To Compete Hiroshi Mikitani, Ryoichi Mikitani 2014 Japanese English
14090 Shoe Dog Phil Knight 2016 American English
14122 Principles Ray Dalio 2017 American English
14180 Titan Ii David Stumpf 2000 American English
14206 Dragonquest Anne McCaffrey 1971 American English
14232 Quicksilver Neal Stephenson 2003 American English
14232 How Music Works David Byrne 2012 American English
14323 How To Randall Munroe 2019 American English
14323 Range David Epstein 2019 American English
14389 The World Is Flat Thomas L. Friedman 2005 American English
14410 The Box Marc Levinson 2006 American English
14410 The Man Who Fed The World Leon Hesser 2006 American English
14410 Science Business Gary P. Pisano 2006 American English
14434 Einstein Walter Isaacson 2007 American English
14434 The Grid Phillip F. Schewe 2007 American English
14452 Making Money Terry Pratchett 2007 British English
14457 The Post American World Fareed Zakaria 2008 American English
14457 Energies Vaclav Smil 2008 Czech English
14457 The Romantic Generation Charles Rosen 1995 American English
14498 Showing Up For Life Bill Gates 2009 American English
14498 Health Care Will Not Reform Itself George C. Halvorson 2009 American English
14498 Liberating Learning Terry M. Moe 2009 American English
14498 Work Hard. Be Nice. Jay Mathews 2009 American English
14498 Super Freakonomics Steven D. Levitt 2009 American English
14519 The Rational Optimist Matt Ridley 2010 British English
14519 Where Good Ideas Come From Steven Johnson 2010 American English
14519 The Most Powerful Idea In The World William Rosen 2010 American English
14519 Energy Transitions Vaclav Smil 2010 Czech English
14519 Prime Movers Of Globalization Vaclav Smil 2010 Canadian English
14519 Stretching The School Dollar Frederick M. Hess 2010 American English
14553 Reinventing Fire Amory Lovins 2011 American English
14553 Unlocking The Gates Taylor Walsh 2011 American English
14553 Unlocking Energy Innovation Richard K. Lester 2011 American English
14553 That Used To Be Us Thomas L. Friedman, Michael Mandelbaum 2011 American English
14553 Change.Edu Andrew S. Rosen 2011 American English
14553 The Quest Daniel Yergin 2011 American English
14553 The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind William Kamkwamba 2009 Malawian English
14598 Abundance Peter Diamandis 2012 American English
14598 A World Class Education Vivien Stewart 2012 American English
14598 One Billion Hungry Gordon Conway 2012 British English
14629 Making The Modern World Vaclav Smil 2013 Canadian English
14679 Becoming Steve Jobs Brent Schlender 2015 American English
14679 Epic Measures Jeremy N. Smith 2015 American English
14697 The Bright Continent Dayo Olopade 2014 Unknown English
14730 Measure What Matters John Doerr 2017 American English
14730 Hit Refresh Satya Nadella 2017 American English
14730 Energy And Civilization Vaclav Smil 2017 Czech English
14730 Capitalism Without Capital Jonathan Haskel 2017 British English
14832 Blitzscaling Reid Hoffman 2018 American English
14832 Railroader Howard Green 2018 Canadian English
14884 The Theory of Economic Development Joseph A. Schumpeter 1911 Austrian German
14984 Galileo's Daughter Dava Sobel 1999 American English
14984 The Long Earth Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter 2012 British English
14984 The Blazing World Jonathan Healey 2023 Unknown English
15561 Loonshots Safi Bahcall 2019 American English
15561 The Ride Of A Lifetime Robert Iger 2019 American English
15561 Tools And Weapons Brad Smith 2019 American English
15561 From The Ground Up Howard Schultz 2019 American English
15561 Growth Vaclav Smil 2019 Canadian English
15561 Prepared Diane Tavenner 2019 American English
15582 Creative Chemistry Edwin Emery Slosson 1919 American English
15586 Story Of Mankind Hendrik Willem van Loon 1921 American English
15588 Broken Genius Joel N. Shurkin 2020 American English
15610 Play Nice But Win Michael Dell 2021 American English
15610 The Code Breaker Walter Isaacson 2021 American English
15610 How To Avoid A Climate Disaster Bill Gates 2021 American English
15610 Here Comes Everybody Clay Shirky 2008 American English
15898 The life and letters of Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin 1817 American English
15898 On The Shoulders Of Giants Robert K. Merton 1965 American English
15898 A Genius In The Family Hiram Percy Maxim 1934 American English
15898 The Radium Woman Eleanor Doorly 1939 British English
15898 Black On White M. Ilin 1932 Russian Russian
15898 The Social Function Of Science J. D. Bernal 1939 British English
15898 Technics And Civilization Lewis Mumford 1934 American English
16503 The Great Train Robbery Michael Crichton 1975 American English
16589 Profiles Of The Future Arthur C. Clarke 1962 British English
16702 The Skin Of Our Teeth Thornton Wilder 1942 American English
16714 The Verge Susan Glaspell 1921 American English
17120 The Launching of Modern American Science, 1846-1876 Robert V. Bruce 1987 American English
17120 History of the American Frontier Frederic L. Paxson 1924 American English
17120 Scientists Against Time James Phinney Baxter III 1946 American English
17120 Art and Life in America Oliver W. Larkin 1949 American English
17120 People of Paradox Michael Kammen 1972 American English
17120 The Americans Daniel J. Boorstin 1973 American English
17120 The Visible Hand Alfred D. Chandler, Jr 1977 American English
17120 American Education Lawrence A. Cremin 1980 American English
17120 Prophets of Regulation Thomas K. McCraw 1984 American English
16828 From The Earth To The Moon Jules Verne 1865 French French
17038 The Man Who Sold The Moon Robert A. Heinlein 1950 American English
17120 Doctor Copernicus John Banville 1976 Irish English
17120 Electric Universe David Bodanis 2005 British English
17120 Adventures In The Anthropocene Gaia Vince 2014 British English
17120 African American Music Mellonee V. Burnim, Portia K. Maultsby 2006 American English
17120 Race After Technology Ruha Benjamin 2019 American English
17120 Oath Of Fealty Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle 1981 American English
17120 Why Your Five Year Old Could Not Have Done That Susie Hodge 2012 British English
17120 Caravaggio Andrew Graham Dixon 2010 British English
17120 The Ragged Astronauts Bob Shaw 1986 British English
17120 The Shock Of The Old David Edgerton 2006 British English
17120 Breaking The Chains Of Gravity Amy Shira Teitel 2015 American English
17120 How To Cool The Planet Jeff Goodell 2010 American English
17120 Women In Science Rachel Ignotofsky 2016 American English