100 books like #Republic

By Cass R. Sunstein,

Here are 100 books that #Republic fans have personally recommended if you like #Republic. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Book cover of Tomorrow-Land: The 1964-65 World's Fair and the Transformation of America

Ruth D. Nelson Author Of Our Lady of the World's Fair: Bringing Michelangelo's Piet  to Queens in 1964

From my list on the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair.

Why am I passionate about this?

There never was nor ever could be a better fair, and that is the memory I’ve carried since that family vacation brought us to the Queens fairgrounds in 1964. Though I do not remember much, what remains in my heart is a sense of wonder and happiness. Over the years, the memory faded until I took a class on Renaissance Sculpture for my master’s studies. It amazed me that Michelangelo’s Pietà could have ever been shipped to Queens–I began researching and was deeply moved by the story that unfolded.

Ruth's book list on the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair

Ruth D. Nelson Why did Ruth love this book?

I was taken back in time reading this account of the World’s Fair along with the cultural and political background Tirella provided. It gave me a broader view of the seismic societal changes that were starting to hit the country.

I also enjoyed another take on the fair–everyone has an opinion, even if it doesn’t necessarily match my own. World’s fairs are cultural Petri dishes, telling us much about the society we live in, and this book proves it.

By Joseph Tirella,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Tomorrow-Land as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This New York Times bestseller is a vivid account of the 1964-65 World's Fair in New York City, a spectacle that embodied the innovation, lunacy, hope, and fear of a dramatic twenty-first century decade-and one that pitted Robert Moses vs. Andy Warhol, brought the vision of Walt Disney together with the Merry Pranksters, featured an Audio-Animatronic Abraham Lincoln and real-life LBJ in the midst of the Civil Rights struggle, and featured much, much more. Tomorrow-Land entertains, informs, and illustrates how the 1964-65 World's Fair-inside its gates and just outside its gates-represents the cultural and political pivots taken by New York…


Book cover of The Art of Military Innovation: Lessons from the Israel Defense Forces

Stephen J. Gordon Author Of In the Name of God: A Gidon Aronson Thriller

From my list on thrillers for intriguing characters and backgrounds.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love a story filled with interesting characters and a plot that reels me in. I know how challenging it is to construct a plotline and create breadcrumbs (not too many, so the solution isn’t obvious)–all driven by intriguing characters. I am also a sucker for the “good guys” winning but with no guarantees. The characters must have depth, and I want to learn something new about a situation I am unfamiliar with or how a great story is told.

Stephen's book list on thrillers for intriguing characters and backgrounds

Stephen J. Gordon Why did Stephen love this book?

I admit that I am intrigued by the ingenuity and the training of the Israeli Defense Forces. This is a thriller of a different kind.

I read this book to research and understand how the Israelis evolved their “we have no choice but to be the best” ethic. This is not a book about politics or moral judgments. It is an objective overview of how the army came into being and how, to this day, they discard conventional military thinking in defending their country—whether through battlefield strategy, innovation in defense technology, or intelligence services.

I found the book fascinating, especially the Israelis’ lateral thinking, encouragement, and application of ideas.

By Edward N. Luttwak, Eitan Shamir,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Art of Military Innovation as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A world-leading military strategist and an IDF insider explain the improbable success of the Israeli armed forces.

When the Israel Defense Forces was established in May 1948, it was small, poorly equipped, and already at war. Lacking sufficient weaponry or the domestic industrial base to produce it, the newborn military was forced to make do with whatever it could get its hands on. That spirit of improvisation carried the IDF to a decisive victory in the First Arab-Israeli War.

Today the same spirit has made the IDF the most powerful military in the Middle East and among the most capable…


Book cover of Elon Musk

Douglas Rushkoff Author Of Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires

From my list on understanding how tech billionaires think.

Why am I passionate about this?

I believed the Internet would be as colorful a cultural phenomenon as LSD. But before I was even able to convince people that something wonderful was on the horizon, big business swooped in and recontextualized the digital renaissance as a business revolution and the Silicon Valley mindset was born: Companies should grow exponentially forever! Any tech problem can be solved with more tech! Humans on Earth are just larvae–maggots–while wealthy tech bros will get to Mars or upload their minds to the cloud. This list of books is meant to show how these guys think and why they’re taking us in the wrong direction. 

Douglas' book list on understanding how tech billionaires think

Douglas Rushkoff Why did Douglas love this book?

