Billionaire, Nerd, Savior, King: Bill Gates and His Quest To Shape Our World

Das (finance editor, New York Times) bases her in-depth biography of Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates upon published material and numerous interviews she conducted, some of which are unattributed because the interviewees insisted upon anonymity. Her clearly written, well-organized book notes Gates’s accomplishments as a technocrat, businessman, and philanthropist. Das eschews summarizing his character herself. Instead, she addresses changing perceptions of Gates by presenting her findings without taking sides. For example, her book shows that early on he was widely admired as a technocratic innovator, but some grew to resent him and viewed him as a robber baron when Microsoft fought to maintain its industry dominance. This book shows that Gates’s generous philanthropic efforts won both plaudits and criticism, and it spends considerable time describing Gates’s quirky personality, his marriage to and divorce from Melinda, and his long but eventually cooling friendship with billionaire investor Warren Buffett. There’s also mention of his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.