Some of the biggest business books this fall come from people high up in business and financial circles. Ben Bernanke, Robert Reich, and Robert Gates are among the authors, while Thomas Piketty contributes the foreword to a proposal for tax haven reforms. There is also a range of fall books about the best way to save for retirement.

America’s Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve

Roger Lowenstein. Penguin Press, Oct. 20

A financial journalist and bestselling author reveals the story of how America created the Federal Reserve, thereby taking its first steps onto the world stage as a global financial power.

The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath

Ben S. Bernanke. Norton, Oct. 5

The former chair of the Federal Reserve pulls back the curtain on the ultimately successful efforts to prevent a mass economic failure in 2008.

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Cal Newport. Grand Central, Jan. 5

The Georgetown University professor and popular blogger reveals the new key to achieving success and true meaning in one’s professional life.

ESPN: The Making of a Sports Media Empire

Travis Vogan. Univ. of Illinois, Oct. 15

Vogan offers an inside look at how ESPN changed an industry and reshaped the very way we live as sports fans.

The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens

Gabriel Zucman, trans. by Teresa Lavender Fagan. Univ. of Chicago, Sept. 29

Zucman offers an ambitious agenda for reforming tax havens, focused on ways in which countries can change the incentives for them. With a foreword by Thomas Piketty.

How the Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy

Mehrsa Baradaran. Harvard Univ., Oct. 6

Contributes to the growing conversation on American inequality by highlighting one of its prime causes: unequal credit.

How to Make Your Money Last: The Indispensable Retirement Guide

Jane Bryant Quinn. Simon & Schuster, Jan. 5

Bryant Quinn shows how to turn retirement savings into a steady paycheck that will last for life.

Our Robots, Ourselves: Robotics and the Myths of Autonomy

David A. Mindell. Viking, Oct. 13

An MIT professor takes on the myths of robotics and makes an argument for the crucial role of people in a changing technological landscape.

A Passion for Leadership: Lessons on Change and Reform from Fifty Years of Public Service

Robert M. Gates. Knopf, Jan. 19

The former secretary of defense and author of the memoir Duty presents a candid assessment of why big institutions are failing us and how good leaders can change them.

Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few

Robert B. Reich. Knopf, Sept. 29

The author of Aftershock and The Work of Nations gives a myth-shattering breakdown of what’s wrong with our political-economic system, and what it will take to fix it.

Business & Economics Listings

Adams Media

Choose Your Retirement: Find the Right Path to Your New Adventure by Emily Guy Birken (Oct. 2, paper, $17.99, ISBN 978-1-4405-8655-2) helps readers set attainable financial goals and plan for the retirement they want.

Arcade

(dist. by Perseus)

Admen, Mad Men, and the Real World of Advertising: Essential Lessons for Business and Life by Dave Marinaccio (Nov. 3, hardcover, $22.99, ISBN 978-1-62872-572-8). The cofounder and creative director of LMO Advertising, provides an inside look at the world of advertising, offering stories from his three decades at some of America’s best-known agencies.

Atria

The Episodic Career: The Future of Your Job in America by Farai Chideya (Jan. 5, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-4767-5150-4) explores the landscape of employment in America since the Great Recession of 2007–2009, profiling the rich, the poor, and people from every strata in between, and offering a practical guide to navigate today’s volatile job market.

BenBella

(dist. by Perseus)

Better: The Journey to Becoming the Obvious Choice by Peter Sheahan (Jan. 12, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-1-941631-76-8). International business consultant and author Sheahan shares years of research on how to make one’s business stand out and what it takes to become the costumer’s obvious choice.

Berrett-Koehler

A Crowdfunder’s Strategy Guide: Build a Better Business by Building Community by Jamey Stegmaier (Sept. 14, paper, $19.95, ISBN 978-1-62656-408-4). As a veteran of six successful Kickstarter campaigns, Stegmaier examines crowdfunding as a better way to build and run a business.

