The Singapore Story - Lee Kuan Yew
Biography of Malcolm X
Deng Xiaopeng and the Transformation of China
The Power Broker
Ask HN: Biographies recommendations – both Westerner and Non-westerner
41–50 of 66 posts
Re: Ask HN: Biographies recommendations – both Westerner and Non-westerner
#42All of the Walter Isaacson biographies are fantastic. To understand how modern digital ecosystem came to be I cannot think of a better combination than Isaacson's "Innovators" and "The Dream Machine" by Waldrop.
His Leonardo biography is mediocre at best. It may read smoothly but he lacks a good grasp of the subject matter. Instead, Leonardo is like an earlier Steve Jobs of some kind.
Is his Einstein biography any better?
Re: Ask HN: Biographies recommendations – both Westerner and Non-westerner
#43Some autobiographical writings:
T. E. Lawrence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mint_(book)
Władysław Szpilman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pianist_(memoir)
Primo Levi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_This_Is_a_Man
Re: Ask HN: Biographies recommendations – both Westerner and Non-westerner
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
His Leonardo biography is mediocre at best. It may read smoothly but he lacks a good grasp of the subject matter. Instead, Leonardo is like an earlier Steve Jobs of some kind.
Is his Einstein biography any better?
I enjoyed all of historical Isaacson biographies (Einstein, Leonardo, Jobs, Franklin and Innovators).
I suppose the the biographies would need a more detailed critique of what people did not like in them to say anything particular about one of them.
Jobs biography alone does not give a sufficient image of the man, for example. But when combined with "Becoming Steve Jobs" the picture is more well rounded. That does not mean I did not enjoy the book.
Re: Ask HN: Biographies recommendations – both Westerner and Non-westerner
#45May sound like a cliche but Mahatma Gandhi's "My experiment with Truth." is a good read to get an idea of the philosophy of a major percentage of world population throughout the history.
Re: Ask HN: Biographies recommendations – both Westerner and Non-westerner
#46Irena Sendler: Mother of the Children of the Holocaust
Re: Ask HN: Biographies recommendations – both Westerner and Non-westerner
#47The Last Lion - a multi-volume biography of Winston Churchill, by William Manchester.
Re: Ask HN: Biographies recommendations – both Westerner and Non-westerner
#48The Power Broker - the story of how an idealist turned into Darth Vader The Years of Lyndon Johnson - the story of how LBJ rigged the 1948 election for Senate and rose to power Here's an excerpt from an interview with the author of both books: > During all these years I did come to understand stuff about power that I wanted people to know. You read in every textbook that cliché: Power corrupts. In my opinion, I’ve le…
He also has a new book out, "Working." It's a pretty short read compared to his other stuff, and he shares a few new stories about what he had to do to get some of his material. All around great stuff.
Re: Ask HN: Biographies recommendations – both Westerner and Non-westerner
#49The Power Broker - the story of how an idealist turned into Darth Vader The Years of Lyndon Johnson - the story of how LBJ rigged the 1948 election for Senate and rose to power Here's an excerpt from an interview with the author of both books: > During all these years I did come to understand stuff about power that I wanted people to know. You read in every textbook that cliché: Power corrupts. In my opinion, I’ve le…
I can't recommend The Power Broker more highly. It is one of my favorite books, and one of the books that I believe actually gave me new insights into how the world works.
I actually haven't read his LBJ series yet, and I'm really looking forward to it.
Re: Ask HN: Biographies recommendations – both Westerner and Non-westerner
#50I have a guilty pleasure of reading biographies of people who are moderately famous/wealthy/successful and are talking themselves up, as I think they reveal interesting things about the human condition and ambition. On that note I enjoyed “Time to Make the Donuts” and “Money Monster”, both on entrepreneurship.
I go back to some greats like Benjamin Franklin as well, but the books on the margin lacking polish can be more interesting.