Professional Reading Recommendations from the Chief

– December 2, 2011Posted in: Gen. Ray Odierno, Chief of Staff of the Army, U.S. Army

Gen. Raymond Odierno, Chief of Staff of the Army

I’m in the process of finalizing my Recommended Professional Reading List. Currently, it is divided into four categories: The Army Profession, The Force of Decisive Action, Broadening Leaders, and The Strategic Environment.

To really get into the spirit of things on this blog, I invite you to review my draft list and offer an opinion. I am interested in your thoughts. Currently, I have 78 titles and I would like to pare it down to a manageable number.

Alternatively, if you have a book that you think should be included, let me know what it is and why it’s worthy of a place on this list. If I agree with you, I’ll include your suggestion in my final CSA’s Recommended Professional Reading List.

I look forward to hearing from you!

SUBLIST 1 (The Army Profession)

American Military History, Volume II: The United States Army in a Global Era, 1917-2008. Richard W. Stewart, gen. ed. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army Center of Military History, 2010.

Between War and Peace: How America Ends Its Wars. Matthew Moten, eds. New York: Free Press, 2011.

Company Commander. Charles B. MacDonald. Springfield, N.J.: Burford Books, 1999. Original edition, 1947.

Constitution of the United States. Available on-line at URL: http://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/constitution.html.

Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam. H.R. McMaster. New York: Harper Perennial Publisher, 1998.

Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life. Carlo D’Este. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2002.

The Face of Battle. John Keegan. New York: Penguin Books, 1985.

The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story. Trent Angers. Lafayette, Louisiana: Acadian House Publishing, 1999.

George C. Marshall: Soldier-Statesman of the American Century. Mark A. Stoler. New York: Twayne, 1989.

Lincoln and His Generals. Thomas Harry Williams. New York: Vintage Books, 2011. [Originally published in 1952]

A Message to Garcia. Elbert Hubbard. Aurora, NY: Seven Treasures, 1982.

Once an Eagle. Anton Myrer. New York: Harper Torch, 2003.

Partners in Command: George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in War and Peace. Mathew Perry. New York: Penguin Publishing, 2007.

Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant. Ulysses S. Grant. New York: Modern Library, (Reprint), 1999.

Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime. Eliot A. Cohen. New York: Free Press, 2002.

SUBLIST 2 (Force of Decisive Action)

1776. David McCullough. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006.

The AEF Way of War: The American Army and Combat in World War I. Mark E. Grotelueschen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

An Army at Dawn: The War in Africa, 1942-1943. Rick Atkinson. New York: Henry Holt, 2002.

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. James McPherson. New York: Ballantine, 1988.

Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare. Geoffrey Parker, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Combat Actions in Korea, Russell A. Gugeler. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army Center of Military History, 1970, 1987.

Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice. David Galula. New York: Praeger, 2005. [originally published in 1964]

The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944. Rick Atkinson. New York: Henry Holt, 2008.

East of Chosin: Entrapment and Breakout in Korea, 1950. Roy E. Appleman. College Station, TX.: Texas A&M University Press, 1987.

The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War. Robert Strassler, ed. New York: Free Press, 1998.

The Philippine War, 1899-1902. Brian McAllister Linn. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2000.

Savage Peace: Americans at War in the 1990’s. Dan Bolger. San Francisco: Presidio Press, 1995.

A Soldier’s Dream: Captain Travis Patriquin and the Awakening of Iraq. William Doyle. New York: Penguin Group, 2011.

Summons of the Trumpet: U.S.-Vietnam in Perspective. Dave R. Palmer, Novato, Calif: Presidio Press, 1995.

Supplying War: Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton. Martin Van Creveld. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.

Surging South of Baghdad: The 3D Infantry Division and Task Force Marne in Iraq, 2007-2008. Dale Andrade. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army Center of Military History, 2010.

This Kind of War. T. R. Fehrenback. Washington, D.C.: Brassey, 2000.

Tip of the Spear: U.S. Army Small-Unit Action in Iraq 2004-2007. Jon T. Hoffman, ed. Washington D.C.: U.S. Army Center of Military History, 2009.

