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Military Reading List

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155 pointsespek0748 comments

Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, post 12 May 1780:

"I could fill Volumes with Descriptions of Temples and Palaces, Paintings, Sculptures, Tapestry, Porcelaine, &c. &c. &c. -- if I could have time. But I could not do this without neglecting my duty. The Science of Government it is my Duty to study, more than all other Studies Sciences: the Art of Legislation and Administration and Negotiation, ought to take Place, indeed to exclude in a manner all other Arts. I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Painting and Poetry Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine"

Always wanted to amass library of military history, strategy, diplomacy. Seems a great list to start. Also wondering if any list available regarding the more technical side. Jane's guides to aircraft carriers and the like. Thanks!

Kind of interesting that John wrote 'my' instead of 'our'.

There was no sort of feminism 200 years ago, so of course they were his sons and it was his duty. Most of the autobiographies of the 19th century were written by men who did not mention their wives, not because they did not love and honor their wives, but because it was understood that women did not have a public role, and scrutiny of the private business of great men was not welcome.

Also, many men were widowed and then remarried, perhaps multiple times. Many of my male ancestors from that time had 3 wives, no divorces, and at least 2 children from each wife. Some of them may have had illegitimate children, but those are much harder to verify genealogically.

Society becomes markedly different with contraception and modern obstetrics.

While this is technically true, in the particular case John Adams was married only once, to Abigail, with whom they had six children.

My spouse and I frequently refer to one child or the other as "that's your kid", usually when exhibiting a trait characteristic of one parent in particular.

John Adams may have been referring to a theoretical class of sons that may have included unborn future sons, which may or may not have been born to Abigail. He might have said to her that he wants his sons to share his values, just as he might suggest that her sons should share hers, and it would be coincidence that those two classes happen to be identical.

Or he might have believed that all sons were intrinsically their father's children, not their mother's.

It's a lot of implied meaning to derive from a possessive pronoun. I wouldn't make too much of it.

On the other hand, Abigail Adams was a remarkable outlier to this general trend. She was a feminist before there was really a feminist movement, and asked John to include women's concerns in the new American government. He largely declined. (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Adams)

I'm not sure what kind of technical you want, but most of the Army's publications are available publicly at [0] under Publications.

[0] https://armypubs.army.mil/default.aspx

I'm not sure if this is an official list. But for those interested, the top offices of the military do pretty regularly publish reading lists.

National Defense University (an actual part of the Department of Defense) has links to them all here.

* http://www.ndu.edu/Libraries/Professional-Military-Reading-L...

EDIT: Well, plenty of the links appear to actually be broken. But a quick Google can probably find those ones.

In my experience, military web sites are pretty spotty in terms of maintaining links. So for the past decade or so I've been keeping a "list of lists":

https://militaryreadinglists.com/

Always looking for new material if someone spots one I'm missing...

Nice list. Thanks!

No "Infanterie Greift An" ?

Yup, that's on the March 2014 revision of the Army Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course reading list, the April 2009 revision of the Army Chief of Infantry list, and the April 2011 revision of the Army Maneuver Center of Excellence list:

https://militaryreadinglists.com/books/1191-infantry-attacks

It's using the English "Infantry Attacks" translated title though as you can see.

For those interested, here's the Marine Corps reading list. (Edit: that's actually already in the list of links you posted, missed it). There are a lot of good books on leadership; I'd stick to the Officer lists.

http://guides.grc.usmcu.edu/usmcreadinglist

It's not on the list, but the best book I've ever read was One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick; current CEO of Endgame Inc.

Turn the Ship Around! is also a great book about leadership and empowering your subordinates.

One Bullet Away is great. It gives another perspective of the popular book Generation Kill.

I found some of the books on the Marine Corps lists somewhat propaganda, so one has to be careful to not follow their lists blindly.

Source: I was a reserve Marine grunt and have read some of the books

Agreed, but that's why you read the generals list and work your way down instead of the other way around.

If I hear one more gates of fire reference... my head is going to explode.

The official USMC reading list is at [1].

Some recommendations:

- "Warfighting (MCDP 1)". This is the official USMC document on how to run a war. It's more philosophical than tactical. It's about how to achieve a goal.

- "The Defense of Duffer's Drift". This little book on small-unit tactics and how not to screw them up is over a century old. It's little-known outside the military, and quite funny.

- "Boyd, The Fighter Pilot who Changed the Art of War". Boyd was a very strange guy. Top fighter pilot. Responsible for pushing through the F-16 and the A-10. (Yes, a fighter jock pushed the A-10 Warthog, which is a slow, heavily armored ground-attack aircraft.) Invented the OODA (Observe-Orient-Decide-Act) Loop, a way of thinking about decision making under uncertainty. It has some similarities to "agile" development, but is more suitable for combat and crisis. USAF hated him. USMC liked him.

- "Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife" - understanding counterinsurgency. This is a depressing read, but necessary.

[1] http://www.marines.mil/News/Messages/Messages-Display/Articl...

I assume many are being updated for 2017, googling for the Navy list gets a different address, with a message that they are upgrading.

Please don't hate me for what I'm about to say....

Wonder if any of these dod lists will add "The Art of the Deal" ;)

Leadership is key to everything you do. Everyone has to show it from the lowest rank to the highest. It is the most important characteristic of the US services.

This is the meaning of leadership:

http://msl-cdn.radiantforestllc.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/up...

Also I can highly recommend Turn The Ship Around! by L. David Marquest

http://www.davidmarquet.com

Stephen Bungay, Most Dangerous Enemy: excellent revisionist account of the Battle of Britain.

Anthony Beevor, Stalingrad

Anthony Beevor, Downfall: Berlin 1945

TN DuPuy, A Genius for War: explains how and why the German army was better

Von Manstein, Lost Victories: inside account by the author of the sickleschnitt, the recapture of Kharkov in 1943, and possibly the best product of the system DuPuy explains.

