The power of individuals to influence the course of events is one of the themes running through some of the biggest business books planned for release in the spring. Several titles also take a fresh look at economic truths.

Business & Economics Top 10

Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud

David Dayen. New Press, May 17

Fiscal Times columnist Dayen recounts how three ordinary Floridians challenged the most powerful institutions in America to reveal a foreclosure fraud in which, based on false evidence, millions of families were kicked out of their homes by mortgage companies.

Finding Time: The Economics of Work-Life Conflict

Heather Boushey. Harvard Univ., Apr. 19

Boushey argues that resolving work-life conflicts is as vital for individuals and families as it is essential for realizing the country’s productive potential.

Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business

Rana Foroohar. Crown Business, May 17

Business journalist Foroohar shows how the shortsighted and misguided financial practices and mentality that nearly toppled the global economy in 2008 have come to infiltrate all corners of American business and how this “financialization of America” is putting us on a dangerous collision course to another catastrophic economic meltdown.

Preston Tucker and His Battle to Build the Car of Tomorrow

Steve Lehto. Chicago Review, June 1

Following WWII, the U.S. auto industry was unprepared to meet the growing demands of the public. Preston Tucker, salesman extraordinaire, announced the building of a revolutionary new car. Author Lehto explains how and why the production of this innovative car was killed.

Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy

Robert H. Frank. Princeton Univ., Apr. 15

New York Times economics columnist Frank argues that a more accurate understanding of the role of chance in life could lead to better, richer, and fairer economies and societies.

The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future

Kevin Kelly. Viking, June 7

A leading technology thinker offers a guide to the 12 technological imperatives that will shape the next 30 years.

The Profiteers: Bechtel and the Men Who Built the World

Sally Denton. S&S, Feb. 16

The coauthor of The Money and the Power provides the inside story of the Bechtel family, which owns one of the largest privately held corporations in the world.

Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity

Douglas Rushkoff. Penguin/Portfolio, Mar. 1

Media scholar and technology author Rushkoff provides a pragmatic, optimistic, and human-centered model for economic progress in the digital age.

The Vanishing American Corporation: Navigating the Hazards of a New Economy

Jerry Davis. Berrett-Koehler, May 2

In their heyday, public corporations provided good salaries and benefits, features conspicuously absent from newer models championed by companies like Uber. The consequences of corporate decline in the U.S., Davis argues, are stark.

Why Save the Bankers? And Other Essays on Our Economic and Political Crisis

Thomas Piketty, trans. by Seth Ackerman. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Apr. 5

The author of the bestselling global phenomenon Capital in the Twenty-First Century offers a collection of essays on the financial meltdown and its aftermath.

Business & Economics Listings

Adams Media

Pensionless: The 10-Step Solution for a Stress-Free Retirement by Emily Brandon (Apr. 1, trade paper, $16.99, ISBN 978-1-4405-9075-7) is a guide to getting the most out of your retirement.

Agate B2

(dist. by PGW)

Never Give Up: Jack Ma in His Own Words, edited by Suk Lee and Bob Song (July 12, trade paper, $11.95, ISBN 978-1-57284-189-5) is a comprehensive guide to the inner workings of one of the most prominent figures in the global tech world in the past 20 years—comprising only Ma’s own candid quotes.

Amacom

Driven by Difference: How Great Companies Fuel Innovation Through Diversity by David Livermore (Feb. 17, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0-8144-3653-0). Studies show that diverse teams are more creative than homogenous ones, but only when they are managed effectively. This research-based plan turns diversity’s potential into economic reality.

The Healthy Workplace: How to Improve the Well-Being of Your Employees—and Boost Your Company’s Bottom Line by Leigh Stringer (July 1, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-8144-3743-8). Companies like Google, Apple, Aetna, and Johnson & Johnson have incorporated movement and mindfulness into their culture, with impressive ROI. Here are tips for immediate improvement and guidelines for building a long-term plan.

Atlantic Monthly

Eccentric Orbits by John Bloom (June 7, hardcover, $27.50, ISBN 978-0-8021-2168-4) chronicles how one man tried to rescue Iridium, Motorola’s billion-dollar satellite system, which was $11 billion in debt only months after launching.

Berrett-Koehler

Mastering the New Media Landscape: Embrace the Micromedia Mindset by Barbara Cave Henricks and Rusty Shelton (Mar. 7, trade paper, $17.95, ISBN 978-1-62656-580-7). Veteran publicists Henricks and Shelton argue that for businesses to get attention in today’s fractured media market, they must think more like media executives than marketers.