Bibliomotion

(dist. by Perseus)

Unconventional Leadership: What Henry Ford and Detroit Taught Me about Reinvention and Diversity by Nancy M. Schlichting (Oct. 27, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-1-62956-095-3). The CEO of the Henry Ford Health System reveals her strategies that drive success: maintaining a focus on people, creating a culture of innovation, and embracing diversity as a key strategy for growth.

Brookings Institution

Managing Complexity: Economic Policy Cooperation after the Crisis, edited by Tanim Bayoumi, Stephen Pickford, and Paola Subacchi (Jan. 29, paper, $36, ISBN 978-0-8157-2715-6) casts a critical look at the challenges facing international policy cooperation in the new postcrisis environment.

Chelsea Green

Carbon Shock: A Tale of Risk and Calculus on the Front Lines of the Disrupted Global Economy by Mark Schapiro (Oct. 1, paper, $17.95, ISBN 978-1-60358-621-4). Veteran investigative journalist Schapiro takes the reader on a quest to uncover the wide array of impacts that pumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is having on society.

Columbia Univ.

Charlie Munger: The Complete Investor by Tren Griffin (Sept. 15, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-231-17098-7) analyzes how Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway’s vice chairman and Warren Buffett’s indispensable financial partner, has managed to consistently outperform the market.

Green Capital: A New Perspective on Growth by Christian de Perthuis and Pierre-André Jouvet, trans. by Michael Westlake (Oct. 13, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-0-231-17140-3). Brokering a sustainable peace between ecology and the economy, Green Capital describes a range of valuation schemes and their contribution to the goals of green capitalism, proposing a new, practical approach to natural resources that benefits both businesses and the environment.

Columbia Univ./Columbia Global Reports

Shaky Ground: The Strange Saga of the U.S. Mortgage Giants by Bethany McLean (Sept. 14, paper, $12.99, ISBN 978-0-9909763-0-1) brings the biggest underreported aspect of the 2008 financial crisis into the public light, showing why the situation of our mortgage finance system held in limbo is dangerous and unsustainable—and must be placed on firmer ground.

Crown Business

Good Profit: How Creating Value for Others Built One of the World’s Most Successful Companies by Charles G. Koch (Oct. 13, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-101-90413-8) explains how the author took the reins of his father’s company and began the process of growing it from a $21 million company into a global corporation with revenues of about $115 billion.

The Power of Broke: How Empty Pockets and a Shoestring Budget Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage by Daymond John and Daniel Paisner (Jan. 19, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-101-90359-9). FUBU founder and star of ABC’s Shark Tank, John shows why starting a business on a shoestring can actually be an entrepreneur’s greatest competitive advantage.

Elliott & Thompson

(dist. by IPG)

Crowdfunding: The Corporate Era by Dan Marom, Richard Swart, and Kevin Berg Grell (Nov. 1, hardcover, $23.95, ISBN 978-1-78396-161-0) is one of the first books to tackle corporate crowdfunding and shows readers how innovative global corporations have started to use crowdfunding, and how your business might also benefit.

Entrepreneur

(dist. by PGW)

Moonlighting on the Internet: Make An Extra $1,000 per Month in Just 5–10 Hours Per Week by Shelby Larson, with Jay Kubassek (Oct. 13, hardcover, $21.95, ISBN 978-1-59918-580-4). Internet entrepreneur Larson delivers a guide to five established online opportunities proven to create an added monthly income of $500–$5,000 for go-getters.

Grand Central

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport (Jan. 5, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-4555-8669-1). The Georgetown University professor and popular blogger reveals the new key to achieving success and true meaning in one’s professional life.

Harper

The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge by Matt Ridley (Nov. 3, hardcover, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-229600-9). Bestselling author Ridley returns with a fascinating argument for evolution that definitively dispels a dangerous, widespread myth: that we can command and control our world.

HarperOne

Simple Sabotage: A Modern Field Manual for Detecting and Rooting Out Everyday Behaviors That Undermine Your Workplace by Robert M. Galford, Bob Frisch, and Cary Greene (Sept. 29, hardcover, $23.99, ISBN 978-0-06-237160-7). Inspired by the Simple Sabotage Field Manual released by the Office of Strategic Services in 1944 to train European resistors, this is the essential handbook to help stamp out unintentional sabotage in any working group, from major corporations to volunteer PTA committees.

