analysis of historical battles
I'd love to see a book of this nature concentrated on the Civil War.
Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
41–50 of 68 posts
Re: Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
#42Martin van Creveld writes some serious analysis. Consider... Supplying War -- on logistics (as in "professionals study...") Command in War -- on communication, information, and the importance of local autonomy leading to quick action The Transformation of War -- has strategy's biggest buzzword right there in the title, but this was written back in 1991. On the growing role of low-intensity and asymmetric conflicts. H…
I read some interviews with van Creveld a few years ago. The guy sounded very smart.
I keep meaning to look up his books in a good library but I got distracted. Thanks for the reminder!
Re: Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
#43I can't think of any books, but you can find good descriptions of strategy used in famous battles on wikipedia. Some interesting battles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ilipa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Alesia
This one kept me up one night: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cannae -- and I almost never read history/military books.
Re: Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
#44My 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.…
Patton - "Rommel, you magnificent bastard! I read your book!"
Re: Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
#45> 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!
Uhm, honestly, I consider that comment really inappropriate. Someone asks about books and you tell him that he must be a Nazi. Note for future reference in dealing with Germans: jokes where you call them a Nazi == not funny.
Re: Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
#46I would recommend:
1) The Art of War by Niccolò Machiavelli (read by Napoleon)
2) Certain to Win by Chet Richards (talks about OODA loop by John Boyd)
Re: Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
#47> 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!
Uhm, honestly, I consider that comment really inappropriate. Someone asks about books and you tell him that he must be a Nazi. Note for future reference in dealing with Germans: jokes where you call them a Nazi == not funny.
You sully a proud German tradition of marching on Poland by only giving credit to the nazis.
Re: Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
#48Martin van Creveld writes some serious analysis. Consider... Supplying War -- on logistics (as in "professionals study...") Command in War -- on communication, information, and the importance of local autonomy leading to quick action The Transformation of War -- has strategy's biggest buzzword right there in the title, but this was written back in 1991. On the growing role of low-intensity and asymmetric conflicts. H…
The first book I checked to make sure was included in this tread was "Supplying War". There are many standard texts on conflict, but that one somehow misses many lists. I think the examination of conflicts from the point of view of logistics serves two very good purposes: it's an essential education in making sure a force is supplied and it's a good perspective of looking at a conflict as a long term temporal and spacial endeavor.
"Command in War" is also quite good, and I have not yet read "Transformation in War".
Re: Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
#49I 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…
+1 for #6. It's a great read. It would be fun to teach a high school history class around it.
Re: Ask HN: good books about military strategy?
#50> 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!
Uhm, honestly, I consider that comment really inappropriate. Someone asks about books and you tell him that he must be a Nazi. Note for future reference in dealing with Germans: jokes where you call them a Nazi == not funny.
Most Germans I've met have been quite relaxed about that and even joked about it themselves. I guess one should be careful on internet forums though.