United States Marine Corps
Commandant's
Reading List
"I want Marines to read beyond the list, too, especially paying attention to current events, science and technology, and what our potential adversaries are up to around the world."
-Gen Robert B. Neller
Commandant’s Choice
“First to Fight: An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps” by Victor H. Krulak
“U.S. Constitution”
“Sustaining the Transformation (MCWP 6-11D)” by the United States Marine Corps.
Entry Level Enlisted: Recruit/Poolee
“Battle Cry” by Leon Uris
“Joker One: A Marine Platoon's Story of Courage, Sacrifice, and Brotherhood” by Donovan Campbell
“Corps Values” by Zell Miller
“Making the Corps” by Thomas Rick
“The Red Badge of Courage” by Stephen Crane
Entry Level Officer: Candidate/Midshipman
“Battle Cry” by Leon Uris
“Corps Values” by Zell Miller
“I’m Staying With My Boys” Jim Proser and Jerry Cutter
“Making the Corps” by Thomas Ricks
“My Men Are My Heroes” by Nathaniel Helms
“The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara
Primary Level Enlisted: Pvt-Cpl
"Chesty" by Jon Hoffman
“Ender’s Game” by Orson Card
“Gates of Fire” by Steven Pressfield
“Marine! The Life of Chesty Puller ” by Burke Davis
“My Men Are My Heroes” by Nathaniel Helms
“Rifleman Dodd” by C.S. Forester
“The Last Stand of Fox Company” by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin
“The Marines of Montford Point: America’s First Black Marines” by Melton McLaurin
Primary Level Officer: WO, 2nd Lt, 1st Lt
“All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Remarque
“Battle Leadership” by Adolf Von Schell
"Chesty" by Jon Hoffman
“Gates of Fire” by Steven Pressfield
“Marine! The Life of Chesty Puller” by Burke Davis
"The Art of War" by Sun Tzu
“Matterhorn: a Novel of the Vietnam War” by Karl Marlantes
“The Defense of Duffer’s Drift” by E. D. Swinton
“The Forgotten Soldier” by Guy Sajer
“The Last Stand of Fox Company ” by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin
“The Marines of Montford Point: America’s First Black Marines” by Melton McLaurin
“U.S. Constitution”
“With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa” by E. B. Sledge
Career Level Enlisted: Sgt, SSgt
“First to Fight: An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps” by Victor Krulak
“Islands of the Damned” by R. V. Burgin and Bill Marvel
“Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell
“Quartered Safe Out Here” by George Fraser
"Resilience" by Eric Greitens
“Soldiers of God” by R. Kaplan
“Storm of Steel” by Ernst Junger
“The Defense of Duffer’s Drift” by E. D. Swinton
“The Forgotten Soldier” by Guy Sajer
“The Killer Angels” by Michael Shaara
“U.S. Constitution”
“With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa ” by E. B. Sledge
Career Level Officer: CWO-2, CWO-3, Capt
“Attacks” by Erwin Rommel
“Black Hearts” by Jim Frederick
“First to Fight: An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps” by Victor Krulak
"Curious" by Ian Leslie
“Infantry in Battle (FMFRP 12-2)” by the United States Marine Corps
“Into the Tiger’s Jaw” by Frank Petersen
“Islands of the Damned” by R. V. Burgin and Bill Marvel
“On Killing” by Dave Grossman
“Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell
“Quartered Safe Out Here” by George Fraser
“Sources of Power” by Gary Klein
“The Virtues of War” by Steven Pressfield
“U.S. Constitution”
“War Made New” by Max Boot
"We Were Soldiers Once... And Young" by Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway
Intermediate Level Enlisted: GySgt, MSgt, 1st Sgt
“All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Remarque
“American Spartans” by James Warren
"Bloodlands" by Timothy Snyder
“Fields of Fire” by James Webb
“Flags of Our Fathers” by James Bradley
“Helmet For My Pillow” by Robert Leckie
"Leading Change" by John Kotter
“On Killing” by Dave Grossman
