{"id":79521,"date":"2025-08-18T20:24:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T20:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/79521\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T20:24:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T20:24:12","slug":"ft-and-schroders-business-book-of-the-year-2025-the-longlist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/79521\/","title":{"rendered":"FT and Schroders Business Book of the Year 2025 \u2014 the longlist"},"content":{"rendered":"

A novel has made it on to the longlist for business book<\/a> of the year for the first time in 15 years, joining a wide range of non-fiction titles on topical themes from geoeconomics to growth to geniuses.<\/p>\n

Alexander Starritt\u2019s Drayton and Mackenzie, which follows the paths of two start-up entrepreneurs, is the first work of fiction to grace the list since Adam Haslett\u2019s Union Atlantic in 2010, and only the third in the 21-year history of the prize.<\/p>\n

The \u00a330,000 Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award,<\/a> also backed by FT owner Nikkei, aims to identify the title with the \u201cmost compelling and enjoyable\u201d insights into modern business issues. Last year\u2019s winner was Parmy Olson\u2019s Supremacy<\/a>, about the rivalry between pioneers of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Including Starritt\u2019s book, 16 titles were filtered by FT journalists from more than 500 entries, to make up this year\u2019s longlist.<\/p>\n

Geopolitics and economics\"Five<\/p>\n

Breakneck<\/a>: China\u2019s Quest to Engineer the Future by academic Dan Wang, due out later this month, looks at the China-US relationship that is the central geoeconomic challenge for Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. Wang describes China as an \u201cengineering state\u201d, pitting its innovation and ambition against the blocking instincts of the US \u201clawyerly\u201d state.<\/p>\n

In Chokepoints<\/a>: How the Global Economy Became a Weapon of War, Edward Fishman analyses the use of sanctions, notably against Russia over the past decade. A former US state department official, Fishman also describes the dedication and ingenuity of the people who devised and operate an economic arsenal that has evolved at pace during the 21st century, with profound consequences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How Progress Ends<\/a>: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations, by Carl Benedikt Frey \u2014 to be published next month \u2014 is a sweeping 1,000-year analysis of the fate of civilisations and institutions. Frey asks what happens when the balance between innovation and bureaucracy fails and what important lessons today\u2019s dominant economic powers, including the US, China and Europe, should take from such failures.<\/p>\n

Mike Bird\u2019s The Land Trap<\/a>: A New History of the World\u2019s Oldest Asset, due out in November, analyses the disproportionate weight land has on economic and political decision-making. Bird explains the role of land in determining, through human history, how power is distributed, from the US to China, and the effect on investment, wealth and inequality.<\/p>\n

In Outclassed<\/a>: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back, Joan C Williams looks at the US left\u2019s failure to challenge the rise of Trump, through the lens of workers and the working class. She aims to explain how that happened and how the Democratic elite might use economic and political tools to recover support.<\/p>\n

Geniuses\"Six<\/p>\n

Dirtbag Billionaire<\/a>: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away, published next month, is David Gelles\u2019s look at the life and career of the founder of the ubiquitous outerwear manufacturer. He explores Chouinard\u2019s unconventional leadership, culminating in his idiosyncratic 2022 decision to forfeit ownership of Patagonia and direct profits to fighting climate change, and what it says about the nature of capitalism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alexander Starritt\u2019s Drayton and Mackenzie<\/a> is, among other things, an examination of the nature of business genius. Starritt\u2019s novel traces the entrepreneurial partnership and friendship of two Oxford graduates and McKinsey alumni as they build an ambitious green energy company, and features real-life economic and business figures, including Tesla and SpaceX impresario Elon Musk and central bankers Ben Bernanke and Mario Draghi.<\/p>\n

Sam Altman, head of OpenAI, sits at the heart of Karen Hao\u2019s Empire of AI<\/a>: Inside the Reckless Race for Total Domination. Her deep examination of the rise of the company that created ChatGPT analyses the roots and results of Altman\u2019s fierce competitive edge and the sometimes dysfunctional leadership style he practises.<\/p>\n

