Books About General Military Topics

U.S. Army Infantry by Major General Jerry A. White (Editor). 344 pages (January 8, 2008) National Infantry Association. This is the story of the American infantry, from 1600 to now, with detailed descriptions of ground operations illustrated by maps and photos. Forward by Colin Powell.

Sacred Ground: A Tribute to America's Veterans by Tom Ruck. 189 pages Regnery Publishing (November 13, 2007). This lovely and compelling book contains photographs and essays to show the history, meaning and physical beauty of American veterans' cemeteries. The quiet dignity of the locations along with the stories of those who rest there is a reminder of the courage and sacrifice of the veterans who have sustained the country.

Over Here: How the GI Bill Transformed the American Dream by Edward Humes. Hardcover: 336 pages (October 2006) Published by Harcourt; 1st edition. The G.I. Bill (officially the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944) was extraordinary legislation with effects on American society far beyond anyone's intentions. Conceived as a way to reward returning WW II servicemen, and to avoid a dangerous and politically embarrassing repeat of the WW I vet's Bonus March, the educational, home buying, and other G.I. Bill benefits became the leverage to propel the huge post-war expansion of the American economy and the explosion of the U.S. middle class. Before the war the U.S. was a blue collar country with expectations weighed down by the Depression. By the 1950s there was a huge cohort of college-educated professionals who owned their own homes in the newly constructed suburbs and whose children would never know the deprivations of earlier times. Economists may argue about how much of that would have happened without the G.I. Bill, but there is no question that the America of today was largely shaped by its direct and indirect effects. In Over Here, Humes explores how the G.I. Bill came to be, how the vets used it, what kind of lives they shaped because of it, and how the country as a whole benefited. He weaves the historical facts into the personal stories of seven individuals representing a spectrum of people and careers, showing the wide ranging and highly variable lives that were enriched. He also delves into the shameful discrimination that excluded African-Americans and other minorities, exactly as intended by segregationist sponsors of the law. Humes also exposes his own left-of-center viewpoint and political objectives, which sometimes detracts from the main theme, but does not spoil the book.

Mud: A Military History by C. E. Wood. Hardcover: 176 pages (May 2006) Published by Potomac Books. Historians and strategists generally overlook mud as a factor in war, but all veterans know its impact first hand. Wood -- himself a former U.S. Marine and soldier with a doctorate in history and a master’s in geography -- explores in detail the nature of mud, how it has impacted battles across the globe (Civil War, World Wars I and II, Vietnam, and Iraq among others), what it means to mobility and its effects on soldiers and their equipment.

Military Blunders by Michael Coffey. Paperback, 320 pages (September 2000) Published by Hyperion. This is the official companion volume to the History Channel documentary series "Military Blunders" covering strategic disasters and operational mishaps from WW I through Desert Storm. Provides a fresh perspective on many famous and little known battles, campaigns, and the schemes of the warring countries. Introduction by Mike Wallace.

Almost History by Roger Bruns. Hardcover, 224 pages (October 2000) Published by The Stonesong Press. A thought-provoking book on the alternative paths history might have taken at critical points where it could have gone either way. The best part of the book comes from the actual documents that were prepared for the outcome that didn't happen: Ike's apology for the D-Day failure, a British plan to invade the Soviet Union in 1945, McNamara's notes on plans to bomb Cuba in 1962, and a 1963 plan to withdraw from Vietnam. These and many more illuminate the details of historical events in a fascinating new way.

Armored Cav : A Guided Tour of an Armored Cavalry Regiment by Tom Clancy. Paperback, 325 pages, Published by Berkley Pub Group, Publication date: June 1997. Clancy gets inside the regiment's daily operations. Lots of material on ground mobility including a very personal chapter on the HMMWV. Paperback, 325 pages. Published by Berkley Pub Group. Publication date: June 1997

Army Dictionary and Desk Reference by Timothy Zurick, Tim Zurick. Defines some 3,500 terms and acronyms important to the modern US Army, identifying the branch of primary usage of each term. Includes 40 pages of reference tables, and the Code of Conduct for Members of the US Armed Forces.

Brassey's Book of Camouflage by Tim Newark, Quentin Newark, J. F. Borsarello. Hardcover, 144 pages. Published by Brasseys Inc. Publication date: December 1996. Also available in paperback. A comprehensive history of camouflage uniforms, the first ever published. Covers development of camouflage in the First and Second World Wars and goes on to describe the full range of camouflage uniforms in present use today. Contains fifty color plates of the main camouflage patterns plus 150 further color illustrations of current camouflage.

Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer. This book is fiction, but rings so true. Published originally in 1968 at the height of the Vietnam War, and still available in many different editions, Once an Eagle captures the essence of what it means to be a soldier, the heart, mind, and spirit of the best officers, the meaning of leadership, and the realities of both combat and peacetime military bureaucracy. The book is required reading for the United States Marine Corps, taught at the US Army War College and in leadership courses at West Point.

Jungle Snafus ... and Remedies by Major Cresson H. Kearny, (Ret.) Major Kearny served for years as the first and only Jungle Experiments Officer in the Panama Mobile Force, a unique position in the U.S. Army. That service began eight months before Pearl Harbor, and included direct involvement in the development and adoption of many of the specialized items used by Americans in jungles in World War II and in the Vietnam War. In the book he covers useful equipment needed to live, work, and fight in the jungles of the world based on his personal experiences of the testing and procurement difficulties as well as makes specific recommendations for the most useful and lifesaving items every soldier should have.

Taking the Guidon: Exceptional Leadership at the Company Level by Nate Allen and Tony Burgess. The authors put their accumulated experience as combat-ready U.S. Army leaders into the book in an effort to prepare new commanders for the leadership challanges when they take the guidon at the change of command ceremony. In addition to their own ideas for the leadership framework that was very effective in their own commands, they have included feedback from hundreds of readers and participants in their groundbreaking websites CompanyCommand.com and PlatoonLeader.com.

Books About General Military Topics

Recomended Military Books: General Topics