The Ego and His Own

German philosopher Max Stirner's Der Einzige und sein Eigentum, sometimes translated as The Unique and Its Property, attacks Christianity and traditional morality along with humanism, liberalism, utilitarianism and much of the early socialist movement. In their place Stirner puts an amoral egoism centered on what he calls ownness. The first part maps the stages of a life, from childhood through youth to adulthood, onto history, arguing that modern people remain ruled by fixed ideas or spooks such as religion and the nation, and faulting Ludwig Feuerbach for keeping Christian values without God. The second part turns to freedom through egoism. This English version is Steven T. Byington's translation, first published in 1907.

Stephane Grand, managing partner of S.J. Grand Financial and Tax Advisory, chose it because, as he put it, every entrepreneur has a little of the anarchist in him.