The Vanishing American Corporation: Navigating the Hazards of a New Economy by Jerry Davis (May 2, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-62656-279-0). In their heyday public corporations provided good salaries and benefits, features that are conspicuously absent from newer models championed by companies like Uber. The consequences of corporate decline in the U.S. are stark, Davis argues: greater inequality, less mobility, and a frayed social safety net.

Bibliomotion

(dist. by Perseus)

Everydata: The Misinformation Hidden in the Little Data You Consume Every Day by John H. Johnson and Mike Gluck (Apr. 12, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-1-62956-101-1). Everyone talks about “big data,” but the truth is that understanding the “little data” is what leads to smarter decisions. 10,000-copy announced first printing.

The Mentor Myth: How to Take Control of Your Own Success by Debby Carreau (Apr. 19, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-62956-111-0) explains that while a mentor’s counsel can be invaluable, it is not the silver bullet human resources professionals often purport it to be. The opinions of a mentor are one data point, one piece in the much more complex game of navigating a career.

Career Press

Brand Seduction: How Neuroscience Can Help Marketers Build Memorable Brands by Daryl Weber (Apr. 25, trade paper, $16.99, ISBN 978-1-63265-013-9) reveals the latest psychological and

neuroscientific discoveries about how humans process brand information and make decisions, and the important roles emotions and the unconscious play in selections.

Chicago Review

Preston Tucker and His Battle to Build the Car of Tomorrow by Steve Lehto (July 1, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-1-61374-953-1). Following WWII, the U.S. auto industry was unprepared to meet the growing demands of the public. Preston Tucker, salesman extraordinaire, announced the building of a revolutionary new car. Author Lehto explains how and why the production of this innovative car was killed.

Chronicle

Draw Your Big Idea by Heather Willems and Nora Herting (May 10, trade paper, $19.95, ISBN 978-1-4521-5292-9). Entrepreneurs Herting and Willems founded ImageThink, a graphic facilitation firm that has helped an elite roster of clients visualize their ideas and transform their creative processes using simple drawing techniques. They present guidance and more than 150 drawing exercises tailored to brainstorming, refining, and executing ideas in the home, design studio, and office.

Columbia Univ.

The Evolution of Money by David Orrell and Roman Chlupatý (June 14, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-0-231-17372-8) illuminates money’s transition from hard currencies to the cryptocurrencies used by such companies as Uber and Airbnb.

Crown Business

Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business by Rana Foroohar (May 17, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-0-553-44723-1). Business journalist Foroohar shows how the shortsighted and misguided financial practices and mentality that nearly toppled the global economy in 2008 have infiltrated all corners of American business and how this “financialization of America” is putting us on a dangerous collision course to another catastrophic economic meltdown.

Ecco

Alibaba: The House that Jack Ma Built by Duncan Clark (Apr. 12, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-241340-6) is an insider’s account of how a teacher built one of the most valuable companies in the world—rivaling Walmart, Amazon, and eBay—and changed the global economy. 50,000-copy announced first printing.

Farrar, Straus And Giroux

Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future by Paul Mason (Feb. 9, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-374-23554-3) argues that we are on the brink of a change so big and so profound that capitalism itself, the immensely complex system within which entire societies function, will mutate into something wholly new.

Flatiron

Quench Your Own Thirst: Business Lessons Learned Over a Beer or Two by Jim Koch (Apr. 12, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-250-07050-0). The founder of the Boston Beer Company and catalyst for the American craft beer explosion tells all when it comes to business, beer, and turning your passion into a successful company.

Greenleaf

Dirty Little Secrets of Family Business: Ensuring Success from One Generation to the Next by Henry Hutcheson (Mar. 22, hardcover, $18.95, ISBN 978-1-62634-260-6). Certified management consultant Hutcheson teaches family business owners how to achieve both their professional and personal goals, while setting healthy boundaries and shedding some much-needed light on the mystery that is family business.

Harper

Door to Door: The Magnificent, Maddening, Mysterious World of Transportation by Edward Humes

(Apr. 12, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-237207-9). The Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of Garbology explores the hidden and costly wonders of our buy-it-now, get-it-today world of transportation, revealing the surprising truths, mounting challenges, and logistical magic behind every trip we take. 30,000-copy announced first printing.

HarperBusiness

#AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur’s Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness by Gary Vaynerchuk (Mar. 8, hardcover, $29.99, ISBN 978-0-06-227312-3). The bestselling author draws from his popular YouTube show #AskGaryVee to offer surprising, often outrageous, and imminently useful and honest answers to everything you’ve ever wanted to know—and more—about navigating the new world of social media. 150,000-copy announced first printing.

