Guest Post: Reading Recommendations for Strategic Studies and World History

All readers welcome

(Relax! The total is only 5,441 pages.
How about trying for one book a month?)

Author’s Note: I compiled this reading list for the benefit of young people in the various United States military-service branches who might want to increase their knowledge of History in general, and of Military History/Strategic Studies in particular — John Marks

I took the position that the “Classics,” such as Sun Tzu and von Clausewitz, are sufficiently well-known, and therefore they do not need my recommendation. The list is largely chronological, by subject matter.

If I had to choose one book as the most “eye-opening,” it would be a tie between the volumes on Dien Bien Phu, and the Six-Day War.

I sourced the Syndetics blurbs from Amazon, in the spirit of Fair Use. Here’s a link to an Amazon List that I put together, of all the recommended books:

https://a.co/f2vCn2M

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Proud-Tower-Portrait-Before-1890-1914/dp/0345405013

#1: The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914, Barbara Tuchman (1966; 608 pp.)

“In The Proud Tower, Barbara Tuchman concentrates on society rather than the state. With an artist’s selectivity, Tuchman brings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy and the end of their reign; the anarchists of Europe and America, who voiced the protest of the oppressed; Germany, as portrayed through the figure of the self-depicted hero, Richard Strauss; the sudden gorgeous blaze of Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet and Stravinsky’s music; the Dreyfus Affair; the two peace conferences in The Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of socialism, epitomized in the moment when the heroic Jean Jaurès was shot to death on the night the War began and an epoch ended.”

—Syndetics Unbound

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Times-Revised-Twenties-Perennial/dp/0060935502/

#2: Modern Times: The World from the Twenties to the Nineties,
Paul Johnson (1985; Revised Edition 2001; 880 pp.)

“Earning spot #11 on National Review's list of the ‘Best Nonfiction Books of the (20^th) Century,’ this fast-paced, all-encompassing narrative history covers the great events, ideas, and personalities of the six decades following the end of World War I, and offers a full-scale—if controversial—analysis of how the modern age came into being and where it is heading.

“Beginning on May 29, 1919, when photographs of the solar eclipse confirmed the truth of Einstein's theory of relativity, Johnson goes on to describe Freudianism, the establishment of the first Marxist state, the chaos of ‘Old Europe,’ the Arcadian twenties, and the new forces in China and Japan. Also discussed are Karl Marx, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Roosevelt, Gandhi, Castro, Kennedy, Nixon, the ‘29 crash, the Great Depression, Roosevelt’s New Deal, and the massive conflict of World War II.”

—Syndetics Unbound

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Eastern-Approaches-Penguin-World-Collection/dp/0141042842/

#3: Eastern Approaches, Fitzroy Maclean (1949; 576 pp.)

(Fitzroy Maclean is often mentioned as perhaps being one of the inspirations for Ian Fleming’s fictional character “James Bond,” Agent 007.)

“The classic true adventure story of a man who, by the pen, sword, and diplomatic pouch, influenced some of the most significant events of our era. Fitzroy Maclean recounts his extraordinary adventures in Soviet Central Asia; in the Western Desert, where he specialized in hair-raising commando raids behind enemy lines; and with Tito’s partisans during the last months of the German occupation of Yugoslavia. An enthralling narrative brilliantly told.”

—Syndetics Unbound

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Second-World-Wars-Global-Conflict/dp/0465066984

#4. The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won, Victor Davis Hanson (2017; 720 pp.)

“A ‘breathtakingly magisterial’ account of World War II by America’s preeminent military historian.”

—Wall Street Journal

“World War II was the most lethal conflict in human history. Never before had a war been fought on so many diverse landscapes and in so many different ways, from rocket attacks in London to jungle fighting in Burma to armor strikes in Libya.

“The Second World Wars examines how combat unfolded in the air, at sea, and on land to show how distinct conflicts among disparate combatants coalesced into one interconnected global war. Drawing on 3,000 years of military history, bestselling author Victor Davis Hanson argues that despite its novel industrial barbarity, neither the war’s origins nor its geography were unusual. Nor was its ultimate outcome surprising. The Axis powers were well prepared to win limited border conflicts, but once they blundered into global war, they had no hope of victory.

“An authoritative new history of astonishing breadth, The Second World Wars offers a stunning reinterpretation of history’s deadliest conflict.”

—Syndetics Unbound

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Making-Atomic-Bomb-Richard-Rhodes/dp/1451677618/

#5: The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes (1986; 25^th-anniversary edition 2012; 896 pp.)

(Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award.)

“The definitive history of nuclear weapons—from the turn-of-the-century discovery of nuclear energy to J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project—this epic work details the science, the people, and the sociopolitical realities that led to the development of the atomic bomb.

“This sweeping account begins in the 19^th century, with the discovery of nuclear fission, and continues to World War Two and the Americans' race to beat Hitler's Nazis. That competition launched the Manhattan Project and the nearly overnight construction of a vast military-industrial complex that culminated in the fateful dropping of the first bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“Reading like a character-driven suspense novel, the book introduces the players in this saga of physics, politics, and human psychology—from FDR and Einstein to the visionary scientists who pioneered quantum theory and the application of thermonuclear fission, including Planck, Szilard, Bohr, Oppenheimer, Fermi, Teller, Meitner, von Neumann, and Lawrence.

“From nuclear power's earliest foreshadowing in the work of H.G. Wells to the bright glare of Trinity at Alamogordo and the arms race of the Cold War, this dread invention forever changed the course of human history, and The Making of The Atomic Bomb provides a panoramic backdrop for that story.