“The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us and What We Can Do About It” by Joshua Ramo
“The Changing Face of War” by Martin Van Creveld
“This Kind of War” by T. R. Fehrenbach
“U.S. Constitution”
“We Were Soldiers Once… And Young” by Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway
Intermediate Level Officer: CWO-4, CWO-5, Maj, Lt.Col
“Battle Cry of Freedom” by James McPherson
“Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell
"Bloodlands" by Timothy Snyder
“Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War” by Robert Coram
“Brute: The Life of Victor Krulak” by Robert Coram
“Carnage and Culture” by Victor Hanson
“Command Culture” by Jörg Muth
“Defeat into Victory” by Viscount Slim
“Forgotten Warriors” by Thomas Hammes
“Hot, Flat, and Crowded” by Thomas Freidman
“Just and Unjust Wars” by Michael Walzer
“Military Innovation in the Interwar Period” by Williamson Murray and Allan Millett
“Ripples of Battle” by Victor Hanson
“The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us and What We Can Do About It” by Joshua Ramo
“Team of Teams" by Stanley McChrystal, Chris Fussell, Tantum Collins and David Silverman
"The Utility of Force" by Rupert Smith
"The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle” by J. Glenn Gray
“This Kind of War” by T. R. Fehrenbach
Senior Level Enlisted: MGySgt, SgtMaj
“Achilles in Vietnam” by Jonathan Shay
“Assignment Pentagon: How to Excel in a Bureaucracy” by Perry Smith and Daniel Gerstein
“Command Culture” by Jörg Muth
“Forgotten Warriors” by Thomas Hammes
“Hot, Flat, and Crowded” by Thomas Freidman
“Just and Unjust Wars” by Michael Walzer
“No Bended Knee” by Merrill Twining
“Team of Teams" by Stanley McChrystal, Chris Fussell, Tantum Collins and David Silverman
“The Face of Battle” by John Keegan
“The Mask of Command” by John Keegan
Senior Level Officer: Col-Gen
“Another Bloody Century” by Colin Gray
“Assignment Pentagon: How to Excel in a Bureaucracy” by Perry Smith and Daniel Gerstein
“Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Lies that Led to Vietnam” by H. R. McMaster
“Diplomacy” by Henry Kissinger
“How Wars End” by Gideon Rose
"Every War Must End" by Fred Iklé
"Strategy: A History" by Lawrence Freedman
“Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past” by John Gaddis
“Little Book of Economics: How the Economy Works in the Real World” by G. Ip
“Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle” by Stephen Biddle
“Modern Strategy” by Colin Gray
“Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen and Leadership in Wartime” by E. Cohen
“Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” by Doris Goodwin
“The Federalist Papers” by Alexander Hamilton
“The Guns of August” by Barbara Tuchman
“The Landmark of Thucydides” by Robert Strassler
"The Soldier and the State" by Samuel Huntington
"The War that Ended Peace" by Margaret MacMillan
"Treasury's War" by Juan Zarate
“The Revenge of Geography” by Robert Kaplan
Aviation
“100 Years of Marine Corps Aviation: An Illustrated History” by Roxanne Kaufman
“Hammer From Above: Marine Air Combat Over Iraq” by Jay Stout
“Marine Air: The History of the Flying Leathernecks in Words and Photos” by Robert Dorr
“On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War over Vietnam” by John Nichols and Barrett Tillman
“The Art of Airpower, Sun Tzu Revisited” by Sanu Kainikara
“The Naval Air War in Korea” by Richard Hallion
“U.S. Marine Corps Aviation Since 1912” by Peter Mersky
Counterinsurgency
“Counterinsurgency Warfare” by David Galula
“Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife” by John Nagl and Peter Schoomaker
“Street Without Joy” by Bernard Fall
“The Accidental Guerilla” by David Kilcullen
“The Village” by Bing West
“War Comes to Long An” by Jeffrey Race
Cyberwarfare & Security
“America the Vulnerable” by Joel Brenner
“Countdown to Zero Day” by Kim Zetter
