Favourite Military History Books

[Incendio]

I would like to know which military history books are your favourites. I really like this genre and I need some ideas.

[LaMuerte]

There are so many books out there to choose from, I really don't know where to begin. So I thought I'd give you some non-conventional military history books to begin with.

Selous Scouts Top Secret War (Lt. Col. Ron Reid Daly as told to Peter Stiff) : A book about the counter-insurgency campaigns (pseudo-ops) of an SAS regiment during Rhodesia's/Zimbabwe's war of independence during the 1970's.

The Washing of the Spears (Donald R. Morris, 1994 Pimlico Edition) : A history of the Rise of the Zulu Nation under Shaka and its Fall in the Zulu War of 1879.

Frontiers, The Epic of South Africa's Creation and the Tragedy of the Xhosa People(Noel Mostert) : The story of the nine 'Kaffir' wars fought in the 18th and 19th centuries between the whites and the Xhosa people, forms the heart of this book.

Reading Clausewitz (Beatrice Heuser) : The first book not only on how to read Clausewitz, but also on how others have read him - From the Prussian and German masters of warfare of the late 19th century through to the military commanders of the First World War, through Lenin and Mao Zedong to strategists of the nuclear age and of guerilla warfare.

Once They Moved Like The Wind(David Roberts, 1998 Pimlico Edition) : Cochise, Geronimo and the Apache Wars.

On the Psychology of Military Incompetence (Norman Dixon) : The Crimea, The Boer War, the Somme, Tobruk, Singapore, Pearl Harbor, Arnhem, The Bay of Pigs; just some of the milestones in a century of military incompetence, of costly mishaps and tragic blunders.

Villa and Zapata - A Biography of the Mexican Revolution (Frank McLynn) : The Mexican revolution(1910-1919) was the first seismic social convulsion of the 20th century, superseded in historical importance only by the Russian and Chinese revolutions.

[Cyclops]

I enjoyed Keegans The Face of Battle, comparing three English/British battles (Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme). Not a soldier himself, but from a military family and a military historian at Sandhurst, he attempts to understand the experience of soldiers in actual combat. Not aperfect author, some of his other works make him seem a bit of an SS fanboy and he also had a bit of an anti-Clausewitz crusade going.

C. Julius Caesar Gallic Wars is undoubtedly the most widely read military history ever, studied in Latin by schoolboys and novices for over two thousand years. It is said to be a very perfect example of Latin writing, combining clarity and consistency of expression with simple elegance. I have not read it myself, and as actual history it has questionable value as it was written by a demagogue aspiring to dictatorial rule bent on self promotion.

Once you are into the subject a little more there are detailed works like Battle Tactics of Napoleon and His Enemies by Nosworthy, which I found a very worthwhile book. I used to play table top games and we'd adapt rule sets to different eras (eg Columbia, Battlecry etc the simpler ones were ripe for adaption). This text gave us plenty of meat for thinking about formations (how they affected a unit's performance, how to express that in game rules) in the Napoleonic but also Frederickan eras.

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

I'm a big fan of Zulu history so I'll check out The Washing of the Spears.

My favourite Napoleonic Wars history has to be John H. Gill's 3 volume 1809 Thunder on the Danube.

[conon394]

Shattered Sword by Parshall and Tully combined with Guadalcanal by Frank make a good pair to read about the height of the Pacific war at sea (decisive turn?). In particularly how both (US and Japan) are desperately groping around to use their assets, men and advantages effectively - but often failing badly.

There is always Thucydides if you want another ancient book, and Xenphon's narrative of his aborted field trip to see Cunaxa is always a classic.

Weigley's 'The Age of Battles: The Quest for Decisive Warfare from Breitenfeld to Waterloo' is a sold classic and look at the nature of european war over the period.

Mentioning decisive battle, 'Into the land of Bones' is a good meditation on A-stan and the powers that have gone in looking for one and failed to find it.

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

In addition to John H. Gill's 1809 trilogy, the 1812 trilogy by Paul Britten Austen is also a good addition.
Personally I haven't gotten much out of Napoleonic authors other than John H. Gill.
As capable as Zamoyski, Roberts, Petre, Leggiere, Nafziger, Elting, Chandler etc are I can't help but think that there is something inherently wrong with how they approach the subject, all for different reasons. Their analysis could be more up to point as well because they make too many assumptions or ignore too many details.

Don't even get me started about Esdaile and Connelly.

[LaMuerte]

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