“Richard Rhodes's ability to craft compelling biographical portraits is matched only by his rigorous scholarship. Told in rich human, political, and scientific detail that any reader can follow, The Making of the Atomic Bomb is a thought-provoking and masterful work.”

—Syndetics Unbound

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Valley-Martin-Windrow/dp/0306814439

#6: The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam, Martin Windrow (2004; 753 pp.)

“In December 1953 the French army occupying Vietnam challenged the elusive Vietnamese army to engage in a decisive battle. When French paratroopers landed in the jungle on the border between Vietnam and Laos, the Vietnamese quickly isolated the French force and confronted them at their jungle base in a small place called Dien Bien Phu. The hunters—the French army—had become the hunted, desperately defending their out-gunned base. The siege in the jungle wore on as defeat loomed for the French. Eventually the French were depleted, demoralized, and destroyed. As they withdrew, the country was ominously divided at U.S. insistence, creating the short-lived Republic of South Vietnam for which 55,000 Americans would die in the next twenty years.”

—Syndetics Unbound

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Six-Days-War-Making-Modern/dp/0345461924

#7. Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East, Michael B. Oren (2002; 496 pp.)

“In 1967 the future of the state of Israel was far from certain. But with its swift and stunning military victory against an Arab coalition led by Egypt in the Six Day War, Israel not only preserved its existence but redrew the map of the region, with fateful consequences. The Camp David Accords, the assassinations of Anwar Sadat and Yitzhak Rabin, the intifada, and the current troubled peace negotiations--all of these trace their origins to the Six Day War. Michael Oren’s Six Days of War is a gripping account of one of the most dramatic and important episodes in the history of the Middle East. With exhaustive research in primary sources-—including Soviet, Jordanian, and Syrian files not previously available-—he has reconstructed the tension-filled background and the dramatic military events of the conflict, drawing the threads together in a riveting narrative, enlivened by crisp characters sketches of major characters (many of whom, from Ariel Sharon to Yasser Arafat, are still leading figures today). Most important, Oren has unearthed some dramatic new findings. He has discovered that a top-secret Egyptian plan to invade Israel and wipe out its army and nuclear reactor came within hours of implementation. He also reveals how the superpowers narrowly avoided a nuclear showdown over the Eastern Mediterranean and how a military coup in Israel almost occurred on the eve of the war.”

—Syndetics Unbound

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Live-Sword-Secret-Against-Castro/dp/1890862010

#8. Live by the Sword: The Secret War Against Castro and the Death of JFK, Gus Russo (1998; 512 pp.)

“Humiliated at the Bay of Pigs, John and Robert Kennedy sought desperately to eliminate Castro. Their strategies for overthrowing the Cuban leader were so elaborate and bizarre, they could only engender paranoia. Castro openly threatened to retaliate. Pro-Castro agitator Lee Harvey Oswald learned that Robert Kennedy was personally supervising groups plotting against the Cuban leader. Filled with rage and a sense of destiny, Oswald went to the Cuban embassy in Mexico, announcing he would kill America's president in exchange for sanctuary in Havana. Live By the Sword forces the conclusion that members of the Cuban regime accepted the troubled American's offer. Russo shows that Oswald was indeed JFK's lone assailant, but that after the president's murder, a devastated Robert Kennedy and key officials launched a comprehensive cover-up to hide its true causes. Gus Russo, based in Baltimore, Maryland, has reported for acclaimed ABC and PBS documentaries on JFK, and done research for authors Gerald Posner, Seymour Hersh, and Anthony Summers. Exhaustively researched, Live by the Sword ends 35 years of public mistrust and confusion over the Kennedy assassination.”

—Syndetics Unbound

Endnote:

I intentionally set my retrospective cut-off date to be immediately before the events that led up to World War One. That was for two reasons. One, to keep a focus on events that could reasonably be expected to make a difference (or, at least, be instructive), going forward.

Two, I wanted to avoid any and all discussion about the United States Civil War.

(I have often quipped that the Civil War was fought with 19^th-century Weapons, but with 17^th-century Tactics.)

However, if I could be allowed to recommend one book that is technically “Hors Concours,” because it covers events even earlier than the US Civil War, that book would be Cecil Woodham-Smith’s The Reason Why, which is about the Crimean War of 1852 – 1856.

The relevance being that, the then-recent sworn enemies (as in, the Napoleonic Wars), Catholic France and Protestant England joined forces, together to fight a very remote war. (The distance between London and Crimea is about 1,500 miles. About the same as, Providence, RI to Nashville, TN))

The Allies’ principal War Aim was to restore the territorial integrity of the (Muslim/Islamic) Turkish Empire (!!!). The Allies chose to fight in 1854, from fear that, if Russia conquered Turkey and thereby got access to Turkey’s gold reserves, Russia very well might then attempt to conquer, say, Germany.

It was a choice between going to war in 1854, to restore Turkey’s territorial integrity; or going to war years later, to try to preserve Germany’s territorial integrity.

Gee… does any of the above sound… strangely familiar?

The above might also provide a little insight as to why the Turkey of today is a member of NATO, despite being more than 1,000 miles distant from the North Atlantic ocean.

Another Historical Consequence:

After Russia’s whomping defeat in the Crimean War, Russia’s leaders grew concerned that, in any future wars with Britain, Russian Alaska would be very difficult and expensive to defend. Especially because Canada was still under British administration as a colonial Province. Therefore, Russia decided to make that little problem moot, by selling Alaska to the United States (1867).

“The only law that never gets broken is the Law of Unintended Consequences.”

Russia’s poorly-thought-out 1852 decision to invade the Danubian Principalities (which had been vassal states of Turkey since 1817), eventually (but directly) led to its perceived need to abandon Alaska.

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