What to do this weekend? Well, here is the grandmother of all military reading lists

Here is a summary by a couple of New Zealand academics of the books most commonly listed in military reading lists. Anyone who has read all of them deserves some kind of prize. Top 60 Recommended Leadership Texts – Global Reading Lists f Code The Art of War – Sun Tzu 23 ML The Face ...

By Thomas E. Ricks

December 13, 2013, 3:45 PM

Here is a summary by a couple of New Zealand academics of the books most commonly listed in military reading lists.

Anyone who has read all of them deserves some kind of prize.

Top 60 Recommended Leadership Texts - Global Reading Lists

Here is a summary by a couple of New Zealand academics of the books most commonly listed in military reading lists.

Anyone who has read all of them deserves some kind of prize.

Top 60 Recommended Leadership Texts – Global Reading Lists	f	Code
The Art of War – Sun Tzu	23	ML
The Face of Battle – John Keegan	22	ML
Defeat into Victory – William Slim	15	ML-Biog
The Challenge of Command: Reading for Military Excellence – Roger Nye	13	ML
We Were Soldiers Once and Young – Harold Moore & James Galloway	13	ML-Biog
The Mask of Command – John Keegan	13	ML
Masters of War – Michael Handel	12	ML
Supreme Command – Eliot Cohen	11	ML
Command in War – Martin Van Creveld	10	ML
The Killer Angels – Michael Shaara	9	Fiction
Company Commander – Charles McDonald	9	ML
Dereliction of Duty – H.R. McMaster	9	ML
Battle Studies – Ardant Du Picq	9	ML
This Kind of War: A Study in Unpreparedness – T.R. Fehrenbach	9	ML
Band of Brothers – Steven Ambrose	8	History
Acts of War – Richard Holmes	8	ML
Thinking in Time: Uses of History for Decision Makers – R. Neustadt & E. May	8	Leadership
In Defence of Duffer’s Drift – Ernest Dunlop Swinton	8	ML
Leadership: The Warrior’s Art – Christopher Kolenda	7	ML
Panzer Leader – Hans Guderian	7	ML-Biog
Diplomacy – Henry Kissinger	7	History
The Prince – Niccolo Machiavelli	7	Lead
Small Unit Leadership: A Common-sense Approach – Dandridge Malone	7	ML
Once an Eagle – Anton Myrer	7	Fiction
The Forgotten Soldier – Guy Sajer	7	ML-Biog
History of the Peloponnesian War – Thucydides	7	History
Red Badge of Courage – Stephen Crane	6	Fiction
On The Psychology of Military Incompetence – Norman Dixon	6	ML
Leadership Without Easy Answers – Ronald Heifetz	6	Leadership
Follow Me: The Human Element in Leadership – Aubrey Newman	6	Leadership
One Hundred Days: Memoir of the Falklands Battle Group Commander – Sandy Woodward	6	ML-Biog
Caesar’s War Commentaries – Julius Caesar	6	ML
Into the Storm: A Study in Command – Tom Clancy & Frederick Franks	5	ML
Knight’s Cross: A Life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel – David Fraser	5	ML-Biog
The General’s War – Michael Gordon & Bernard Trainor	5	ML
Starship Troopers – Robert Heinlein	5	Fiction
Platoon Leader: A Memoir of Command in Battle – James McDonough	5	ML-Biog
The Anatomy of Courage – Lord Moran	5	ML
War As I Knew It – George S. Patton	5	ML-Biog
My American Journey – Colin Powell & Joseph Persico	5	ML-Biog
Infantry Attacks – Erwin Rommel	5	ML-Biog
Hope is Not a Method – Gordon Sullivan & Michael Harper	5	Lead/ML
It Doesn’t Take a Hero – Norman Schwarzkopf & Peter Petre	5	ML-Biog
George C. Marshall: Soldier-Statesman of the American Century – Mark Stoler	5	ML-Biog
Good to Great – Jim Collins	5	Leadership
Battle Leadership – Adolf von Schell	5	ML
Eisenhower: Soldier and President – Steven Ambrose	4	ML-Biog
On Becoming a Leader – Warren Bennis	4	Leadership
The Military Maxims of Napoleon – Napoleon Bonaparte	4	ML
The Starfish and the Spider – Ori Brafman & Rod Beckstrom	4	Leadership
Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card	4	Fiction
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey	4	PD
A Genius for War: A Life of General George S. Patton – Carlo D’Este	4	ML-Biog
The Instruction of Frederick the Great for His Generals – Frederick the Great	4	ML
The Generalship of Alexander the Great – J.F.C. Fuller	4	ML-Biog
Commander in Chief – Eric Larrabee	4	ML
The Soldier’s Load and the Mobility of a Nation – S.L.A. Marshall	4	ML
Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command in Future War – S.L.A. Marshall	4	ML
Reveries – Maurice, Comte De Saxe	4	ML
Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character – Jonathon Shay	4	Psychology

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1