Depends on what you're wanting to focus on, but a great start would be Rules for Rulers by Arnold Meltsner, Freakonomics by Levitt & Dubner, CIA: legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner, confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins are some that I started early.

CGP Grey did a great job synthesizing Rules for Rulers on YouTube as well.

Also a big think video Why Sociopaths Rise to Power

Also Veritasium has a great video on game theory

Hope that helps!

[–] caveman@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago

Economic hit man I read already and it's good. Another nice one that I've read was "Silk roads" from Peter Frankopan