“Cyber War” by Richard Clarke and Robert Knake
“Cyberpower and National Security” by Franklin Kramer
“Ghost Fleet” by P. W. Singer and August Cole
“Inside Cyber Warfare” by Jeffrey Carr
“Wired for War” by P. W. Singer
Leadership
“Developing the Leaders Around You” by John Maxwell
“Heroic Leadership” by Chris Lowney
"MCWP 6-11 Leading Marines" by United States Marine Corps
“Leadership and the New Science” by Margaret Wheatly
“Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times” by Donald Phillips
“Once a Marine” by Nick Popaditch and Mike Steere
“Start With Why” by Simon Sinek
“The Power of Communication” by Helio Garcia
“The Starfish and the Spider” by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom
"The Ethical Warrior" by Jack Hoban
"The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty" by Dan Ariely
Logistics
“Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army” by Donald Engels
“Clockspeed” by Charles Fine
“Feeding Mars: Logistics in Western Warfare from the Middle Ages to the Present” by John Lynn
“Keep from All Thoughtful Men: How U.S. Economists Won WWII” by Jim Lacey
“Pacific Express: The Critical Role of Military Logistics In WWII” by William McGee and Sandra McGee
“Recurring Logistic Problems as I Have Observed Them” by Carter Magruder
“Supplying War” by M. van Creveld
"The Sinews of War: Army Logistics 1775-1953" by James Huston
"Logistics in the Falklands War" by Kenneth Privratsky
"Lifeblood of War" by Julian Thompson
Regional and Cultural Studies
“Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat, and Camel” by J. Tayler
“Eastward to Tartary: Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus” by R. Kaplan
“Monsoon” by R. Kaplan
“Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea” by B. Demick
“The Great Arab Conquests” by H. Kennedy
“Understanding Arabs: A Contemporary Guide to Arab Society ” by M. Nydell
“What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East” by B. Lewis
Roots of Maneuver Warfare
“Airpower and Maneuver Warfare” by M. van Crefeld
“Assault from the Sea: Essays on the History of Amphibious Warfare ” by M. Bartlett
“Maneuver Warfare” by G. Galvin and R. Hooker
“Maneuver Warfare Handbook” by W. Lind
“The U.S. Marines and Amphibious War: Its Theory and Practice in the Pacific” by J. Isely and P. Crowl
Strategic Thinking
“Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life” by R. Paul and L. Elder
“General System Theory” by L. Von Bertalanffy
“Harnessing Complexity” by R. Axelrod and M. Cohen
“Rethinking the Principles of War” by A. McIvor
“The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable” by N. Taleb
“The Copernican Revolution” by T. Kuhn
“Thinking Fast and Slow” by D. Kahneman
“Thinking in Time: The uses of History for Decision Makers” by R. Neustadt and E. May
Wounded Warrior
“Ascent” by B. McGhie
“Courage After Fire: Coping Strategies for Troops Returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and Their families” by K. Armstrong, S. Best, and P. Domenici
“Down Range: To Iraq and Back” by B. Cantrell and C. Dean
“Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming” by J. Shay
“Once a Warrior Always a Warrior: Navigating the Transition from Combat to Home” by C. Hoge
“Once a Warrior: Wired for Life” by B. Cantrell and C. Dean
“Overcoming Post-Deployment Syndrome: A Six Step Mission to Health” by D. Cifu and C. Blake
“Shadow of the Sword” by J. Workman
“Soft Spots: A Marine’s Memoir of Combat and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” by C. Van Winkle
“Unbroken: A WWII Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption” by L. Hillenbrand
“War and the Soul: Healing Our Nation’s Veterans from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” by E. Tick
“Warrior Mindset” by M. Asken, L. Christensen, D. Grossman
“What It Is Like to Go to War” by K. Marlantes