Jamie Dimon's Book Recommendations (Updated for 2021)

Want to know what books Jamie Dimon recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Jamie Dimon's favorite book recommendations of all time.

The Conservative Heart

How To Build A Fairer, Happier, And More Prosperous America

Arthur C. Brooks | 4.31

For too long, conservatism has been a movement of the head and not the heart. Now New York Times bestselling author Arthur C. Brooks offers a bold new vision for conservatism as a movement for happiness, unity, and social justice—a movement of the head and heart that boldly challenges the liberal monopoly on "fairness" and "compassion."

Many Americans today see two dispiriting political choices: ineffective compassion on one side and heartless pragmatism on the other. Progressives have always presented themselves as champions of the poor and vulnerable. But they have not succeeded—more and more people are hopeless and dependent on government. Meanwhile, conservatives possess the best solutions to the problems of poverty and declining mobility. Yet because they don't speak in a way that reflects their concern and compassion, many Americans don't trust them. Americans know that outmoded redistribution yields poor results and does little for the pursuit of happiness. But there seems to be no conservative alternative that looks out for those struggling to get by.

Arthur Brooks, one of the country's leading policy experts and the president of the American Enterprise Institute, has considered these issues for decades. Drawing on years of research on the sources of happiness and the conditions of human flourishing, Brooks presents a social justice agenda for a New Right. Proposing a set of practical policies firmly grounded in the four "institutions of meaning"—family, faith, community, and meaningful work—Brooks describes a government safety net that actually lifts people up, and offers a vision of true hope through earned success.

Brooks argues that it is time for a new kind of conservatism, one that fights poverty, promotes equal opportunity, and extols spiritual enlightenment. It is an inclusive, optimistic movement with a positive agenda to help people lead happier and more fulfilling lives.

Clear, well-reasoned, accessible, and free of vituperative politics, The Conservative Heart is a welcome new strategy for conservatives looking for fresh, actionable ideas—and for politically independent citizens who believe that neither side is adequately addressing their needs or concerns.

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Recommended by Jamie Dimon, and 1 others.

Jamie DimonWhen consulting firm McKinsey and Co. asked a group of CEOs in July what was on their reading list this summer, the two titles on Dimon’s to-read list were The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America, by American Enterprise Institute president Arthur C. Brooks and Ronald Reagan, by Slate Group chairman Jacob Weisberg. (Source)

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Ronald Reagan (The American Presidents, #40)

Jacob Weisberg, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Sean Wilentz | 4.08

The conservative icon who reshaped American politics and laid the groundwork for the end of the Cold War

In the second half of the twentieth century, no American president defined his political era as did Ronald Reagan. He ushered in an age that extolled smaller government, tax cuts, and strong defense, and to this day politicians of both political parties operate within the parameters of the world he made. His eight years in office from 1981 to 1989 were a time of economic crisis and recovery, a new American assertiveness abroad, and an engagement with the Soviet Union that... more

Recommended by Jamie Dimon, and 1 others.

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Life Is What You Make It

Find Your Own Path to Fulfillment

Peter Buffett | 4.04

From composer, musician, and philanthropist Peter Buffett comes a warm, wise, and inspirational book that asks, Which will you choose: the path of least resistance or the path of potentially greatest satisfaction?

You may think that with a last name like his, Buffett has enjoyed a life of endless privilege. But the son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett says that the only real inheritance handed down from his parents was a philosophy: Forge your own path in life. It is a creed that has allowed him to follow his own passions, establish his own identity, and reap his own... more

Recommended by Bill Gates, Jamie Dimon, Ted Turner, and 3 others.

