All articles by Daniel Akst

Homicide, David Simon’s classic study of Baltimore’s detective squads, contains powerful management lessons.

Friday, the Thirteenth, a classic 1907 novel by the muckraker and stock manipulator Thomas Lawson, reminds us that telling stories can weaponize resentment.

In his new book, John Hudson, a survival instructor for the British military, offers lessons on how to get through the most challenging ordeals.

David Lodge’s comic novel explores what business can learn from literature, and vice versa.

The iconic novel, which celebrates risk-taking and self-interest, has important lessons for current debates surrounding inequality and liberty.

The novel The Magnificent Ambersons reveals the dangers of complacency in the face of transformative new technologies.

Philip Roth’s American Pastoral measures the gulf between a careful business leader and his radical daughter.

What captains of industry can learn from captains in the great age of sail.

A 20th-century working-class philosopher has a lot to teach modern workers — and managers — about finding meaning in life, and on the job.

George Bernard Shaw’s 1905 play Major Barbara, the best stage drama written about business, has lessons that resonate with today’s audiences.

In his new book, American Business History, Walter A. Friedman offers a highly concise history of free enterprise in the United States.

The 1952 novel Executive Suite tells us what it takes to fill the shoes of an icon.

Elizabeth Gaskell’s Victorian-era novel North and South has a great deal to teach us about the enduring tensions between progress and prosperity, industry and labor, and rural and urban life.

The novelist’s 1947 book, The Plague, highlights the importance of shared purpose and belonging in the face of uncertainty.

In his new book, Not Born Yesterday, Hugo Mercier argues that humans are wired to see through misinformation and lies.

Fifty years after its publication, Albert O. Hirschman’s Exit, Voice, and Loyalty still has a lot to tell us about the life of organizations.

The lasting relevance of a fictional early-20th-century career woman.

In his 1975 novel J R, William Gaddis predicted our excesses.

In his new book, Nobel-winning economist Robert J. Shiller emphasizes the importance of narratives.

In his new book, historian Andrew Roberts delves into the experiences of wartime leaders to produce lessons for heads of business.

The classic Nikolai Gogol satire from 1842 provides keen insight into the endurance of charismatic financial hustlers.

The 1951 film, about to debut as a play, has much to teach us about the hazards of innovation.

In his new book, The Intelligence Trap, David Robson explains why intelligent people engage in unintelligent behavior.

Herman Melville’s short story Bartleby, the Scrivener provides lessons on how to deal with troubled colleagues.

The legendary leader’s political successes were continually undermined by his financial and business failures.

The author of Robinson Crusoe, who dealt with ups and downs as an entrepreneur, also penned one of history’s most useful business manuals.

In his new book, Range, David Epstein argues that although specialization has its virtues, businesses need people with wide horizons and ranges of interests in order to succeed.

The brilliant poet Wallace Stevens spent his career in the insurance industry. To what extent did these two aspects of his life nourish one another?

A 1908 novel about the fate of two sisters in Victorian England has a great deal to teach us about the challenges women face in the business world.

The Financier, an overlooked 1912 volume by iconic novelist Theodore Dreiser, has a great deal to teach businesspeople about hubris, adversity, and redemption.

In his new book, economist Joel Waldfogel argues that digitization is ushering in a golden age for both producers and consumers of entertainment.