Service Reading List: Marine Corps Reading List
The books on the Commandant’s Professional Reading List were selected as most pertinent to critical thinking and professional development at each rank.
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The Killer Angels, first published in 1974, is a historical fiction novel about the Battle of Gettysburg, fought in July 1863. It tells the story of the days leading up to the battle and the battle itself through the perspectives of key combatants on both […]
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The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations
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In a classic work, Samuel P. Huntington challenges most of the old assumptions and ideas on the role of the military in society. Stressing the value of the military outlook for American national policy, Huntington has performed the distinctive task of developing a general theory […]
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How the US uses economic embargoes and financial tools as weapons against terrorist groups and “rogue states” such as North Korea, Iran and Syria. Juan Zarate, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is a former federal prosecutor who joined the […]
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Battle Cry is a fictional novel set during World War II, focusing on the experiences of a group of U.S. Marines in the Pacific Theater. The book follows the 6th Marine Regiment as they train, deploy, and fight through some of the war’s most challenging […]
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The author recounts the simple but powerful lessons he learned as a United States Marine: the core values we must embrace if we are to be successful as individuals and as a nation. Only by incorporating such time-honored Marine qualities as pride, discipline, courage, brotherhood, […]
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Examines the psychological devastation of war by comparing the soldiers of Homer’s Iliad with Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Although the Iliad was written 27 centuries ago, it has much to teach about combat trauma, as do the more recent, compelling voices and […]
Book Description:
Biography of Abraham Lincoln, centered on his mastery of men and how it shaped the most significant presidency in the nation’s history. Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each of his “rivals” energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and […]
Book Description:
The War That Ended Peace brings vividly to life the military leaders, politicians, diplomats, bankers, and the extended, interrelated family of crowned heads across Europe who failed to stop the descent into war: in Germany, the mercurial Kaiser Wilhelm II and the chief of the […]
Book Description:
Recounts the momentous episodes that preceded the American Civil War, is a chronicle of the war itself, and includes the author’s view on such matters as the slavery expansion issue in the 1850s, the origins of the Republican Party, the causes of secession, internal dissent […]
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“Rifleman Dodd” is a novel written on the account of a British foot soldier who encounters impossible odds and extremely difficult challenges during the Peninsular War which took place around 1810. This story combines historical fact and adds a personal touch by incorporating fictional characters […]
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This is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant-in the blink of an eye-that actually aren’t as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why […]
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John Boyd, considered by many to be the greatest U.S. fighter pilot ever, is the man who, in simulated air-to-air combat, defeated every challenger in less than forty seconds. His manual of fighter tactics changed the way every air force in the world flies and […]
Book Description:
Biography of LtGen Victor “Brute” Krulak (USMC, Ret.). He went on daring spy missions, was badly wounded, pioneered the use of amphibious vehicles and use of helicopters in warfare, and masterminded the invasion of Okinawa. In Vietnam, he developed a holistic military strategy in stark […]
Book Description:
Examines 9 landmark battles from ancient to modern times from Salamis, where outnumbered Greeks devastated the slave army of Xerxes, to Cortes’s conquest of Mexico to the Tet offensive. Looking beyond popular explanations such as geography or superior technology, the author argues that it is […]
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COMMAND CULTURE: OFFICER EDUCATION IN THE U.S. ARMY AND THE GERMAN ARMED FORCES, 1901-1940, & THE CONSEQUENCES FOR WORLD WAR II
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The United States Army and the German Armed Forces traveled different paths to select, educate, and promote their officers in the crucial time before WWII. The author explores the paradox that in Germany officers came from a closed authoritarian society but received an extremely open […]
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DEFEAT INTO VICTORY: BATTLING JAPAN IN BURMA AND INDIA 1942-1945
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This detailed autobiography by British Field Marshal Viscount Slim (1891-1970) is a first-person account of the retaking of Burma during World War II. In this book, Slim honestly examines his decisions as a leader and consequences of those decisions, both good and bad. Defeat into […]
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FORGOTTEN WARRIORS: THE 1ST PROVISIONAL MARINE BRIGADE, THE CORPS ETHOS, AND THE KOREAN WAR
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At the outbreak of the Korean War, the Marine Corps was ordered to deploy an air-ground brigade in less than ten days, even though no such brigade existed at the time. Assembled from the woefully under stength 1st Marine Division and 1st Marine Air Wing […]
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HOT, FLAT, AND CROWDED: WHY WE NEED A GREEN REVOLUTION AND HOW IT CAN RENEW AMERICA
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A provocative look at the biggest challenge facing us today–our hot, flat and crowded world. Climate change and rapid population growth mean that it’s no longer possible for businesses (or the rest of us) to keep doing things the same old way. Things are going […]
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Examines the moral issues surrounding military theory, war crimes, and the spoils of war. The author studies a variety of conflicts over the course of history, as well as the testimony of those who have been most directly involved—participants, decision makers, and victims. He specifically […]
Book Description:
This volume of comparative essays studies major military innovations in the 1920s and 1930s and explores differences in innovating exploitation by the seven major military powers. It investigates how and why innovation occurred or did not occur, and explains much of the strategic and operative […]
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RIPPLES OF BATTLE: HOW WARS OF THE PAST STILL DETERMINE HOW WE FIGHT, HOW WE LIVE, AND HOW WE THINK
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The effects of war refuse to remain local: they persist through the centuries, sometimes in unlikely ways far removed from the military arena. The author explains how the Athenian defeat at Delium in 424 BC brought tactical innovations to infantry fighting; it also assured the […]
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THE AGE OF THE UNTHINKABLE: WHY THE NEW WORLD DISORDER CONSTANTLY SURPRISES US AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT
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Presents a new model for understanding our dangerously unpredictable world. Drawing upon history, economics, complexity theory, psychology, immunology, and the science of networks, the author describes a new landscape of inherent unpredictability–and remarkable, wonderful possibility.
