You can google the field manuals (FM) of the US Army and Marine, they range from operation of guns and marksmanship to strategy, to leadership. All great reads.
Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
21–30 of 68 posts
Re: Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
#22My absolute favourite in this class of books is:
Infantry attacks, Erwin Rommel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infantry_Attacks
Don't let the word "Infantry" in the title fool you. It is an engrossing account on how to use armed forces to your advantage. He supposedly was working on "The Tank in Attack", but never made it that far. A good substitute is The Rommel Papers, which was published posthumously by his family.
The Rommel Papers http://books.google.com/books?id=JE8VFsdxNGgC
Re: Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
#23Nassim Nicholas Taleb's "Black Swan" had some pretty good insights into the "unknown unknowns" of military combat.
Re: Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
#24While older books may be interesting, they are totally archaic. I would read things by communist revolutionaries and other practitioners of asymmetric warfare. There are going to be very few 'real' wars in the future, because the countries that could engage in them all have nuclear weapons, which basically precludes a full scale engagement of any kind. However, large countries still have belligerents that are too small or close to have to worry about being nuked, or are intermixed with 'friendly' populations, or the state is precluded by international pressure/bribery from engaging in anything overt (ex: Israel).
Re: Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
#25"War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning" is the best book on the psychological dimensions of war that I'm aware of.
Re: Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
#26> for some reason I have wondered about this (maybe for strategy game development...).
It's OK, you can be honest here. Your Kraut blood is imbuing you with an inexplicable and overwhelming drive to invade Poland. Reclaim your heritage!
Re: Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
#27Military strategy? I'd like to hear your startup pitch :)
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Re: Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
#28There was a post recently on a class that examined Starcraft strategy. That might help.
I read that, and if it was nearby, I would definitely pay them a visit. Hope they'll make some materials available online.
Re: Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
#29I used to have a lot more time for non CS reading and actually made an Amazon list on this topic back in 2005: http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/2INJSM38... 1. On War (Everyman's Library (Cloth)) by Carl Von Clausewitz 2. Leadership: The Warrior's Art by Barry R. McCaffrey 3. Small Unit Leadership: A Commonsense Approach by Dandridge M. Malone 4. The Defense of Hill 781: An Allegory of Modern Mechan…
hey.quite a bit of this is online at sonshi.com, in the library section ( or used to be..haven't been there for some time now )
Re: Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
#30Have you read Clausewitz On War? That was one of my favorite books last year. This is more general than you are looking for and it stops a bit short of air war but it helped me to put historical events into a global context. The outline of history; being a plain history of life and mankind. Rev. and brought up to date by Raymond Postgate and G.P. Wells. With maps and plans by J.F. Horrabin. Wells, H. G. 1866-1946. (H…
If you want to understand the context behind all other books on military strategy written since Clausewitz (any book written in the last hundred years), you must read Clausewitz. If you want to understand why the US Army was so dead set on failing to anticipate the next war and continued to train for symmetric war until very recently, you must read Clausewitz. If you want to understand why the new Army and Marine Cor…