The Commandant of the Marine Corps issues a professional reading list at the beginning of his tenure. The following list was issued by General Charles Krulak under ALMAR 246/96 dated 8.July.1996. The list is broken down by rank:
For Private, Private First Class, and Lance Corporal. Read at least two books annually from the following list:
FORESTER. Rifleman Dodd (courage and commitment)
HEINLEIN. Starship Troopers (training)
HUBBARD. A Message to Garcia (memoir)
MILLER. The Bridge at Dong-Ha (operations/campaigns/battles)
SIMMONS. U.S. Marines: 1775-1975 (heritage) U.S. Constitution (policy)
WEBB. Fields of Fire (leadership)
For Corporal and Sergeant. Read at least two books annually from the following list:
BARBER. The War of the Running Dogs: The Malayan Emergency, 1948-1962 (small wars)
CAMPBELL. The Old Man's Trail (small wars)
CARD. Ender's Game (tactics)
CHAPIN. Uncommon Men: Sergeants Major of the Marine Corps (leadership)
CRANE. The Red Badge of Courage (tactics)
DAVIS. Marine: The Life of LtGen Lewis B. (Chesty) Puller, USMC (Ret) (biography)
HAMMEL. Fire in the Streets: The Battle for Hue, Tet, 1968 (operations/campaigns/battles)
LECKIE. The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Negro Cavalry in the West (operations/campaigns/battles)
LECKIE. Strong Men Armed: The United States Marines Against Japan (heritage)
MARSHALL. Soldier's Load and the Mobility of a Nation (tactics)
MCCORMICK. The Right Kind of War (heritage)
SCHELL. Battle Leadership (leadership)
SWINTON. The Defense of Duffer's Drift (tactics)
THOMASON. Fix Bayonets! (heritage)
URIS. Battle Cry (heritage)
WEST. The Village (small wars)
For Staff Sergeant, Warrant Officer, Chief Warrant Officer 2, Chief Warrant Officer 3, Second Lieutenant, and First Lieutenant. Read at least three books annually from the following list:
AMBROSE. Band of Brothers: E Co, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne: From Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest (leadership)
AMBROSE. Pegasus Bridge: June 6, 1944 (leadership)
ASPREY. War in the Shadows: The Guerrilla in History (small wars)
COLLINS. Common Sense Training: A Working Philosophy for Leaders (training)
ENGLISH and GUDMUNDSSON. On Infantry (history)
FULLER. Grant and Lee: A Study in Personality and Generalship (operations/campaigns/battles)
GIAP. How We Won the War (small wars)
HAGAN. American Gunboat Diplomacy and the Old Navy, 1877-1889 (seapower)
HOLMES. Acts of War: The Behavior of Men in Battle (memoir)
HYNES. Flights of Passage: Reflections of a World War II Aviator (heritage)
KEEGAN. The Face of Battle (history)
LAQUER and ALEXANDER. Terrorism Reader: A Historical Anthology (small wars)
LIDDELL HART. Strategy (strategy)
LIND. Maneuver Warfare Handbook (tactics)
MANNING. The Middle Parts of Fortune: Somme and Ancre, 1916 (operations/campaigns/battles)
MOORE and GALLOWAY. We Were Soldiers Once and Young: Ia Drang, The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam (leadership)
MOSKIN. The U.S. Marine Corps Story (heritage)
MOSKOS. The Military: More Than Just a Job (strategy)
NOLAN. Operation Buffalo: USMC Fight for the DMZ (operations/campaigns/battles)
NYE. Challenge of Command: A Reading for Military Excellence (leadership)
ROMMEL. Attacks (tactics)
ROSS. Iwo Jima: Legacy of Valor (heritage)
SAJER. The Forgotten Soldier: The Classic WW II Autobiography (memoir)
SCALES. Firepower in Limited War (small wars)
SHAARA. The Killer Angels (operations/campaigns/battles)
SHERROD. Tarawa: The Story of a Battle (heritage)
SULZBERG. The Fall of Eagles (air power)
SUN TZU. Art of War (theory) U.S. Constitution (policy)
WILLOCK. Unaccustomed to Fear: A Biography of the Late General Roy S. Gieger, United States Marine Corps (heritage)
For Gunnery Sergeant, First Sergeant, Master Sergeant, Chief Warrant Officer 4, and Captain. Read at least four books annually from the following list:
ARDANT DU PICQ. Battle Studies: Ancient and Modern Battles (tactics)
CHALIAND. Guerrilla Strategies: A Historical Anthology from the Long March to Afghanistan (small wars)
DOUGHTY. The Breaking Point: Sedan and the Fall of France, 1940 (operations/campaigns/battles)
FALL. Street Without Joy (small wars)
HACKETT. Profession of Arms (memoir)
HASTINGS. Battle for the Falklands (seapower)
HEINL. Victory at High Tide: The Inchon-Seoul Campaign (operations/campaigns/battles)
HIGGINBOTHAM. The War of the American Independence: Military Attitudes, Policies, and Practice (operations/campaigns/battles)
HOFFMAN. Once a Legend: "Red Mike" Edson of the Marine Raiders (heritage)
HOOKER. Maneuver Warfare: An Anthology (theory)
HORNE. The Price of Glory: Verdun, 1916 (operations/campaigns/battles)
Infantry School (U.S.). Infantry in Battle (tactics)
ISELY & CROWL. The U.S. Marines and Amphibious War: Its Theory, and Its Practice in the Pacific (seapower)
KEEGAN. The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare (seapower)
KRULAK. First to Fight: An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps (heritage)
LUPFER. The Dynamics of Doctrine: The Changes in German Tactical Doctrine During the First World War (doctrine)
MACARTHUR. Reminiscences (memoir)
MACDONALD. Company Commander (memoir)
MAO TSE-TUNG. Mao Tse-Tung on Guerrilla Warfare (small wars)
MCDONOUGH. Defense of Hill 781 (training)
MCPHERSON. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (strategy)
MELLENTHIN. Panzer Battles: A Study of the Employment of Armor in the Second World War (tactics)
