Right now I’m reading three books. Well, two, and one other one got packed away somewhere, but I’ll find it. I’m reading Eric Hoffer’s The True Believer (my lunchtime book), Conversations with Eric Sevareid, and 1776 by David McCullough (the one that got packed away.) Hoffer’s book says more with less than pretty much any book I’ve read. I will get a post or six out of it. The Sevareid book is a collection of transcripts from hour-long interviews he had with VIPs in the early-to-mid 1960’s. It is quite surprising to me the parallels between that decade and this one. I’ll get some mileage out of it, too. I’m only a few chapters into 1776, but it’s already fascinating.
However, my reading list just got a LOT longer. Billy Budd has posted the Marine Corps Commandant’s Reading List at American Dinosaur. Hoo boy. That’s gonna take a while.
Here it is:
PVT/PFC/LCPL:
– A Message to Garcia, HUBBARD
– Blackhawk Down, BOWDEN
– Rifleman Dodd, FORESTER
– The Defense of Duffer’s Drift, SWINTON
– The Killer Angels, SHAARA
– The Soldier’s Load, MARSHALL
– U.S. ConstitutionCPL/SGT:
– Battle Leadership, VON SCHELL
– Fields of Fire, WEBB
– Flags of Our Fathers, BRADLEY
– Gates of Fire, PRESSFIELD
– The Bridge at Dong Ha, MILLER
– The Last Full Measure, SHAARA
– The Red Badge of Courage, CRANE
– The United States Marines: A History, SIMMONS
– Tip of the Spear, MICHAELS
– With the Old Breed at Pelelieu and Okinawa, SLEDGESSGT:
– Attacks!, ROMMEL
– Pegasus Bridge, AMBROSE
– Phase Line Green – The Battle for Hue 1968, WARR
– The Arab Mind, PATAI
– The Art of War, SUN TZU (GRIFFIN)
– The Forgotten Soldier, SAJER
– The Village, WEST
– This Kind of War, FEHRENBACH
– We Were Soldiers Once, MOORE AND GALLOWAYGYSGT:
– Breakout, RUSS
– Citizen Soldiers, AMBROSE
– Command in War, VAN CREVELD
– My American Journey, POWELL
– Navajo Weapon, MCCLAIN
– Savage Wars of Peace, BOOT
– Semper Fidelis: The History of the U.S. Marine Corps, MILLET
– Unaccustomed to Fear, WILLCOCKMSGT/1STSGT:
– Band of Brothers, AMBROSE
– Bayonet Forward!, CHAMBERLAIN
– Defeat into Victory, SLIM
– Seven Pillars of Wisdom, LAWRENCE
– Strong Men Armed, LECKIE
– The Face of Battle, KEEGAN
– The Mask of Command, KEEGAN
– War in the Shadows, ASPREYMGYSGT/SGTMAJ:
– First to Fight, KRULAK
– Fortune Favors the Brave, MYERS
– No Bended Knee, TWINING
– Reminiscences of a Marine, LEJEUNEWO-1:
– Leading Marines: MCWP 6-11
– Small Wars Manual
– The Armed Forces Officer, MARSHALL
– The Quiet American, GREENE
– Victory at High Tide, HEINLMIDSHIPMEN AND OFFICER CANDIDATES:
– A Message to Garcia, HUBBARD
– Beat to Quarters, FORESTER
– Chesty, HOFFMAN
– The United States Marines: A History, SIMMONS
– Warfighting MCDP 12NDLT:
– Cleared Hot, STOFFEY
– Chancellorsville, SEARS
– Fields of Fire, WEBB
– On Infantry, ENGLISH AND GUDMUNDSSON
– Rifleman Dodd, FORESTER
– The Arab Mind, PATAI
– The Easter Offensive, TURLEY
– The Face of Battle, KEEGAN
– This Kind of War, FEHRENBACH1STLT/CWO-2:
– A People Numerous and Armed, SHY
– All for the Union, RHODES
– Attacks!, ROMMEL
– Company Commander, MACDONALD
– Once an Eagle, MYRER
– Reminiscences of a Marine, LEJEUNE
– The Forgotten Soldier, SAJER
– The Storm of Steel, JUNGER
– The Ugly American, LEDERER AND BURDICK
– Utmost Savagery, ALEXANDERCAPT/CWO-3:
– Command in War, VAN CREVELD
– Eagle Against the Sun, SPECTER
– Field Artillery and Firepower, BAILEY
– Fields of Battle, KEEGAN
– From Beirut to Jerusalem, FRIEDMAN
– Goodbye Darkness, MANCHESTER
– Infantry in Battle, MARSHALL
– Savage Wars of Peace, BOOT
– Stonewall in the Valley, TANNER
– Terrorism Today, HARMON
– The Art of War, SUN TZU (GRIFFITH)
– Unaccustomed to Fear, WILLCOCKMAJ/CWO-4:
– A Bright Shining Lie, SHEEHAN
– Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, MCPHERSON
– Cruicibles of War, ANDERSON
– European Armies, STRACHAN
– For the Common Defense, MILLET AND MASLOWSKI
– Grant Takes Command, CATTON
– On War, VON CLAUSEWITZ (HOWARD AND PARET)
– Strategy, HART
– The General, FORESTER
– The Glorious Cause, MIDDLEKAUFF
– The Guns of August, TUCHMAN
– The History of the Peloponnesian War, THUCYDIDES (LANDMARK VERSION BY STRASSER)
– The Mask of Command, KEEGANLTCOL/CWO-5:
– A Revolutionary People At War, ROYSTER
– Defeat into Victory, SLIM
– Frontiersmen in Blue, UTLEY
– Masters of War, HANDEL
– One Hundred Days, WOODWARD
– Patton: A Genius for War, D’ESTE
– Seven Pillars of Wisdom, LAWRENCE
– The Army and Vietnam, KREPINEVICH
– The Lexus and the Olive Tree, FRIEDMAN
– The Roots of Blitzkreig, CORUM
– Supplying War, VAN CREVELDCOL THROUGH GEN:
– Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution, MCPHERSON
– All Quiet on the Western Front, REMARQUE
– Carnage and Culture, HANSON
– Crusade in Europe, EISENHOWER
– Dereliction of Duty, MCMASTER
– Diplomacy, KISSINGER
– Eisenhower’s Leutenants, WEIGLEY
– Fleet Tactics and Coastal Combat, HUGHES
– Feeding Mars, LYNN
– Generalship; Its Diseases and Their Cures, FULLER
– Inventing Grand Strategy and Teaching Command, SUMIDA
– Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman, EDITED BY MCFEELY
– Military Innovation in the Interwar Period, MURRAY AND MILLET
– Supreme Command, COHEN
– The Campaigns of Napoleon, CHANDLER
– The Conduct of War, FULLER
– The Rape of Nanking, CHANG
– War and Peace, TOLSTOY
I’ve read a couple of these – Webb’s Fields of Fire and Bowdin’s Blackhawk Down, the Constitution, of course. Band of Brothers. Gates of Fire has been on my “to read” list for a while, but most of these I am unfamiliar with. There’s a bit of duplication between the ranks, and I can skip a few like Fleet Tactics and Coastal Combat but still, that’s a LOT of books.
Let’s see, I’m almost 44…