U.S. Army Counterinsurgency and Contingency Operations Doctrine, 1942-1976. Andrew J. Birtle. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army Center of Military History, 2006.

The U.S. Military Intervention in Panama: Origins, Planning, and Crisis Management June 1987-December 1989. Lawrence Yates. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Army Center of Military History, 2008.

We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young. Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway. Novato, Calif.: Presidio Press, 2004.

SUBLIST 3 (Broadening Leaders)

Cables from Kabul. Sherard Cowper-Coles. London: Harper Press, 2011.

A Choice of Enemies: America Confronts the Middle East. Lawrence Freeman. New York: Public Affairs, 2008.

Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It. James Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, 2011.

The Devil You Don’t Know. Zuhair al-Jezairy. London: Saqi Books, 2010.

The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300-2050. MacGregor Knox and Williamson Murray, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.

From Pusan to Panmunjom. Paik Sun Yup. Washington, New York: Brassey’s US, Inc., 1992.

Full Spectrum Diplomacy and Grand Strategy: Reforming the Structure and Culture of U.S. Foreign Policy. John Lenczowski. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2011.

How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything. Dov Seidman. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2007.

The Instigators. David Wolman. Atavist, 2011.

Leading Change. John P. Kotter. Boston: Harvard University Press, 1996.

The Limits of Air Power: The American Bombing of North Vietnam. Mark A. Clodfelter. Lincoln, Nebraska: Bison Books, 2006.

Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age. Peter Paret, ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986.

The Mask of Command. John Keegan. New York: Penguin Books, 1988.

The Masks of War: American Military Styles in Strategy and Analysis. Carl H. Builder. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989.

The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom. Evgeny Morozv. New York: PublicAffairs, 2011.

On China. Henry Kissinger. New York: Penguin Press, 2011.

Rethinking the Principles of War. Anthony D. McIvor. Naval Institute Press: Annapolis, Maryland, 2005.

Setting the Desert on Fire: T. E. Lawrence and Britain’s Secret War in Arabia, 1916-1918. James Barr. New York: WW Norton & Co, 1998.

Soldier’s Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point. Elizabeth D. Samet. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. Chip and Dan Heath. New York: Random House, 2010.

Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers. Richard E. Neustadt and Ernest May. New York: Free Press, 1986.

SUBLIST 4 (Strategic Environment)

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World. Niall Ferguson. The Penguin Press, New York, 2008.

Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World. Michael Lewis. New York: Norton, 2011.

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Samuel Huntington. New York: Touchstone, 1996.

Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. Ahmed Rashid. New York: Viking Penguin, 2008.

The Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America’s Soul. Michael Reid. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 2008.

Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations. Georgina Howell. New York: Manoir La Roche Ltd., 2006.

The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire. Edward N. Luttwak. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009.

A History of Modern Iran. Ervand Abrahamian. New York: Cambridge Unersity Press, 2008.

Kevlar Legions: A History of Army Transformation 1989-2005.

John Sloan Brown, Washington, D.C.: U. S. Army Center of Military History, 2011.

Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror. Mary Habeck. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.

The Longest War: The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict. Dilip Hiro. London: Grafton, 1989.

Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power. Robert D. Kaplan. Random House, 2010.

The Most Noble Adventure: The Marshall Plan and How America Helped Rebuild Europe. Greg Behrman. New York: Free Press, 2007.

My Life with the Taliban. Abdul Salam Zaeef. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.

Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies. Ian Burma and Avishai Margalit. New York: Penguin Press, 2004.

Prodigal Soldiers: How the Generation of Officers Born of Vietnam Revolutionized the American Style of War. James Kitfield. Washington: Bassey, 1997.

The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World. Daniel Yergin. New York: Penguin Press, 2011.

That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back. Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.

The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World. Rupert Smith. New York: Vintage Books, 2008.