The Power of the Other by Henry Cloud (May 3, hardcover, $25.99, ISBN 978-0-06-177714-1). Using evidence from neuroscience and his work with leaders, psychologist and consultant Cloud shows that the best performers draw on personal and professional relationships that fuel growth and help them surpass current limits. 100,000-copy announced first printing.

Harvard/Belknap

Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization by Branko Milanovic (Apr. 12, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-674-73713-6). One of the world’s leading economists of inequality, Milanovic presents a bold new account of the dynamics that drive inequality on a global scale.

Harvard Business Review

The Clayton M. Christensen Reader by Clayton M. Christensen (Feb. 9, trade paper, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-63369-099-8). No matter the industry, Christensen wrote in his classic book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, a successful company with established products will get pushed aside unless managers know how and when to abandon traditional business practices. This work collects the best of Christensen’s Harvard Business Review articles on the subject in one place. 25,000-copy announced first printing.

Harvard Univ.

Finding Time: The Economics of Work-Life Conflict by Heather Boushey (Apr. 19, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-674-66016-8) proposes that resolving work-life conflicts is as vital for individuals and families as it is essential for realizing the country’s productive potential.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Why Save the Bankers? And Other Essays on Our Economic and Political Crisis by Thomas Piketty, trans. by Seth Ackerman (Apr. 5, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-0-544-66332-9). This collection of essays on the financial meltdown and its aftermath comes from the author of the bestselling global phenomenon Capital in the Twenty-First Century. 50,000-copy announced first printing.

Information Today

Inside Content Marketing: EContent Magazine’s Guide to Roles, Tools, and Strategies for Thriving in the Age of Brand Journalism by Theresa Cramer (May 1, trade paper, $17.95, ISBN 978-1-937290-06-1). Drawing largely from profiles and interviews with successful content marketers, EContent editor Cramer demystifies the concept of content marketing and presents tactics and strategies for employing it that are working today.

Kogan Page

Digital Selling: How to Use Social Media and the Web to Generate Leads and Sell More by Grant Leboff (June 28, trade paper, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-7494-7507-9). As sales and marketing functions increasingly converge, this volume makes sense of the new paradigms in which a salesperson now operates.

Little, Brown

The Seventh Sense: Power, Fortune, and Survival in the Age of Networks by Joshua Cooper Ramo (May 31, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-316-28506-3). A policy expert who has advised the most powerful nations and corporations draws on examples from business, science, and politics to show how individuals and companies can survive in the networked world. 100,000-copy announced first printing.

McGraw-Hill Education

Real Leadership: 9 Simple Practices for Leading and Living with Purpose by John Addison (Mar. 8), hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-1-259-58444-2). Former Primerica co-CEO and leading motivational speaker Addison reveals his hard-won lessons for building a solid leadership platform any business executive can use to steer people and organizations through good times and bad.

Morrow

There Is Life After College: What Parents and Students Should Know About Navigating School to Prepare for the Jobs of Tomorrow by Jeffrey Selingo (Apr. 19, hardcover, $25.99, ISBN 978-0-06-238886-5). The bestselling author of College Unbound provides a blueprint to help alleviate parents’ anxiety and prepare their college-educated child to successfully land a good job after graduation. 50,000-copy announced first printing.

New Press

(dist. by Perseus)

Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud by David Dayen (May 17, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-1-62097-158-1). Fiscal Times columnist Dayen recounts how three ordinary Floridians challenged the most powerful institutions in America to reveal a foreclosure fraud in which millions of families were kicked out of their homes based on false evidence by mortgage companies. 12,500-copy announced first printing.

Nolo

Social Security, Medicare and Government Pensions: Get the Most Out of Your Retirement and Medical Benefits by Joseph Matthews (Feb. 25, trade paper, $29.99, ISBN 978-1-4133-2235-4) helps baby boomers navigate the Medicare and Social Security systems, as well as veterans disability compensation, and federal retirement, in order to maximize benefits and appeal denials of services and benefits.

Norton

The End of Alchemy: Money, Banking, and the Future of the Global Economy by Mervyn King (Mar. 21, hardcover, $28.95, ISBN 978-0-393-24702-2). The governor of the Bank of England from 2003 to 2013 offers a new vision for modern capitalism.

Pegasus

(dist. by Norton)

Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner? A Story About Women and Economics by Katrine Marcal (June 6, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-1-68177-142-7) charts the myth of economic man—from its origins at Adam Smith’s dinner table to its adaptation by the Chicago School, and its disastrous role in the 2008 global financial crisis—in a witty and courageous dismantling of one of the biggest myths of our time.

