The longlist for the 2026 Financial Times and Standard Chartered Business Book of the Year Award features 15 titles exploring the intersections of business, technology, and society, including works by three former winners. This marks the 22nd edition of the prize, which carries a £30,000 award supported for the first time by Standard Chartered alongside FT owner Nikkei. The honor seeks to recognize books offering insightful and engaging perspectives on contemporary business challenges.

Among the contenders are William Cohan, Liaquat Ahamed, and Sebastian Mallaby, each returning with new works that examine various facets of power, innovation, and societal impact in business.

In the power category, Liaquat Ahamed revisits historical financial crises in *1873: The First Great Depression and the Making of the Modern World*, focusing on the actors behind the first global financial downturn and its relevance to today’s geoeconomic and financial risks. Ahamed, who previously won in 2009 for *Lords of Finance*, applies a historical lens to contemporary issues.

William Cohan’s forthcoming *Money to Burn: Leon Black, Apollo and the Remaking of Wall Street* profiles the co-founder of Apollo Global Management and delves into Black’s rise and fall, highlighting his ties to the disgraced Jeffrey Epstein. Cohan’s earlier work, *The Last Tycoons*, earned the award in 2007. Also in this category is former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s memoir, *Streetwise: Getting To and Through Goldman Sachs*, offering reflections on his journey from Brooklyn to the apex of Wall Street. Gabriel Sherman’s *Bonfire of the Murdochs* examines the turbulent battle for control of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, chronicling a significant and bitter family succession struggle.

The innovation-themed selections include Sebastian Mallaby’s *The Infinity Machine: Dennis Hassabis, DeepMind and the Quest for Superintelligence*, a detailed account of the Google-backed AI company’s pioneering efforts and accompanying controversies. Mallaby, awarded the prize in 2016 for his Alan Greenspan biography, received extensive access to Hassabis for this work.

Marc Levinson’s *The UPS Man: James E Casey and the Creation of Modern Logistics* narrates the development of global logistics through the life of UPS founder James E Casey, portraying his entrepreneurial ingenuity. Aimee Donnellan’s *Off the Scales* examines the discovery and development of the weight-loss drug Ozempic by Novo Nordisk, tracking the medical, commercial, and societal consequences of this innovation.

Katrina Manson explores the militarization of AI in *Project Maven: A Marine Colonel, His Team, and the Dawn of AI Warfare*, revealing the Pentagon’s covert efforts to integrate artificial intelligence into future weaponry. Meanwhile, Anja Shortland’s *We Know You Can Pay a Million* (published as *Dark Screens* in the US) investigates the growing threat of cybercrime, focusing on hacking and ransomware operations impacting governments and corporations.

Books addressing the broader societal effects of business include Jill Lepore’s *The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State*, which traces the historical rise of automation and cautions against its potential to undermine democracy and human rights. Paris Marx’s *Hyperscale: Ambition, Power and the Relentless Rise of Data Empires* takes an environmental and human-focused look at the expansion of data centers and challenges the hype surrounding artificial intelligence.

Alex Perry’s *Blood Will Flow* uses a 2021 Islamist attack in Mozambique as a lens to examine the destructive influence of the oil and gas industry. Hazel Sheffield’s *Frontierlands: Britain’s Survival in the Making* highlights innovative responses from economically marginalized regions of the UK to climate and economic challenges. Joe Studwell’s *How Africa Works: Success and Failure on the World’s Last Developmental Frontier* investigates how select African nations are leveraging economic and demographic shifts to advance manufacturing-led growth, following up on his earlier work on Asia’s economic development.

The judging panel for 2026 brings in three new members from diverse sectors—Standard Chartered COO Tanuj Kapilashrami, ITV CEO Carolyn McCall, and Pimco CEO Emmanuel Roman—alongside returning judges chaired by Financial Times editor Roula Khalaf. Other judges include notable figures from finance, entrepreneurship, academia, and culture.

The shortlist will be announced on October 6, with the winner revealed on December 2.