Harvard Business Review

Edge Strategy: A New Mindset for Profitable Growth by Alan Lewis and Dan McKone (Jan. 19, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-1-63369-017-2). Strategy experts Lewis and McKone provide a guide for identifying opportunities for growth that are often hidden in plain sight, at the edge of the core business.

Harvard Univ.

How the Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy by Mehrsa Baradaran (Oct. 6, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-674-28606-1) contributes to the growing conversation on American inequality by highlighting one of its prime causes: unequal credit.

HCI

Flying over the Pigpen: Tried and True Leadership Lessons from Growing Up on a Farm by Doug Tieman (Sept. 1, paper, $14.95, ISBN 978-0-7573-1860-3). The president and CEO of Caron Treatment Centers weaves examples and principles from his own life on the farm and in business to demonstrate this practical and personal path to achievement.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Fast Forward: How Women Can Achieve Power and Purpose by Melanne Verveer and Kim K. Azzarelli (Oct. 6, hardcover, $24, ISBN 978-0-544-52719-5) examines how some of the world’s most powerful women are using their growing economic power to create success and meaning in their lives while building a better world.

Knopf

A Passion for Leadership: Lessons on Change and Reform from Fifty Years of Public Service by Robert M. Gates (Jan. 19, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-0-307-95949-2). The former secretary of defense and author of the #1 bestselling memoir Duty provides a characteristically candid and urgent assessment of why big institutions are failing us and how good leaders can change them.

Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few by Robert B. Reich (Sept. 29, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-0-385-35057-0). The author of Aftershock and The Work of Nations, Reich gives a sweeping yet minutely argued, myth-shattering breakdown of what’s wrong with our political-economic system, and what it will take to fix it.

Little, Brown

Wealth Secrets of the One Percent: A Modern Manual to Getting Marvelously, Obscenely Rich by Sam Wilkin (Aug. 4, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-316-37893-2). The author’s insight into the sources of wealth reveals that behind almost every great fortune is a “wealth secret”—a moneymaking technique designed to defeat the forces of market competition.

MIT

Metadata by Jeffrey Pomerantz (Oct. 2, paper, $15.95, ISBN 978-0-262-52851-1) offers an accessible and concise introduction to metadata, discussing the technologies that make modern metadata possible, and speculating about metadata’s future. By the end of the book, readers will see metadata everywhere.

The Power Brokers: The Struggle to Shape and Control the Electric Power Industry by Jeremiah D. Lambert (Sept. 4, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-262-02950-6) shows how the power industry has sought to use regulatory change to preserve or secure market dominance and how rogue players have gamed imperfectly restructured electricity markets.

Norton

The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath by Ben S. Bernanke (Oct. 5, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-0-393-24721-3). The former chair of the Federal Reserve pulls back the curtain on the tireless and ultimately successful efforts to prevent a mass economic failure. He reveals for the first time how the creativity and decisiveness of a few key leaders prevented an economic collapse of unimaginable scale.

Palgrave Macmillan

The Global Code: How a New Culture of Universal Values Is Reshaping Business and Marketing by Clotaire Rapaille (Sept. 29, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1-137-27971-2). The bestselling author of The Culture Code explains why global marketing and business must evolve to acknowledge new, universally held human values.

Penguin/Portfolio

Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family by Bob Chapman and Rajendra Sisodia (Oct. 6, hardcover, $27.95,

ISBN 978-1-59184-779-3). Much studied CEO Chapman and bestselling author Sisodia take on one of the greatest misconceptions of modern business—that leadership starts with getting the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off).

Penguin Press

America’s Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve by Roger Lowenstein (Oct. 20, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-59420-549-1). The financial journalist and bestselling author of When Genius Failed and The End of Wall Street unravels the drama-filled, unlikely story of how America created the Federal Reserve, thereby taking its first steps onto the world stage as a global financial power.

Princeton Univ.