Bill GatesPeter Buffett writes about the values he absorbed growing up as one of three children of Warren Buffett and the late Susan Buffett. (Source)

Ted TurnerWith home-spun, heart-felt wisdom, Peter Buffett ponders how to make a meaningful life, while making a living. LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT is thought-provoking, worthwhile reading. (Source)

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Winning

Jack Welch, Suzy Welch | 4.17

Jack Welch knows how to win. During his forty-year career at General Electric, he led the company to year-after-year success around the globe, in multiple markets, against brutal competition. His honest, be-the-best style of management became the gold standard in business, with his relentless focus on people, teamwork, and profits.

Since Welch retired in 2001 as chairman and chief executive officer of GE, he has traveled the world, speaking to more than 250,000 people and answering their questions on dozens of wide-ranging topics.

Inspired by his audiences and their hunger for straightforward guidance, Welch has written both a philosophical and pragmatic book, which is destined to become the bible of business for generations to come. It clearly lays out the answers to the most difficult questions people face both on and off the job.

Welch's objective is to speak to people at every level of an organization, in companies large and small. His audience is everyone from line workers to MBAs, from project managers to senior executives. His goal is to help everyone who has a passion for success.

Welch begins Winning with an introductory section called "Underneath It All," which describes his business philosophy. He explores the importance of values, candor, differentiation, and voice and dignity for all.

The core of Winning is devoted to the real "stuff" of work. This main part of the book is split into three sections. The first looks inside the company, from leadership to picking winners to making change happen. The second section looks outside, at the competition, with chapters on strategy, mergers, and Six Sigma, to name just three. The next section of the book is about managing your career—from finding the right job to achieving work-life balance.

Welch's optimistic, no excuses, get-it-done mind-set is riveting. Packed with personal anecdotes and written in Jack's distinctive no b.s. voice, Winning offers deep insights, original thinking, and solutions to nuts-and-bolts problems that will change the way people think about work. less

Recommended by Ev Williams, Jamie Dimon, and 2 others.

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The World Is Flat

A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

Thomas L. Friedman | 3.89

One mark of a great book is that it makes you see things in a new way, and Mr Friedman certainly succeeds in that goal," the Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz wrote in the New York Times reviewing The World is Flat in 2005. In this new edition, Thomas L. Friedman includes fresh stories and insights to help us understand the flattening of the world. Weaving new information into his overall thesis, and answering the questions he has been most frequently asked by parents and readers, this third edition also includes two new chapters - on how to be a political activist and social... more

Recommended by Bill Gates, John Doerr, Jamie Dimon, and 5 others.

Bill Gates[On Bill Gates's reading list in 2011.] (Source)

Jamie DimonCEO recommends this book (along with The Intelligent Investor) in his suggestion to JP Morgan summer interns. (Source)

Erik RostadI read this book in 2003 or 2004. I was out of college and working in my first job. Friedman convincingly showed that the world was rapidly changing and that I would soon be competing for jobs with people from around the world. I decided to go to graduate school as a direct result of being convinced of his argument in this book. What's interesting is that I don't think these two books would have... (Source)

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Sam Walton

Made in America

Sam Walton, John Huey | 4.43

As Sam Walton himself said, this is "...a story about entrepreneurship, and risk, and hard work, and knowing where you want to go and being willing to do what it takes to get there. And it's a story about believing in your idea even when maybe some other folks don't, and about sticking to your guns." It's the story of how Walton parlayed a single dime store in a hardscrabble cotton town into Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world. The undisputed merchant king of the late twentieth century, he never lost the common touch. Here Walton tells his extraordinary story in his own inimitable... more

Recommended by Jeff Bezos, Jamie Dimon, David Cancel, and 5 others.

