What To Read Next | McKinsey’s 2026 Curated Book List

Overview

The video is a curated list of “what to read next.” Each speaker recommends books and shares short reflections on how the books shape their thinking—especially around:

• Leadership
• Geopolitics
• Competition
• Personal development
• Strategy

Key Books and Core Ideas

Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism Can Survive?

• Highlights capitalism as a “perpetual storm.”
• Central concept: creative destruction—capitalism continually disrupts old industries and creates new ones.
• Key takeaway: new technologies can make established players irrelevant overnight.
• The speaker emphasizes its relevance to “everything happening right now.”

Dan Wang: US–China competition

• Recommends a book focused on the future of US–China competition and the role of China.

Sahil Bloom, The Five Types of Wealth

• Encourages moving beyond “wealth as money.”
• Expands wealth into multiple dimensions:
  • Physical
  • Time
  • Social
  • Mental
• Promotes self-assessment: where you are now and where you want to improve.

Graham Allison, The Thucydides Trap and Kevin Rudd, The Avoidable War

• The Thucydides Trap:
  • Analyzes how rising and established powers have repeatedly moved toward major conflict.
  • Includes historical examples such as Athens vs. Sparta and later empires.
  • Framed as highly relevant to the US and China today.
• The Avoidable War:
  • Argues the US and China can avoid the trap and manage competition more sensibly.
• The video presents the books as complementary lenses on the biggest geopolitical issue of the 21st century.

Christopher Hibbert, Nelson, A Personal History

• Shared after a reread: a speaker plans to read Hibbert’s biography of Admiral Lord Nelson.
• Emphasis:
  • Nelson’s inspirational leadership
  • Tactical skill
• Positioned as especially valuable for leadership under pressure.

Virginia Evans, The Correspondent

• Described as lingering in memory weeks after finishing.
• Focuses on Sybille van Antwerp, who writes longhand letters to:
  • loved ones
  • children
  • random pen pals/authors
• Portrays connection and correspondence across time.

Jodi Kantor, How to Start

• Presented as a career-purpose book by a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist.
• Notes Kantor’s work exposing Harvey Weinstein and contributing to the Me Too movement.
• Frames How to Start as guidance for how young people find purpose amid:
  • massive disruption
  • technological upheaval

Lee Kuan Yew biography (Singapore)

• A contributor calls it extremely informative.
• Emphasis:
  • how Lee transformed Singapore
  • how he managed relationships with neighboring countries
• Helps explain how Southeast Asia shifted from conflict and distrust toward “strategic trust.”

John Kim, The Tao of Fundraising

• Recommended as a fundraising book grounded in:
  • psychology
  • emotion
  • relationships
• Emphasizes that fundraising isn’t only tactics and technical methods.

Jim Collins, What to Make of a Life

• The speaker has started it and wants insights from Collins’ long-term interviews and study.
• Includes the idea of navigating “life’s cliffs and fog” using stepping stones.

Francis Gavin, Thinking Historically

• Positioned as a guide to statecraft and strategy.
• Stresses how understanding politics works can change how you reason about the world.
• Notes a shift away from thinking in scarcity terms—suggesting many problems come from misframing the era.

Chung Ju-yung, Born of This Land, My Story

• Hyundai founder’s autobiography recommended for leadership shaped by:
  • persistence (“do it until nothing more can be done”)
• Also highlights an ambition to lift an entire country.
• Presented as increasingly relevant.

Presenters / Contributors Mentioned in Subtitles

• Dan Wang
• Sahil Bloom
• Graham Allison
• Kevin Rudd
• Francis Gavin
• Chung Ju-yung
• Jim Collins
• John Kim
• Jodi Kantor
• Virginia Evans
• Christopher Hibbert
• Lee Kuan Yew
• Joseph Schumpeter
• Admiral Lord Nelson (subject of the referenced biography)