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 ...
Here is a summary by a couple of New Zealand academics of the books most commonly listed in 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 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 |
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 is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1
More from Foreign Policy

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak
Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage
The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine
The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

The Masterminds
Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.