Historian Jill Lepore and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings are among the finalists for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award.
The newspaper unveiled the six-title shortlist for the $38,000 award, which it co-sponsors with consulting firm McKinsey Company.
Lepore made the shortlist for If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future, which is also longlisted for this year’s National Book Award for Nonfiction. Hastings is a finalist for his No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention, which he co-wrote with Erin Meyer.
Anne Case and Angus Deaton are finalists for Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, as is Sarah Frier for No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram. Rounding out the shortlist are Rebecca Henderson’s Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire and Daniel Susskind’s A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond.
The award is given annually to a “book that is judged to have provided the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues.” The prize was first awarded in 2005; past winners include Steve Coll for Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power and Thomas Piketty for Capital in the Twenty-First Century.
The winner of the award will be announced on Dec. 1.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
