Finance and investment books

Investment classics, books in French, personal finance, economics and the history of financial crises.

Partner links: TimeLinq may receive a commission, at no extra cost to you. This list is neither a ranking nor a recommendation.

19 lbs

Against the Gods
Peter L. Bernstein · 1996
EnglishFinancial history
History of the concept of risk, from the first probability calculations to modern finance.
Buy
This Time Is Different
Carmen M. Reinhart, Kenneth S. Rogoff · 2009
EnglishFinancial history
Étude de huit siècles de crises financières, de défauts souverains et de crises bancaires.
Buy
Manias, Panics, and Crashes
Charles P. Kindleberger · 1978
EnglishFinancial history
History of financial crises and the mechanisms of speculation, panic and crash.
Buy
The Great Crash, 1929
John Kenneth Galbraith · 1955
EnglishFinancial history
Account of the speculation of the 1920s and the stock market crash of October 1929.
Buy
When Genius Failed
Roger Lowenstein · 2000
EnglishFinancial history
History of the Long-Term Capital Management fund and its bailout organized in 1998.
Buy
The Big Short
Michael Lewis · 2010
EnglishFinancial history
Investigation into the investors who bet against the subprime mortgage market before the 2008 crisis.
Buy
Liar's Poker
Michael Lewis · 1989
EnglishFinancial history
Author's account of his years as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers in the 1980s.
Buy
Flash Boys
Michael Lewis · 2014
EnglishFinancial history
Investigation into high-frequency trading and the structure of U.S. equity markets.
Buy
Too Big to Fail
Andrew Ross Sorkin · 2009
EnglishFinancial history
Chronicle of the decisions made on Wall Street and in Washington during the 2008 financial crisis.
Buy
Lords of Finance
Liaquat Ahamed · 2009
EnglishFinancial history
History of the four central bankers who led monetary policy between the two world wars.
Buy
The Ascent of Money
Niall Ferguson · 2008
EnglishFinancial history
History of money, credit, markets and insurance since antiquity.
Buy
Barbarians at the Gate
Bryan Burrough, John Helyar · 1989
EnglishFinancial history
Story of the 1988 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco.
Buy
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
Charles Mackay · 1841
EnglishFinancial history
Classic 19th-century work on collective manias, including Tulipomania and the South Sea Bubble.
Buy
Where Are the Customers' Yachts?
Fred Schwed Jr. · 1940
EnglishFinancial history
Ironic take on Wall Street and its intermediaries after the 1929 crash.
Buy
More Money Than God
Sebastian Mallaby · 2010
EnglishFinancial history
History of hedge funds since their creation.
Buy
The Man Who Solved the Market
Gregory Zuckerman · 2019
EnglishFinancial history
Biography of Jim Simons and history of Renaissance Technologies, a pioneer in quantitative investing.
Buy
Fortune's Formula
William Poundstone · 2005
EnglishFinancial history
History of the Kelly criterion, from Claude Shannon and Edward Thorp, between games of chance and financial markets.
Buy
8 leçons d'histoire économique
Jean-Marc Daniel · 2012
FrenchFinancial history
Jean-Marc Daniel revisits episodes of economic history to shed light on current economic policy debates.
Buy
Une brève histoire des crises financières
Christian Chavagneux · 2011
FrenchFinancial history
From tulips to subprimes: a account of the major financial crises and their common mechanisms.
Buy