Helen Lewis\u2019s The Genius Myth<\/a>: The Dangerous Allure of Rebels, Monsters and Rule-Breakers cuts through the idolisation of tech chieftains and sets our never-ending obsession with individuals in the wider cultural context that allows so-called geniuses to flourish, not to mention the role of luck and timing in their ascent.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In House of Huawei<\/a>: Inside the Secret World of China\u2019s Most Powerful Company, journalist Eva Dou delves deep into the mysterious past of Ren Zhengfei, founder of the Chinese technology group, drawing out both the commercial and geopolitical implications of Huawei\u2019s rise, and Ren\u2019s, and the Chinese state\u2019s, role in shaping the company.<\/p>\n

Stephen Witt\u2019s The Thinking Machine<\/a>: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the world\u2019s most coveted microchip traces the ascent of Nvidia, the chipmaker behind the artificial intelligence revolution. Witt analyses how Huang\u2019s dictatorial leadership style, combined with dry humour, has helped shape the world\u2019s most valuable company.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Growth\"Five<\/p>\n

Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson\u2019s Abundance<\/a>: How We Build a Better Future addresses head-on the growth dilemma facing the US, trapped between a left wing that will not make necessary trade-offs between regulation and investment and a right wing bent on gutting the government\u2019s ability to support innovation.<\/p>\n

The consequences of growth are forensically analysed by Saabira Chaudhuri in Consumed<\/a>: How Big Brands Got Us Hooked on Plastic. She lays out how branding, freshness, ease of use and pursuit of profit combined to override environmental and pollution concerns and makes the case for pushing the costs of plastic\u2019s overuse back on producers.<\/p>\n

Cory Doctorow\u2019s Enshittification<\/a>: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About it takes the writer and activist\u2019s term<\/a> for the decay of online platforms and explains the implications for the wider world of allowing a technology oligopoly to extend its dominance. In playful and profane language, Doctorow explains what has gone wrong, and how to put it right. Due out in October.<\/p>\n

No More Tears<\/a>: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson, by Gardiner Harris, is a profound, and profoundly disturbing, expos\u00e9 of alleged unethical practices at the well-known US healthcare group. His analysis is all the more striking for the fact that J&J has, over many years, crafted a reputation as an enlightened and purpose-led model of corporate capitalism.<\/p>\n

Finally, in Your Life is Manufactured<\/a>: How We Make Things, Why It Matters and How We Can Do Better (published as How Things Are Made in the US), academic Tim Minshall takes an eye-opening journey through the world of manufacturing. He argues that if consumers lose touch with how everything is produced, the system will become dirtier and more fragile.<\/p>\n

Two new judges join the panel for 2025: Nicolai Tangen, chief executive of Norges Bank Investment Management, and Adam Osborn, Schroders\u2019 head of research, Asia ex Japan equities. The jury is again chaired by FT editor Roula Khalaf and the returning judges are: Mimi Alemayehou, founder and managing partner, Semai Ventures; Daisuke Arakawa, senior managing director for global business, Nikkei; Mitchell Baker, founder and former executive chair, Mozilla Corporation; entrepreneur Sherry Coutu; Mohamed El-Erian, president, Queens\u2019 College, Cambridge university, and adviser, Allianz and Gramercy; James Kondo, chair, International House of Japan; Randall Kroszner, economics professor at University of Chicago\u2019s Booth School of Business; and Shriti Vadera, chair, Prudential and the Royal Shakespeare Company.<\/p>\n

The shortlist will be announced on September 24 and the winner of the award on December 3. Read more at www.ft.com\/bookaward<\/a> and consult a complete interactive list of all the books longlisted since the award began in 2005 at ig.ft.com\/sites\/business-book-award\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A novel has made it on to the longlist for business book of the year for the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[353,49,48,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-79521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}