Jeff BezosExpounds on the principles of discount retailing and discusses his core values of frugality and a bias for action—a willingness to try a lot of things and make many mistakes. Bezos included both in Amazon’s corporate values. (Source)

Rob "Crypto Bobby" Paone@tmac604 Read it earlier this summer, a great book 👍 and also hilarious to compare to current corporate excess ala WeWork (Source)

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Undaunted Courage

Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West

Stephen E. Ambros | 4.40

'This was much more than a bunch of guys out on an exploring and collecting expedition. This was a military expedition into hostile territory'. In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson selected his personal secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, to lead a pioneering voyage across the Great Plains and into the Rockies. It was completely uncharted territory; a wild, vast land ruled by the Indians. Charismatic and brave, Lewis was the perfect choice and he experienced the savage North American continent before any other white man. UNDAUNTED COURAGE is the tale of a hero, but it is also a tragedy. Lewis... more

Recommended by Jamie Dimon, Danielle Morrill, and 2 others.

Danielle Morrill@schlaf I loved this book, enjoy! (Source)

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Guns, Germs and Steel

The Fates of Human Societies

Jared Diamond Ph.D. | 4.22

Explaining what William McNeill called The Rise of the West has become the central problem in the study of global history. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond presents the biologist's answer: geography, demography, and ecological happenstance. Diamond evenhandedly reviews human history on every continent since the Ice Age at a rate that emphasizes only the broadest movements of peoples and ideas. Yet his survey is binocular: one eye has the rather distant vision of the evolutionary biologist, while the other eye--and his heart--belongs to the people of New Guinea, where he... more

Recommended by Charles T. Munger, Charlie Munger, Bill Gates, and 15 others.

Bill GatesFascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history. (Source)

Daniel EkA brilliant Pulitzer Prize-winning book about how the modern world was formed, analyzing how societies developed differently on different continents. (Source)

Yuval Noah HarariA book of big questions, and big answers. The book turned me from a historian of medieval warfare into a student of humankind. (Source)

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The Intelligent Investor

The Classic Text on Value Investing

Benjamin Graham | 4.42

The greatest investment advisor of the twentieth century, Benjamin Graham taught and inspired people worldwide. Graham's philosophy of "value investing" -- which shields investors from substantial error and teaches them to develop long-term strategies -- has made The Intelligent Investor the stock market bible ever since its original publication in 1949. less

Recommended by Warren Buffett, Kevin Rose, Jamie Dimon, and 9 others.

Warren BuffettTo invest successfully over a lifetime does not require a stratospheric IQ, unusual business insights, or inside information. What's needed is a sound intellectual framework for making decisions and the ability to keep emotions from corroding that framework. This book precisely and clearly prescribes the proper framework. You must provide the emotional discipline. (Source)

Kevin RoseThe foundation for investing. A lot of people have used this as their guide to getting into investment, basic strategies. Actually Warren Buffett cites this as the book that got him into investing and he says that principles he learned here helped him to become a great investor. Highly recommend this book. It’s a great way understand what’s going on and how to evaluate different companies out... (Source)

John KayThe idea is that you look at the underlying value of the company’s activities instead of relying on market gossip. (Source)

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Security Analysis

Benjamin Graham, David Dodd, et al. | 4.37

"A road map for investing that I have now been following for 57 years."
--From the Foreword by Warren E. Buffett

First published in 1934, "Security Analysis" is one of the most influential financial books ever written. Selling more than one million copies through five editions, it has provided generations of investors with the timeless value investing philosophy and techniques of Benjamin Graham and David L. Dodd.

As relevant today as when they first appeared nearly 75 years ago, the teachings of Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing, have withstood the test of time across a wide diversity of market conditions, countries, and asset classes.

This new sixth edition, based on the classic 1940 version, is enhanced with 200 additional pages of commentary from some of today s leading Wall Street money managers. These masters of value investing explain why the principles and techniques of Graham and Dodd are still highly relevant even in today s vastly different markets. The contributor list includes: Seth A. Klarman, president of The Baupost Group, L.L.C. and author of "Margin of Safety" James Grant, founder of "Grant's Interest Rate Observer," general partner of Nippon Partners Jeffrey M. Laderman, twenty-five year veteran of "BusinessWeek" Roger Lowenstein, author of "Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist" and "When America Aged" and Outside Director, Sequoia Fund Howard S. Marks, CFA, Chairman and Co-Founder, Oaktree Capital Management L.P. J. Ezra Merkin, Managing Partner, Gabriel Capital Group . Bruce Berkowitz, Founder, Fairholme Capital Management. Glenn H. Greenberg, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Chieftain Capital Management Bruce Greenwald, Robert Heilbrunn Professor of Finance and Asset Management, Columbia Business School David Abrams, Managing Member, Abrams Capital

