Edward Anderson's Military History Page

My Favorite 11 Military History Books

These are in roughly the chronological order of the topic covered.

  1. John Keegan. A History of Warfare.  From the dawn of civilization to the present, war has always been there, but its form has changed considerably.  
  2. Thucydides,  The Peloponnesian War.  On the other hand, some things have not changed that much.  Athens here is much like France during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Period.  There is much to admire in the culture, but much to dislike about their drive towards hegemony. 
  3. Michael Howard, War in European History.  From 1600 to the present in 165 pages.
  4. Jeff Sharaa, Rise to Rebellion.  There really aren't any great history books on what could be termed "How to Win a War with no Money and Less Political Support."  But in this novel gives some idea of how George Washington pulled it off, partly due to the astounding capability of the British Parliament to annoy elements of almost every class, creed, and section in America.  I'd be happier, however, if Keegan would take a look at this war beyond his short treatment in Fields of Battle.
  5. Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs.  The best war memoirs in the English language written by the first modern general of the first modern war.  Also includes some interesting insights into the Mexican War, in which Grant also participated.  He was also quite an interesting character. As Col. Theodore Lyman described him, "He habitually wears an expression as if he had determined to drive his head through a brick wall, and was about to do it. I have much confidence in him."
  6. Bruce Catton, The Civil War.  Shelby Foote gets more press, but Catton writes better.  He is a bit more sympathetic to the Union than the Confederacy.
  7. Michael Shaara, The Killer Angels.  No apologies here for this being a novel.  This is the American Iliad.  Robert E. Lee takes the role of Achilles when for once he let his pride overcome his judgement.  
  8. John Keegan, The First World War.  Keegan has managed to take a history of what I thought was the saddest, most depressingly monotonous war in modern times and made it into a page-turner.  Nothing else compares.
  9. John Keegan, The Second World War.  Not nearly as interesting as his book on the First World War from a literary viewpoint.  However, interest in World War II has recently peaked, and Keegan is authoritative and comprehensive without being dull or shallow.
  10. Martin van Creveld, The Sword and the Olive: A Critical History of the Israeli Defense Forces.  A must-read for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of modern military conflict or its best practitioner in recent history.  It is light on the diplomacy and politics behind the Israeli Conflict.  If this is your interest, please consider Michael B. Oren's Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East..
  11. David Hackworth, About Face.  Okay, so he's Col. Kurtz, but it reveals a lot about the US experience in Vietnam.  (Thanks to Geoff Parker for this one!)  Other great ground level histories include Harold Moore's We Were Soldiers Once and Young, also about Vietnam, and Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers, about World War II.

The Four Big Books on Military Theory for the Layman

These are listed in the chronological order of when they were written.

  1. Sun Tsu, The Art of War.  It's good to be stronger than your opponent, but it's even better to be sneakier.
  2. Carl von Clausewitz, On War.  The guide to modern land warfare.  All modern armies are its intellectual descendents.  (Of course, we may currently be shifting into another phase of history.)
  3. Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783.  This book is why we have more aircraft carriers than the rest of the world's navies combined. 
  4. Archer Jones. The Art of War in the Western World.  Keegan tells you what happened in his History of Warfare.  Jones explains in his own magnum opus how people went about it, both at the strategic and tactical level. Be warned, however.  It is a substantial book, big enough to be used to kill snakes if necessary.  (Hey, I live in Texas!)

Military History Links of Interest

 

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This page was last updated on December 21, 1999.
Email: edanderson@mail.utexas.edu