The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. Thomas Friedman. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.

rchrisman

Sir, very good list! I would like to echo the recommendation posted by others, for either the Army Profession or Broadening Leaders categories, to add COMMAND CULTURE: Officer Education in the U.S. Army and the German Armed Forces, 1901-1940, and the Consequence for World War II. (June 2011) It has been widely and favorable reviewed, for example:

“This is a very important book with serious
contemporary as well as historical implications. It should be read widely by
students of the Second World War and by anyone interested in questions of
service culture, institutional learning, doctrine, and officer training.”—Journal of Military History
Wdhjr

Sir,

Two books to consider for the strategic environment section:

Discourses by Machiavelli
I read this book, which is about how you build and sustain a Republic, during a deployment to Iraq. It provided a lot to think about while we were engaged in the COIN fight. The other great book I read in Iraq was Thucydides, which is already on the list.

A Distant Mirror by Tuchmann
This book is a very readable history of the 14th Century. It is useful for leaders who are struggling to deal with many of the changes in the world that are changing the nature of international politics, current conflicts, global economics, etc. As the world shifts further away from the Westphalian system, it begins to resemble other periods of history like the 14th century. Tuchmann’s work can force the careful reader to question assumptions about how the world works, which is a vital effort for leaders trying to design military operations to achieve policy objectives in a volatile, uncertain, and complex world. Those 3 words precisely describe the 14th century.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QLCIRTHKPUGQ7KGON5BUQ67M24 Robert

Sir,

I must add my voice to the glowing praise paid to Dr. Jörg Muth’s utterly superb Command Culture: Officer Education in the U.S. Army and the German Armed Forces, 1901-1940, and the Consequences for World War II. I suppose I should simply initially offer a reprint of the ‘reader review’ I gave Dr. Muth’s book on Amazon.com:

“The title and subtitle of Jörg Muth’s Command Culture: Officer Education in the U.S. Army and the German Armed Forces, 1901-1940, and the Consequences for World War II is a mouthful. It is deceptive, for it may give the initial impression that this is a work of narrow specialization and of limited breadth. Yet what readers will find is a book with a most ambitious scope; one that demystifies the burning question any serious student of WWII must wonder: How is it the Wehrmacht could consistently prevail, even against the most staggering odds? A question which becomes even more compelling when contrasted with the too often plodding and pedestrian performance of the Wehrmacht’s American adversaries. Until this book, I did not have a ready answer. In this most painstakingly researched and well-annotated work, Dr. Muth provides the central and missing pieces of this puzzle: how, paradoxically, a society which can be accurately characterized by a militarized, evermore (from 1933 onwards) authoritarian order, produced a military which can also be accurately characterized by dynamic and creative thinking, a ready grasp of the potential of new technologies, and the importance of individual initiative. And how a liberal, democratic state produced a military characterized by rigidity of thinking; one beholden to obsolescent concepts, where so much of the initiative of its officers was actively repressed. Read Mr. Muth’s book. You will have a far more clear understanding of how and why each army performed the way it did after than before. …Consequences for World War II. Indeed!”

Sir, it is my humble hope that Dr. Muth’s book will find a place on your reading list, and on those of your staff; I believe this would ultimately positively influence the task of further perfecting today’s Army. It is simply a brilliantly researched, thought provoking, and urgent work of history. It is a book (as several note below) which no less a military historian than Gerhard Weinberg felt compelled to praise as having “Immediate present day relevance.”