Elon Musk didn’t emerge out of a vacuum; this book shows how what we now know of as Musk actually happened. Walter Isaacson writes the best tech biographies.

I was actually going to put his book on Apple founder Steve Jobs here but switched to Musk at the last minute because something about this book drew me in even more. Instead of dwelling on the philosophies of capitalism and libertarianism, Isaacson told the story of this poor nerd who got beaten up as a kid and never quite felt at home.

This is part of the tech bro story. It’s easy to forget: most of them started as nerds.

By Walter Isaacson,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Elon Musk as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter.

When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars…


Book cover of The Game Believes in You: How Digital Play Can Make Our Kids Smarter

Harold Goldberg Author Of All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture

From my list on video game narrative histories.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author/journalist Harold Goldberg has written about video games since the 1990s. He is the author of All Your Base Are Belong to Us (How 50 Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture) and The League of Legends Experience. He is the founder of the non-profit New York Videogame Critics Circle and The New York Game Awards, both of which raise funds for essential classes and scholarships in New York City's underserved communities. As editor in chief of Sony Online Entertainment, he worked on Star Wars Galaxies and EverQuest. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Wired, and elsewhere. Goldberg also co-wrote My Life Among The Serial Killers with Dr. Helen Morrison. 

Harold's book list on video game narrative histories

Harold Goldberg Why did Harold love this book?

Of the small subgenre books that deal with the way games aid education, Toppo's shows how games can make a difference in the way students learn by looking at first at a Washington, D.C. school's success with improving math scores through game playing. From there, he visits professors and visionaries, all of whom have helped kids learn through games. One thing becomes clear: if there were a games class in every school, especially in underserved communities, student grades would go up.

By Greg Toppo,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Game Believes in You as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

What if schools, from the wealthiest suburban nursery school to the grittiest urban high school, thrummed with the sounds of deep immersion? More and more people believe that can happen - with the aid of video games. From Greg Toppo, USA Today's national K-12 education and demographics reporter, The Game Believes in You presents the story of a small group of visionaries who, for the past 40 years, have been pushing to get game controllers into the hands of learners. Among the game revolutionaries you'll meet in this book:

*A game designer at the University of Southern California leading a…


Book cover of The Race between Education and Technology

Jonathan Rothwell Author Of A Republic of Equals: A Manifesto for a Just Society

From my list on why some people tend to be richer or poorer.

Why am I passionate about this?

Inequality and fairness are basic issues in human conflict and cooperation that have long fascinated me. Growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, I was confronted with the extreme racial segregation of schools and neighborhoods. My Catholic upbringing taught me to cherish the cardinal virtues of justice, wisdom, courage, and temperance, and my education in political economy taught me that markets can fairly and efficiently allocate resources, when legal power is evenly shared. My formal education culminated in a Ph.D. in Public Affairs from Princeton University, which led me to my current roles: Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Principal Economist at Gallup. I care deeply about the social conditions that create cooperation and conflict.

Jonathan's book list on why some people tend to be richer or poorer

Jonathan Rothwell Why did Jonathan love this book?

To understand why some workers are paid more than others, you have to understand how skills are valued and rewarded in the labor market, and how that has changed, as the economy has evolved.

Focused on the United States, Katz and Goldin provide a sweeping overview of how education leads to skills and income, drawing on the most well-established theories in economics. It misses some important causes of inequality, but is essential for understanding the one of the deepest economic forces governing wages: the supply and demand of human capital.

By Claudia Goldin, Lawrence F. Katz,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Race between Education and Technology as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This book provides a careful historical analysis of the co-evolution of educational attainment and the wage structure in the United States through the twentieth century. The authors propose that the twentieth century was not only the American Century but also the Human Capital Century. That is, the American educational system is what made America the richest nation in the world. Its educational system had always been less elite than that of most European nations. By 1900 the U.S. had begun to educate its masses at the secondary level, not just in the primary schools that had remarkable success in the…


Book cover of The Globotics Upheaval: Globalization, Robotics, and the Future of Work

Harald Sander Author Of Understanding the New Global Economy: A European Perspective

From my list on how to make globalization work for all people.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a boomer and working-class kid, I experienced living conditions improving rapidly. This sparked my interest in studying international and development economics to explore how we can create a better and more equitable world. As professor of international economics, I have been researching and teaching for many years about what is now known as “globalization”. This taught me two things that inspired me to write my latest book: First, to understand the process and consequences of (de-)globalization, in-depth study is essential to avoid popular misconceptions about the global economy; and, second, globalization needs to be carefully managed to make it work for all people.