All armies work with raw material of the same quality. Given roughly equivalent tech, why did the German Army outperform? There are lessons for all kinds of organisations.

All the lists in this thread are insular. There was a time when officers across nations were expected to have read certain works. Things like the classics, shakespeare and The Art of War were universal even across languages. The books on military reading lists today may be inspirational stories, but the language is nothing in comparison. If they want officers able to speak and write well they need to assign books of a higher calibre.

Now perhaps it is TV that forms the common basis for communication between officers. Blackadder references are common in the UK armed forces. In the US TheSimpsons now forms a basis for shorthand expressions. I was at talk by an RCAF officer a while ago where Firefly and Wash were referenced in regards to information flows and workload. Perhaps today's officers are expected to be versed more in television than books.

The canon changes, as it must, with time. (To use one of your examples, 'The Art of War' didn't have an english translation until the early 20th century).

There's also a class issue involved, see for example Dorothy Sayer's "Busman's Honeymoon" and in particular the references Lord Peter and the local throw at each other.

For those interested I read many of these in 2016 and I've put some comments on my retrospective post

https://tselai.com/the-books-i-read-and-the-world-i-lived-in...

I think I would add "Team of Teams," co-authored by General Stanley A. McChrystal. It blew my mind when I read it a year ago at how relevant it is to working in tech, and was a fascinating read in improving how folks make decisions in complex environments.

What affiliation do you have with bookadvice / bookrepository ?

I would also strongly recommend "Small Unit Leadership: A Commonsense Approach": https://www.amazon.com/Small-Unit-Leadership-Commonsense-App...

The Marine Corps reading list is really good, I read a number of books from the list when I was in and have continued reading from the list after leaving service:

http://guides.grc.usmcu.edu/usmcreadinglist

David McCullough's (author of book #1 - 1776) thoughts on Trump prior to the nomination.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eimt7yz0ID8

In what way "Professional"? Why have these books been picked? By whom?

The list does have good books on it but the lack-of-context around this list leaves me confused.

"Professional" probably in terms of "professional development", i.e. the ideas about character and historical knowledge deemed necessary by the military. I think that each branch has its own reading list, and the book lists are "picked" and revised by the most senior leadership (and also most likely their staff). For example, the Commandant of the Marine Corps's reading list (https://www.usmcofficer.com/marine-corps-knowledge/commandan...), which includes books for each rank for both enlisted and officers.

Yes, but this list offers no such context.

1776 also has an amazing unabridged audiobook read by the author. David McCullough has a great speaking voice that will keep you interested in the material.

in his book "Doing Time Like A Spy: How the CIA Taught Me to Survive and Thrive in Prison" by John Kiriakou, he tells about the "20 rules" taught to him by the cia to survive in an environment like prison. he briefly discusses these 20 rules in interviews. i dont have the book, does anyone happen to know what these 20 rules are?

Thucidides (peloponesian wars)

How a democracy can turn into an expansive military dictature (Athenes) to please the wealthy and make a dictature look good (Sparta) and at the end Helen civilization collapse.

May I hazard that USA is looking very much like Athen?

Ho! And the guy who poisoned with his alt-truth democracy with a fascist lies named Republic was Plato.

Sorry. I used to read and write old greek.

It includes Starship Troopers? ok...

I would suggest adding The March to the Sea and Beyond: Sherman's Troops in the Savannah and Carolinas Campaigns

it was the textbook for the civil war part of my History of American Military Affairs class back when I was a student. Very easy read. I think I loaned my copy to someone and never got it back, I may have to buy it again.

https://www.amazon.com/March-Sea-Beyond-Carolinas-Campaigns/...

Starship Troopers was written by Robert Heinlein, who attended a service academy and was an officer before WWII. The fact that it's science fiction somewhat obstructs the satire present, namely citizens' relationship to war and violence as a national value. The movies are basically entirely unrelated in this way.

e: Heinlein wasn't in the Navy during WWII.

I know that, and have a well worn copy of the book myself. Was just surprised to see a work of fiction, no matter how insightful, on a "Military Reading List". But I guess I can see the point.

I'm fairly certain it isn't even the only one actually. Sorry if my tone came off as nitpick-y/correction-y, cheers!

"The Red Badge of Courage" was there, as well.

Yup, official military reading lists include a fair bit of fiction. Recent ones that I can think of are Ghost Fleet, Starship Troopers, Enders Game, Red Badge of Courage, The Orphan Master's Son, The Kite Runner.

The really nice thing is that since many of those lists are refreshed yearly, they are an ongoing fountain of interesting books. Good stuff!

I could entirely see Ender's Game in any Military Reading List (as a veteran myself). It shows the horrors one goes through in war and how the ends might not always justify the means.

The movie is full of satire of jingoism. This puts it in contrast with the book which is more earnest in its elevation of service.

And yet there are some other valid and interesting points there. For example, the book makes a very strong argument as to why the military should not get involved into politics - quite relevant for any democratic country that wants to remain such.

Anyone reading Starship Troopers may also want to read Joe Haldeman's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forever_War of which Heinlein apparently said [it] "may be the best future war story I've ever read!"

However, given its fairly pessimistic view of war, it may not appear on many military reading lists.

Ender's Game, another sci-fi book turned movie, is also recommended reading for military personnel including the Marine corps - http://guides.grc.usmcu.edu/content.php?pid=408059&sid=57756...

First thing when I got to the list was look for my favorite sci-fi authors and none came up: Asimov, Clarke, Vinge, Card...I feel like those stories belong.

There's a lot of grossness in that book, here's a podcast about it: http://www.idontevenownatelevision.com/2016/12/26/071-enders...

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