Very respectfully,

Robert Murphy
http://www.thesoldiertrav.com Gerald Wrench

Glad to see “A Soldiers Dream” included in your list. What gives that book more emphasis is what Captain Travis Patriquin wrote about his time in Tal Afar prior to Ramadi. The article was in the Military Review called “Using Occam’s Razor to Connect the Dots.” of Tal Afar and should be required reading along with the book.
It outlined the policies he put in place in Ramadi including and more specifically “Amnesty” for those who fought the coalition. In A Soldiers Dream, Travis on pages 172 to 175 talks about a memory stick of wanted insurgents who wanted to come out from the cold. It is my contention that when Travis and the Ready 1st were extended, Travis and Sattar wanted to make sure the Awakening was secure and the only threat they could see was from within those Sunni’s still able to cause problems. My opinion is that Travis and Sattar together presented this list in the form of a memory stick to the Joint staff, knowing that Travis would be able to convince those in leadership that the best way to solidify the gains of the awakening would be Amnesty. It was the way Travis got to accomplish what he though needed to be done and still go through the channels. �
Through out the book and in much of Travis’s personal blogs, he talks about a good turnovers and bad turnovers. Travis simply wanted a good turnover and saw this as a way to do it. I believe it was his and Sattar’s plan rather than Sattar dumping the memory stick upon Travis as the book says and that the staff was told.. Travis was not concerned that he got credit for thinking of it, he was more concerned about the Coalition and the Awakening becoming secure and the great turnover, so he did not care if those higher up “Made a great strategic decision”
As a student of the Captain I compiled a lot of material about the Captain including his personal “reading list” much like the one you now have. Reading and learning was his tool and the reading book blog was his favorite and is still active today. For a list of his favorite books and “Latrine’ reading as he called it, I have a book blog at which both his family and William Doyle received in 2009. It tells more of this terrific and visionary hero.�
�
In closing, what Travis accomplished changed the course of fighting this type of wars. Even Gen McChrystal changed his tactic from counter terrorism to a combination in Afghanistan. It is definitely a story of how our military leads our country. You give the soldier the confidence and the freedom that they can make a difference, give them the structure and then put the results into action in the form of ” Lessons Learned” Perfect example why our Country has been so great and a beacon of freedom around the world.�
Gerald Wrench, the only one on Facebook.
Anonymous

Thanks for clearing that up.
Robert M. Toguchi

Sir,

COL Mark Elfendahl recommends “Transformation Under Fire: Revolutionizing How America Fights” by Douglas A. MacGregor for your reading list.

I recommend Robert Greene’s “The 33 Strategies of War” published in 2006. While several of the historical examples are highly simplistic; it offers a wide variety of counterintuitive insights which can serve as a precursor for deep thinking. From my perspective, Greene’s book can serve as an initial stimulus to get the average Army officer motivated to delve into the realm of strategy.

vr Bob Toguchi
Thunderdog2009

Sir,

I would add “Wanted Dead or Alive: Manhunts from Geronimo to Bin Laden,” by Benjamin Runkle to Sublist 3. It reads like an adventure story, demonstrates how mass is not always decisive (i.e. intelligence and the human terrain are more critical), and is arguably more applicable to future operations than yet another WWII book (i.e. the Army has participated in 7 manhunts since 1990).
Ghstrdr57

Sir – I would like to recommend “Wanted Dead or Alive” by Benjamin Runkle to the list. It is a very well written book, reading like a novel (a la Blackhawk Down) to keep your interest, gives great policy recommendations on strategic manhunts, and is certainly applicable to the modern strategic environment.
Thomas Hays

Sir,

I’d recommend keeping On China, Thucydides, and The Clash of Civilizations. Fareed Zakaria’s The Post American World is also very good for broadening one’s perspective and Sun Tzu’s Art of War is timeless, especially with the shift to the Asia Pacific region.

Vr,
LTC Tom Hays
LTC Christopher Robertson

Sir, appreciate the continued focus on a professional reading list as a component of the continuum of learning. One thought for your stated desire to pare the list down, eliminating those books already used in current OES and NCOES curriculums. A recommended addition to the list is The Armed Forces Officer, it’s succinct coverage of the topics currently being examined with the Profession of Arms Campaign marks it as a useful reflective text.
Eric Hartman

Sir. I am glad to see that you included Niall Ferguson’s “Ascent of Money” on your list. I think that generally speaking the list tilts way over to the pol-mil realm and other than Ferguson’s book it has little to no inclusion of the economic, financial, or business realm – an institutional black hole that can lead to myopic thinking. I would also recommend adding books on probabilities, and chaos, and game theory – (Gladwell “Outliers” – Taleb “The Black Swan” - Roger Myerson “Game Theory” as three examples). Kahneman’s book “Thinking Fast and Slow” is also a book that targets our own biases, thought processes, and decision-making which I would submit is a great way to approach the leadership aspect. As for drop candidates, I would submit that the thinking of guys like Friedman and Huntington is no longer provacative and has declined in significance.

