Posted: 3/21/2011 10:28:26 AM EDT
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The point of this thread is to have a source for military professional development reading material that other arfcommers have found helpful or insightful, so post your favorites and your cautionary tales for books that people shouldn't waste their time on.
Feel free to post the super-obscure stuff since we have some 1,000 lb brains on this board that might enjoy that book on Prussian military uniform shoulder-board development as much as you did... On the other hand this doesn't have to be a list of purely academic works. I'll start with what I'm currently reading: Monsoon by Robert D. Kaplan, on how the US will be involved in the Indian Ocean area in the future (It's cheaper on Kindle) http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl/9781400067466.html |
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"Defeat Into Victory" by Field Marshal The Right Honourable The Viscount Slim, KG, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GBE, KStJ, DSO, MC ISBN 0815410220 "Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway" by Parnell and Tully ISBN 9781574889239 (Thanks Dport!) "Masters Of The Art Of Command" by Blumenson ISBN 9780306804038 |
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If you can find it...a great backgrounder on WWII
An Unknown Future and A Doubtful Present: Writing the Victory Plan of 1941 by Kirkpatrick. Hosted here, for FREE! Thanks, US Government! An excellent backgrounders on Korea... The War for Korea, 1945-1950: A House Burning by Millet ISBN 0700613935 East of Chosin: Entrapment and Breakout in Korea, Appleman 0890964653 One of my favorites on Vietnam and an excellent look at the successes and failure of US mentoring and training... Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN by Wiest ISBN 9780814794678 |
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OK, I'm going to try and hit some of the less obvious - and fabulously good ones.
The Spanish War: An American Epic 1898 G. J. A. O'Toole. Norton: 1984. Great readable history of the Spanish-American War. With Kitchener to Khartoum G. W Steevens. Wm. Blackwood and Sons: 1899. Hard to find, fantastic, long out of print first-hand account of Kitchener's relief expedition to Khartoum. The General and the Jaguar: Pershing's Hunt for Pancho Villa. Eileen Welsome. Little, Brown, and COmpany: 2006. Good narrative of American intervention and the punitive expedition. One Hundred Days: Memoirs of the Falklands Battle Group Commander. Adm. Sandy Woodward. Naval Institute Press: 1997. A very sanitized, but still fascinating account of Operation Corporate. 3 Commando Brigade in the Falklands: No Picnic. Major General Julian Howard Atherden Thompson, CB, OBE. Pen and Sword: 2009. The perfect counterpoint to the above book, by a man who approaches a force of nature. The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia. Peter Hopkirk. Kodansha International: 1990. The authoritative book on the struggle between the UK and Russia during the Victorian era in Central Asia. The Boer War. Thomas Pakenham. Avon:1979. The authoritative narrative history of the Boer War. States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China. Theda Skocpol. Cambridge University Press: 1979. Because theory is the bedrock upon which the foundations of knowledge are built.. |
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This doesn't have to be a purely academic list. Some of my current light reading (I use the term light to define something that I would read willingly, ie not a part of a graduate-level curriculum):
To Kingdom Come: An Epic Saga of Survival in the Air War Over Germany by Robert J. Mrazek Neptune's Inferno: The US Navy at Guadalcanal by James D. Hornfisher Known and Unknown by Donald Rumsfeld A Dawn Like Thunder: The True Story of Torpedo Squadron Eight by Robert J. Mrazek |
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Quoted: If you can find it...a great backgrounder on WWII An Unknown Future and A Doubtful Present: Writing the Victory Plan of 1941 by Kirkpatrick. Hosted here, for FREE! Thanks, US Government! An excellent backgrounders on Korea... The War for Korea, 1945-1950: A House Burning by Millet ISBN 0700613935 East of Chosin: Entrapment and Breakout in Korea, Appleman 0890964653 One of my favorites on Vietnam and an excellent look at the successes and failure of US mentoring and training... Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN by Wiest ISBN 9780814794678 Here's a PDF version for anyone that is interested. |
| I would strongly recommend The Black Swan By Nassim Nicholas Taleb. It might completely change your way of thinking about unpredictable events and human reactions. I'd say it's a must read for anyone in intelligence, emergency management or a position of command in the military. |
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Quoted:
I would strongly recommend The Black Swan By Nassim Nicholas Taleb. It might completely change your way of thinking about unpredictable events and human reactions. I'd say it's a must read for anyone in intelligence, emergency management or a position of command in the military. +1 Great book, really changed my perspective on a lot of things. |
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Just two off the top of my head. They're more entertaining reads than purely educational, but both offer some excellent information on their respective engagements, as well as real tangible examples of the humans experiences of said engagements.
"Crossing the Rhine: Breaking into Nazi Germany 1944-45, the greatest airborne battles in history" by Lloyd Clark "Gates of Fire: an epic novel of the Battle of Thermopylae" by Stephen Pressfield I highly recommend "Gates of Fire". It is a fictionalized story but is informationally accurate. It's full of great exposition on Spartan history and culture, told through the eyes of a boy from a neighboring city-state who aspires to become a member of the Spartan military fraternity. It follows his journey into Sparta, entrance into military life, and the events leading up to and including the famed battle of the 300. Check this shit out, it's entertaining and informative(at least I thought so). |
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This looks like a good start: http://smallwarsjournal.com/reading-list/ |
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Found this treasure-trove courtesy of Blue Force Tracker
National Security Professional's Reading List |
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Quoted: Found this treasure-trove courtesy of Blue Force Tracker National Security Professional's Reading List Excellent link |