Harald's book list on how to make globalization work for all people

Harald Sander Why did Harald love this book?

What holds the future of globalization in store?

I learned a lot from Baldwin’s insightful book, which posits a fast and dramatic rise of digital service trade between high- and low-wage countries.

Such services could range from well-known digital back-office services, such as airline ticketing in India, to more speculative “global robotics”, dubbed “globotics”, such as cross-border controlling of robots via virtual reality devices.

Baldwin points to new opportunities emerging to developing economies that hitherto were unable to gain from the globalization of manufacturing value chains. But he also warns of potentially dramatic social consequences in high-wage countries.

Whether you agree or disagree with his diagnosis, this is essential reading to be prepared for the next wave of globalization and its potential social disruptions.

By Richard Baldwin,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Globotics Upheaval as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'A manifesto for future-proofing our jobs and prosperity' THE SUNDAY TIMES

We stand on the edge of a new era that will bring change to our world on a par with the Industrial Revolution. Automation, artificial intelligence and robotics are changing our lives quickly - but digital disruption goes much further than we realize. Richard Baldwin, one of the world's leading globalization experts, argues that the inhuman speed of this transformation threatens to overwhelm our capacity to adapt. But while the changes are now inevitable, there are strategies that humanity can use to adapt to this new world, employing the…


Book cover of Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future

Ashley Recanati Author Of AI Battle Royale: How to Protect Your Job from Disruption in the 4th Industrial Revolution

From my list on AI and the future of work.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have over 2 decades of finance control and general management experience spanning the manufacturing and retail sectors, in big names like LVMH. A finance controller’s job is all about efficiency and involves learning every new tool available that can help to achieve that goal. Through this work, I realized how many people are not ready for the tidal wave of disruption about to hit employees with AI and other technological changes. I was utterly shocked at not being able to find a single sensible guidebook with solutions actionable by workers.

Ashley's book list on AI and the future of work

Ashley Recanati Why did Ashley love this book?

A wakeup call for many. Martin made the case of how tech is accelerating and impacting work, bringing the threat of massive unemployment to the public scene, and insisting that it’s not only blue-collar jobs that are concerned.

Critics noted a narrow stance that fails to account for factors like shifting demographics and trends like gigging. And massive unemployment has not yet materialized, though to his defense less than a decade has passed since. The only remedy from Martin – Universal Basic Income – is not a miracle solution applicable worldwide.

The book’s focus is more on convincing audiences of the upcoming problems than working on solutions. Setting aside these critics, Rise of the Robots remains an undeniable classic for anyone curious about tech’s impact on work.

By Martin Ford,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Rise of the Robots as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of the 2015 FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award A New York Times Bestseller Top Business Book of 2015 at Forbes One of NBCNews.com 12 Notable Science and Technology Books of 2015What are the jobs of the future? How many will there be? And who will have them? As technology continues to accelerate and machines begin taking care of themselves, fewer people will be necessary. Artificial intelligence is already well on its way to making good jobs" obsolete: many paralegals, journalists, office workers, and even computer programmers are poised to be replaced by robots and smart…


Book cover of Bank 4.0: Banking Everywhere, Never at a Bank

David Birch Author Of Money in the Metaverse: Digital Assets, Online Identities, Spatial Computing and Why Virtual Worlds Mean Real Business

From my list on the future of money.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a physicist by education and therefore fundamentally interested in how things work, my early career was spent in secure communications before moving into finance, specifically payments. I helped to found one of the leading consultancies in the field and worked globally for organizations ranging from Visa and AMEX to various governments and multiple Central Banks. I wrote, it turned out, one of the key books in the field, Identity Is The New Money (2014), and subsequently, Before Babylon, Beyond Bitcoin (2017), about the history and future of money. The Currency Cold War (2020) was a prescient implication of digital currencies, particularly CBDC.

David's book list on the future of money

David Birch Why did David love this book?

Brett King’s Bank 2.0: How Customer Behaviour and Technology Will Change the Future of Financial Services had an immediate and lasting impact on my career. First, it showed me that you could write about banking, payments, and financial services interestingly. Secondly, it showed me that people were out there thinking the same as me after learning from early internet-era experiments.