Eric Hartman
Consuelo M Moralez-piper Civ

I believe it would be extremely vital to include a book on the World Fair Trade Organization (as a Micro-Economic model & Trade System) in Afghanistan and Iraq. Fair Trade could well be another means of Economic Development in these countries. Special Forces has been very busily engaged in VILLAGE STABILITY OPERATIONS and the final phase of VSO is Transition. This is where economic development comes in. Village entrepreneurship is vital for the Afghan (slowly growing) economy. There are THOUSANDS of villages thrioughout Afghanistan that could be engaged in making crafts and growing produce in Fair Trade Co-ops. These hand-made crafts and produce/food could have a market with the World Fair Trade Organization. A WONDERFUL BOOK that is captivating and that describes this trade sytem and its IMPORTANCE is entitled, “THE BLUE SWEATER: BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN RICH AND POOR IN AN INTERCONNECTED WORLD.’ By: JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ

This book (in my humble opinion) should be a must read on every Commander’s Reading List since Stability Operations is a great part of the Army mission in Afghanistan.
Chris Wenner

Sir,
The list is not perfect, but no list is. You have not given us a “typical” list of tired books, you have developed a new list of future deep thinking books that make your head hurt. I discussed this today with three Captains that work for me and while we had a professional disagreement, in the end they liked the list too. One good book that might be considered is “Team of Rivals, the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Talk about assembling a team that did some major rebuilding! A team that was at odds before his election. A magnificent read that shows us how cooperation, collaboration and significant skill.
Chris Wenner

Have you read the Constitution? It is a quick read, in simple English. It is what WE SWEAR TO, not a king, or the President, or any person – yes it should be read and understood. The Articles are clear, the Bill of Rights are a part of America and it has only been amended 27 times in 225 years. Amazing document.
Joshua Weisbecker

Sir,
I strongly suggest Future Warfare Anthology by MG Robert H. Scales, Jr. being added to this reading list. This book gives a real honest look at what we can expect for the near future. It explains the pros and cons of being the only living Super Power. It was published over a decade ago, but it predicted the types of conflicts we would face in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a collection of several well written articles that all come together to show the trends of our future.

V/R

Joshua S. Weisbecker

1LT,IN

Platoon Leader
Marta Hiraldo

Sir, with all the respect, I don’t know by when the recommendation of was due, however it can be used for next list. below is some of the books use during ILE�
1. The CambridgeIlustrated History Warfare
2. The Dynamics of Military Revolution 1300-2050
3. Makers of Modern Strategy

My Recommendation for few interesting books:
1. Cutural development: Understanding Arabs, A guide for modern Times by Margaret K. Nydell
2. The Aquariums of Pyongyang;Ten years in the North Korean gulag by Chol-Hwan Kang
3. Lincoln: A life of Purpose and Power by Richard Carwardine
Katheryn

Dear General Odierno – I came across your list as I was looking for books to read on the Iran situation. I have added a number of your suggestions to my list.
Even though I am not military, I enjoy books and booklists. If I may, I would like to suggest a few books that I would add to the list.

A book to show what happens when soldiers are not professionals in their treatment of others -”Tears in the Darkness” by Michael and Elizabeth Norman – Bataan March and it’s aftermath

A book that shows how to be a professional in the face of no-win situations – “The Good Soldiers” by David Finkel

A book that shows how a soldier tries to do good in the world -”The Heart and the Fist” by Eric Greitens

A book that shows a commander who cared about all of his men – “Defeat into Victory” by Field-Marshall Viscount Slim

A book that shows how a man navigated between remaining true to his oath and yet practical enough to stay alive -”Five Years to Freedom” by James Rowe

A book that shows how military decisions are arrived at by Washington – “Obama’s Wars” by Bob Woodward

Two books that are about women in the military and the particular issues that affect them -”Women in the Line of Fire” by Erin Solaro / “Love My Rifle More Than You” by Kayla Williams

and my final two, they kinda go together:
the draft – ” The Coming Draft” by Philip Gold
state of perpetual war – “Drift” by Rachel Maddow

oh,my – went a little longer than I wanted -and I culled my suggestions,truly.
Thank you for your patience,
Katheryn

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