Featuring a foreword by Warren E. Buffett (in which he reveals that he has read the 1940 masterwork at least four times ), this new edition of "Security Analysis" will reacquaint you with the foundations of value investing more relevant than ever in the tumultuous 21st century markets." less

Recommended by Warren Buffett, Jamie Dimon, Whitney Tilson, and 4 others.

Warren BuffettBuffett said that Security Analysis, another groundbreaking work of Graham's, had given him a road map for investing that he has been following for 57 years. (Source)

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Only the Paranoid Survive

Andrew S. Grove | 4.25

Under Andy Grove's leadership, Intel has become the world's largestchipmaker, the fifth-most-admired company in America, and theseventh-most-profitable company among the Fortune 500. You don't achieverankings like these unless you have mastered a rare understanding of the art ofbusiness and an unusual way with its practice.Few CEOs can claim this level of consistent record-breaking success. Groveattributes much of this success to the philosophy and strategy he reveals in "Only the Paranoid Survive--" a book that is unique in leadership annalsfor offering a bold new business measure, and for taking the reader deep insidethe workings of a major corporation.

Grove's contribution to business thinking concerns a new way of measuring thenightmare moment every leader dreads--the moment when massive change occurs andall bets are off. The success you had the day before is gone, destroyed byunforeseen changes that hit like a stage-six rapid. Grove calls such momentsStrategic Inflection Points, and he has lived through several. When SlPs hit, all rules of business shift fast, furiously, and forever. SlPs can be set offby almost anything--megacompetition, an arcane change in regulations, or aseemingly modest change in technology.

Yet in the watchful leader's hand, SlPs can be an ace. Managed right, a companycan turn a SIP into a positive force to win in the marketplace and emergestronger than ever.

To achieve that level of mastery over change, you must know its propertiesinside and out. Grove addresses questions such as these: What are the stages ofthese tidal waves? What sources do you turn to in order to foresee dangersbefore trouble announces itself? When threats abound, how do you dealwith youremotions, your calendar, your career--as well as with your most loyal managersand customers, who may cling to tradition?

No stranger to risk, Grove examines his own record of success and failure, including the drama of how he navigated the events of the Pentium flaw, whichthreatened Intel in a major way, and how he is dealing with the SIP brought onby the Internet. The work of a lifetime of reflection, "Only the ParanoidSurvive" is a contemporary classic of leadership skills.

"This terrific book is a dangerous book. It will make people think."
--Peter Drucker

"This books is about one super-important concept. You must learn about Strategic Inflection Points, because sooner or later you are going to live through one."
--Steve Jobs, Pixar Animation Studios less

Recommended by Charles T. Munger, Steve Jobs, Ben Horowitz, and 11 others.

Charles T. MungerIn my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn't read all the time -- none, zero. You'd be amazed at how much Warren reads -- and at how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I'm a book with a couple of legs sticking out. (Source)

Steve JobsThis book is about one super-important concept. You must learn about Strategic Inflection Points, because sooner or later you are going to live through one. (Source)

Ben HorowitzAndy Grove's Only the Paranoid Survive is a great book on strategy. (Source)

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Don't have time to read Jamie Dimon's favorite books? Read Shortform summaries.

Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:

Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.

Jamie Dimon's Top Book Recommendations

Don't have time to read Jamie Dimon's favorite books? Read Shortform summaries.

Don't have time to read Jamie Dimon's favorite books? Read Shortform summaries.