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Book Description:
A philosophical meditation on what warfare does to us and an examination of the reasons soldiers act as they do. The author explains the attractions of battle—the adrenaline rush, the esprit de corps—and analyzes the many rationalizations made by combat troops to justify their actions. […]
Book Description:
History of the Korean War written from the perspective of those who fought it. Partly drawn from official records, operations journals, and histories, it is based largely on the compelling personal narratives of small-unit commanders and their troops. As Americans and North Koreans continue to […]
Book Description:
This book looks into the future to provide some intriguing answers about the ways Western armed forces—which have traditionally been trained to fight conventional, not guerrilla, warfare—may need to evolve.
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Title:
DERELICTION OF DUTY: LYNDON JOHNSON, ROBERT MCNAMARA, THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF, AND THE LIES THAT LED TO VIETNAM
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Analysis of how and why the United States became involved in an all-out war in Southeast Asia. Based on transcripts and personal accounts of crucial meetings, confrontations and decisions, it re-creates what happened and why. The book focuses on: President Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, General […]
Book Description:
Overview of the history and an account of Henry Kissinger’s negotiations with world leaders. The author describes how the art of diplomacy has created the world in which we live, and how America’s approach to foreign affairs has always differed vastly from that of other […]
Title:
HOW WARS END: WHY WE ALWAYS FIGHT THE LAST BATTLE: A HISTORY OF AMERICAN INTERVENTION FROM WORLD WAR I TO AFGHANISTAN
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This book recreates the choices that presidents and their advisers have confronted during the final stages of each major conflict from WWI through Iraq. The author “puts readers in the room” with U.S. officials as they make decisions that affect millions of lives and shape […]
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Systematic account of force employment’s role and how this account holds up under rigorous, multi-method testing. The results challenge a wide variety of standard views, from current expectations for a revolution in military affairs, to mainstream scholarship in international relations, and orthodox interpretations of modern […]
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The book is a major contribution to the general theory of strategy; it makes sense of the strategic history of the twentieth century, and provides understanding of what that strategic history implies for the century to come.
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This book offers compelling proof that, as Clemenceau put it, “War is too important to leave to the generals.” By examining the shared leadership traits of four politicians (Abraham Lincoln, Georges Clemenceau, Winston Churchill, and David Ben-Gurion) who triumphed in extraordinarily varied military campaigns, the […]
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This book explains the complexities of a constitutional government—its political structure and principles based on the inherent rights of man. Scholars have long regarded this work as a milestone in political science and a classic of American political theory. It is commonly referred to the […]
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This book brings to life the people and events that led up to WWI. The author clearly articulates just how the war started, why, and why it could have been stopped, but wasn’t.
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Title:
THE LANDMARK THUCYDIDES: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR
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Comprehensive guide to the Peloponnesian War. It includes several maps, brief informative appendices by classical scholars, explanatory marginal notes on each page, an index of unprecedented subtlety, and numerous other useful features.
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Book Description:
A look at the historian’s craft as well as a strong argument for why a historical consciousness should matter to us today. For example: What is history and why should we study it? Is there such a thing as historical truth? Is history a science? […]
Book Description:
From inflation to the Federal Reserve, taxes to the budget deficit, the author walks us through how the economy really works and its role in our everyday life. Contains plain-English explanations of important economic terms, concepts, events, historical figures and major players.
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Title:
The Revenge of Geography : What the map tells us about coming conflicts and the battle against fate
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Book Description:
This book offers a new prism through which to view global upheavals and to understand what may lie ahead for continents and countries around the world. The author builds on the insights, discoveries, and theories of great geographers and geopolitical thinkers of the past to […]