The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living Since the Civil War by Robert J. Gordon (Jan. 26, hardcover, $39.95, ISBN 978-0-691-14772-7). Between 1870 and 1970, an economic revolution dramatically improved the American standard of living. Weaving together a vivid narrative, historical anecdotes, and economic analysis, Gordon provides an in-depth account of this momentous era—and questions whether that era has come to an end.

PublicAffairs

Juggling with Knives: Smart Investing in the Coming Age of Volatility by Jim Jubak (Jan. 5, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-1-61039-480-2). Investment expert Jubak explores the “new normal” of market volatility.

Rowman & Littlefield

Money, Taste, and Wine: It’s Complicated! by Mike Veseth (Aug. 4, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-4422-3463-5). A wine economist helps consumers avoid the most common pitfall when it comes to buying wine: confusing money with taste.

Simon & Schuster

The Great Surge: The Ascent of the Developing World by Steven Radelet (Nov. 10, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-4767-6478-8) delves into the untold story of the global poor today. A distinguished expert and adviser to developing nations reveals how we’ve reduced poverty, increased incomes, improved health, curbed violence, and spread democracy—and how to ensure the improvements continue.

How to Make Your Money Last: The Indispensable Retirement Guide by Jane Bryant Quinn (Jan. 5, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-4767-4376-9) teaches readers how to turn retirement savings into a steady paycheck that will last for life.

Square One

New World Companies: Learning from the Best Companies in Our Growing Global Economy by Bruce Piasecki (Jan. 1, paper, $17.95, ISBN 978-0-7570-0413-1). Bestselling business author Piasecki explains which 21st-century companies will thrive, which will fall short, and why. Drawing on more than 30 years as a management consultant, the author aims to reinvent the basic practice of capitalism as needed in the global arena.

Thomas Nelson

The Money-Making Mom: How Every Woman Can Earn More and Make a Difference by Crystal Paine (Nov. 3, hardcover, $22.99, ISBN 978-1-4002-0648-3). Bestselling author and the person behind MoneySavingMom.com, Paine offers practical tools and advice on how to become financially free, sharing the secrets of building income at home with examples from her own journey, as well as stories of others.

Univ. of Chicago

Better Bankers, Better Banks: Promoting Good Business Through Contractual Commitment by Claire A. Hill and Richard W. Painter (Oct. 5, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-0-226-29305-9). Banking experts Hill and Painter argue that rules will only do so much to fix the risky behavior of banks—what we need instead is a wholesale change in culture and incentives, backed up by real threats of criminal sanctions.

The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens by Gabriel Zucman, trans. by Teresa Lavender Fagan, foreword by Thomas Piketty (Sept. 29, hardcover, $20, ISBN 978-0-226-24542-3) offers an ambitious agenda for reforming tax havens focused on ways in which countries can change the incentives of tax havens.

Univ. of Illinois

ESPN: The Making of a Sports Media Empire by Travis Vogan (Oct. 15, paper, $19.95, ISBN 978-0-252-08122-4) teams archival research and interviews with an all-star cast to pen the definitive account of how ESPN rose to become a media phenomenon. The book offers an inside look at how the network changed an industry and reshaped the way we live as sports fans.

Viking

Our Robots, Ourselves: Robotics and the Myths of Autonomy by David A. Mindell (Oct. 13, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0-525-42697-4). An MIT professor takes on the myths of robotics, exploring the extreme environments where automated machines are already employed, and making a provocative argument for the crucial role of people in a changing technological landscape.

Workman

How to Retire with Enough Money: And How to Know What Enough Is by Teresa Ghilarducci (Dec. 15, hardcover, $12.95, ISBN 978-0-7611-8613-7). A professor of economics at the New School, a retirement and savings expert, and a trustee to two retiree health care trusts worth over $54 billion cuts through the confusion that keeps us spending or saving poorly. Here are easy-to-follow principles that can change the course of your life.

Yale Univ.

This Program Is Brought to You By...: Distributing Television News Online by Joshua A. Braun (Nov. 24, paper, $35, ISBN 978-0-300-19750-1). Using MSNBC as a case study, this multidisciplinary work reveals the dramatic shifts contemporary news organizations are making in order to deliver content.