This past year was filled with several work related trips, and because of the airports, airplanes, and hotel rooms, I was able to focus my efforts on professional study. This blog is an outgrowth of those efforts.
Even though I’ve created a “best of” list, I honestly enjoyed reading most of the books listed below. The titles listed in my top 5 are there because they had the greatest impact on my outlook on war, leadership, and professional development.
My Top 5 Books of 2013:
1.) War From the Ground Up: Twenty First Century Combat as Politics by Emile Simpson
2.) The Enlightened Soldier: Scharnhorst and the Militarische Gesellschaft in Berlin, 1801-1805 by Charles Edward White
3.) The Last Place on Earth: Scott and Amundsen’s Race to the South Pole by Roland Huntford
4.) Military Adaptation in War: With Fear of Change by Williamson Murray
5.) On War by Carl von Clausewitz
The remaining titles are broken down into topic areas:
Leader Development
Lessons of Experience: How Successful Executives Develop on the Job by Morgan McCall Jr.
Churchill: A Study in Failure, 1900-1939 by Robert Rhodes James
Learning Adaptation and Innovation
Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry by David Robinson and Bill Breen
Leadership
Challenge of Command by Roger H. Nye
Defense of Hill 781: An Allegory of Modern Mechanized Combat by James R. McDonough
On the Psychology of Military Incompetence by Norman F. Dixon
Battalion Commanders at War: U.S. Army Tactical Leadership in the Mediterranean Theater, 1942-1943 by Steven Thomas Barry
The Patton Mind by Roger H. Nye
21st Century Mahan: Sound Military Conclusions for the Modern Era by Benjamin Armstrong
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
Achieving Society by David C. McClelland
The Peter Principle by Laurence J. Peter
The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today by Thomas E. Ricks
The Leadership Challenge by James M. Kouzes and Barry Posner
Mission Command
Command Culture: Officer Education in the U.S. Army and the German Armed Forces, 1901-1940, and the Consequences for World War II by Jorg Muth
The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business by Patrick Lencioni
The Art of Action: How Leaders Close the Gaps between Plans, Actions, and Results by Stephen Bungay
Profession of Arms
The Culture of War by Martin van Crevald
George Washington and the American Military Tradition by Don Higginbotham
The Soldier and the State: The Theory of Politics of Civil-Military Relations by Samuel P. Huntington
Strategy and the Political Dimensions of War
On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace by Donald Kagan
Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesman, and Leadership in Wartime by Eliot A. Cohen
Lessons for a Long War: How America Can Win on New Battlefields edited by Thomas Donnelly
Military History
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson
Technology, Doctrine, and Combat Development
On Flexibility: Recovery from Technological and Doctrinal Surprise on the Battlefield by Meir Finkel
Men, Machines, and Modern Times by Elting E. Morison
The Echo of Battle: The Army’s Way of War by Brian McAllister Linn
Combined Arms Warfare in the 20th Century by Jonathan M. House
Miscellaneous
David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
Inferno by Dan Brown
World War Z: An Oral History by Max Brooks
Damascus Countdown by Joel C. Rosenberg
Still in progress…
Nelson: Britannia’s God of War by Andrew Lambert
Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant by Ulysses S. Grant
Makers of Modern Strategy from Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age by Peter Paret
The Future of the Army Profession by Lloyd Matthews and Don Snider
War, Strategy, and Military Effectiveness by Williamson Murray