Brett’s subsequent work, including this book and The Rise of Technosocialism: How Inequality, AI, and Climate Will Usher in a New World, continues to help me to organize my thoughts about the role of money in a future always, always connected society. 

By Brett King,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Bank 4.0 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of best book by a foreign author (2019) at the Business Book of the Year Award organised by PwC Russia

The future of banking is already here ― are you ready?

Bank 4.0 explores the radical transformation already taking place in banking, and follows it to its logical conclusion. What will banking look like in 30 years? 50 years? The world’s best banks have been forced to adapt to changing consumer behaviors; regulators are rethinking friction, licensing and regulation; Fintech start-ups and tech giants are redefining how banking fits in the daily life of consumers. To survive, banks are…


Book cover of Skim, Dive, Surface: Teaching Digital Reading

Regan A.R. Gurung Author Of Study Like a Champ: The Psychology-Based Guide to "Grade A" Study Habits

From my list on teachers who care about students and learning.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love to teach and to do research on teaching and learning. Little compares to seeing how students’ faces light up when they get it. I want more students to experience the experience of getting it. After teaching for 25 years, and taking a deep dive into the scientific literature on learning, I have accumulated some important insights that I share in my work as Executive Director of a teaching and learning center, with my students, and with faculty across the nation. Teaching is not an impromptu act. It is an art and a science and I revel in it. These books will light a fire in you.

Regan's book list on teachers who care about students and learning

Regan A.R. Gurung Why did Regan love this book?

Just because most teachers love to read, their students may not feel the same way. 

Teachers struggle with getting students to read and the rise in screen time and social media seems to make the challenge even tougher. Furthermore, is reading on a screen the same as reading on paper?

This book addresses reading on screens head on and provides a rich history of reading, and lays the groundwork for ways to get students to be more effective readers. I loved the facts relating to what catches student eyeballs.

By Jenae Cohn,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Skim, Dive, Surface as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Students are reading on screens more than ever-how can we teach them to be better digital readers?

Smartphones, laptops, tablets: college students are reading on-screen all the time, and digital devices shape students' understanding of and experiences with reading. In higher education, however, teachers rarely consider how digital reading experiences may have an impact on learning abilities, unless they're lamenting students' attention spans or the distractions available to students when they're learning online.

Skim, Dive, Surface offers a corrective to these conversations-an invitation to focus not on losses to student learning but on the spectrum of affordances available within digital…


Book cover of The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency

Daniel M. Gerstein Author Of Tech Wars: Transforming U.S. Technology Development

From my list on understanding current tech war future of humanity.

Why am I passionate about this?

Everyone uses technology, but few stop to think about where these technologies come from and what this trajectory means to humanity. During my professional career, I have dedicated myself to public service focused on security and defense as a U.S. Army officer, senior government civilian, and in think tanks, industry, and academia. My journey has taken me to over 60 countries where I have witnessed humankind's best and worst. The difference is often in how our technologies are used—to build cities, feed populations, and develop life-saving vaccines or to oppress peoples or as tools of war. 

Daniel's book list on understanding current tech war future of humanity

Daniel M. Gerstein Why did Daniel love this book?

DARPA has been the gold standard for research and early-stage development since its inception in 1958. DARPA's accomplishments have included the development of the internet, stealth technology, global position system (GPS), night vision, and unmanned drones, to name a few.

The book lays out an extraordinary record of accomplishment—DARPA has developed a “secret sauce” that few have been able to emulate. I first picked up the book when I was leading the Department of Homeland Security’s equivalent organization, the Homeland Security Advanced Research Project Agency (HSARPA). 

By Annie Jacobsen,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Pentagon's Brain as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

No one has ever written the history of the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful and most controversial military science R&D agency. In the first-ever history of the organization, New York Times bestselling author Annie Jacobsen draws on inside sources, exclusive interviews, private documents and declassified memos to paint a picture of DARPA, or "the Pentagon's brain," from its Cold War inception in 1958 to the present.

This is the book on DARPA - a compelling narrative about this clandestine intersection of science and the American military and the often frightening results.


Book cover of Tomorrow-Land: The 1964-65 World's Fair and the Transformation of America
Book cover of The Art of Military Innovation: Lessons from the Israel Defense Forces
Book cover of Elon Musk

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