Penguin/Portfolio

Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers by Jay Baer (Mar. 1, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1-101-98067-5). Based on proprietary research and more than 70 exclusive interviews, bestselling author Baer offers a new playbook for handling unhappy customers.

If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy? by Raj Raghunathan (Apr. 26, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1-101-98073-6). Psychological researcher Raghunathan explains how the traits that usually lead to success can also lead to unhappiness—and how to be happy and successful.

Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity by Douglas Rushkoff (Mar. 1, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-61723-017-2). The media scholar and technology author provides a pragmatic, optimistic, and human-centered model for economic progress in the digital age.

Princeton Univ.

Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy by Robert H. Frank (Apr. 15, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-0-691-16740-4). Bestselling author and New York Times economics columnist Frank explores the role chance plays in a range of life experiences, arguing that a more accurate understanding of the role of chance could lead to better, richer, and fairer societies.

Prometheus Books

Virtual Billions: The Genius, the Drug Lord, and the Ivy League Twins behind the Rise of Bitcoin by Eric Geissinger (Apr. 5, hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-1-63388-144-0) explores the cyber currency by focusing on the remarkable stories and intriguing personalities of those responsible for its sudden success.

PublicAffairs

The Smartest Places on Earth: Why the Rustbelts Are the Emerging Hotspots of Global Innovation by Antoine van Agtmael and Fred Bakker (Mar. 29, hardcover, $25.99, ISBN 978-1-61039-435-2) presents a hopeful investigation into the emerging sources of a new era of competitiveness for America and Europe coming from unlikely places—those cities and areas once known as “rustbelts” that have, from an economic perspective, been written off.

Running Press

The Hustle Economy: Transforming Your Creativity Into a Career by Jason Oberholtzer, illus. by Jessica Hagy (Apr. 5, trade paper, $15, ISBN 978-0-7624-6019-9), collects 25 essays from founders, writers, producers, game makers, artists, and creative people who share one common trait—they are all self-made hustlers—and they share advice on how to live the freelance creative life and survive in today’s ever-changing gig economy. 30,000-copy announced first printing.

Scribner

For the Love of Money: A Memoir by Sam Polk (July 19, hardcover, $24, ISBN 978-1-4767-8598-1). In this memoir about coming-of-age on Wall Street, Polk brings readers into the rarefied world of trading floors, and explores the birth of a young hedge fund trader, his disillusionment, and the radical new way he has come to define success.

Simon & Schuster

The Profiteers: Bechtel and the Men Who Built the World by Sally Denton (Feb. 16, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-1-4767-0646-7). The bestselling coauthor of The Money and the Power provides the inside story of the Bechtel family, which owns one of the largest privately held corporations in the world, enriched by government contracts and the privatization of public works.

The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future by Steve Case (Apr. 5, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-1-5011-3258-2). The cofounder of AOL and chairman of AOL Time Warner shares a road map for how entrepreneurs, CEOs, and the country can succeed in a rapidly changing Internet world.

Skyhorse

Good Luck Have Fun: The Rise of eSports by Roland Li (June 7, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-63450-657-1). E-sports, in which video-game players compete for huge prizes, is one of the fastest growing—and most cutthroat—industries in the world. Li talks to some of the biggest names in the business and explores the players, companies, and games that have made it into new major league. 20,000-copy announced first printing.

St. Martin’s

Modern Monopolies: How Online Platforms Rule the World by Controlling the Means of Connection by Alex Moazed and Nicholas L. Johnson (May 31, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-250-09189-5) looks at the ubiquitous business model--the platform—that’s taking over the economy and our digital lives.

Transaction

Successful Management in the Digital Age by John Harte (Apr. 30, trade paper, $27.95, ISBN 978-1-4128-6324-7) examines key factors for success that are still vital in today’s business environment: finding markets, achieving a suitable market share, remaining vigilant for new trends and changes, exercising control, and overcoming obstacles.

Viking

The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future by Kevin Kelly (June 7, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-525-42808-4) is a guide through the 12 technological imperatives that will shape the next 30 years and transform our lives, from a leading technology thinker.

Yale Univ.

What They Do with Your Money: How the Financial System Fails Us, and How to Fix It by Stephen Davis, Jon Lukomnik, and David Pitt-Watson (May 24, hardcover, $32.50, ISBN 978-0-300-19441-8). Each year Americans pay billions in fees to those who run the financial system. The authors of The New Capitalists issue a call to reboot capitalism and preserve $85 trillion in retirement savings for their owners—not for use as the financial industry’s ATM.