MEYER. Company Command: The Bottom Line (training)
MILLETT. Semper Fidelis: The History of the United States Marine Corps (heritage)
MILLETT and MASLOWSKI. For the Common Defense: A Military History of the United States of America (theory)
MOOREHEAD. Gallipoli (theory)
MORAN. The Anatomy of Courage (leadership)
MYRER. Once an Eagle (leadership)
NAVMC 2890, Small Wars Manual (small wars)
NEWMAN. Follow Me, Human Element in Leadership (leadership)
O'BALLANCE. No Victor, No Vanquished: Yom Kippur War (operations/campaigns/battles)
PEPPERS. History of U.S. Military Logistics, 1935-1985: A Brief Review (logistics)
PULLER. Fortunate Son (heritage)
SEARS. Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam (operations/campaigns/battles)
SLEDGE. With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa (heritage)
SMITH. Douglas Southall Freeman on Leadership (leadership)
SUMMERS. On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War (strategy)
TURLEY. The Easter Offensive, Vietnam, 1972 (operations/ campaigns/battles)
VAN CREVELD. Airpower and Maneuver Warfare (airpower)
For Major and Chief Warrant Officer 5. Read at least four books annually from the following list:
BAYNES. Morale: A Study of Men and Courage (leadership)
CATTON. Grant Takes Command (memoir)
CLAUSEWITZ. On War (theory)
D'ESTE. Patton: A Genius for War (biography)
FALL. Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu (small wars)
FEHRENBACH. This Kind of War: A Study in Unpreparedness (tactics)
FRANK. Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account (operations/campaigns/battles)
FRASER. Knight's Cross: A Life of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel (history)
GRIFFITH. Forward into Battle: Fighting Tactics from Waterloo to Vietnam (tactics)
GUEVARA. Che Guevara on Guerrilla Warfare (small wars)
HAMMEL. Chosin: Heroic Ordeal of the Korean War (heritage)
HIGGINBOTHAM. George Washington and the American Military Tradition (strategy)
LEJEUNE. Reminiscences of a Marine (heritage)
MERSKY. U.S. Marine Corps Aviation: 1912 to the Present (airpower)
PARET. Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age (strategy)
PRANGE. At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor (operations/campaigns/battles)
ROBERTSON. Dieppe: The Shame and the Glory (tactics)
SCHWARZKOPF. It Doesn't Take a Hero (memoir)
SHERROD. History of Marine Corps Aviation in WWII (airpower)
SHY. A People Numerous and Armed: Reflections on the Military Struggle for American Independence (small wars)
SLIM. Defeat into Victory (operations/campaigns/battles)
SPECTOR. Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan (operations/campaigns/battles)
VAN CREVALD. Command in War (command)
VAN CREVALD. Supplying War: Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton (logistics)
For Master Gunnery Sergeant, Sergeant Major, and Lieutenant Colonel. Read at least four books annually from the following list:
BAER. One Hundred Years of Seapower: The U.S. Navy 1890-1990 (seapower)
BENNETT. Ultra in the West: The Normandy Campaign, 1944-1945 (intelligence)
BUELL. The Quiet Warrior: A Biography of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance (memoir)
GORDON & TRAINOR. The General's War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf (operations/campaigns/battles)
JAMES. The Years of Macarthur (leadership)
KEISER. The U.S. Marine Corps and Defense Unification 1944-47: The Politics of Survival (heritage)
KOHN. Eagle and Sword: The Federalists and the Creation of the Military Establishment in America, 1783-1802 (policy)
KREPINEVICH. The Army and Vietnam (small wars)
LONG. Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (memoir)
MILLETT. In Many a Strife: General Gerald C. Thomas and the U.S. Marine Corps, 1917-1956 (heritage)
MURRAY. The Making of Strategy (strategy)
NEWMAN. Follow Me II: More on the Human Element in Leadership (tactics)
PAGONIS. Moving Mountains: Lessons in Leadership and Logistics from the Gulf War (logistics)
TRAVERS. How the War Was Won (tactics)
VAUX. Take That Hill: Royal Marines in the Falklands War (operations/campaigns/battles)
WHITE. The Enlightened Soldier: Scharnhorst and the Militarische Gesellschaft in Berlin, 1801-1805 (history)
WOODWARD. 100 Days: The Memoirs of the Falklands Battle Group Commander (memoir)
For Colonel. Read at least four books annually from the following list:
AMBROSE. The Supreme Commander; The War Years of General Dwight D. Eisenhower (memoir)
BRENNAN. Foundations of Moral Obligation: The Stockdale Course (leadership)
CHANDLER. The Campaigns of Napoleon (operations/campaigns/battles)
COHEN. Military Misfortunes: The Anatomy of Failure in War (theory)
CRAY. General of the Army: George C. Marshall, Soldier and Statesman (memoir)
DOUGHTY. Seeds of Disaster: The Development of French Army Doctrine, 1919-1939 (tactics)
ECCLES. Logistics in the National Defense (logistics)
FLICKE. War Secrets in the Ether: The Use of Signals Intelligence by the German Military in WWII (intelligence)
FORESTER. The General (leadership)
FRIEDMAN. From Beirut to Jerusalem (small wars)
HORNE. A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954-1962 (small wars)
HORNE. To Lose a Battle: France, 1940 (operations/campaigns/battles)
KENNEDY. The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery (seapower)
MILLETT & MURRAY. Military Innovation in the Interwar Period (policy)
MURRAY. Luftwaffe (airpower)
O'NEILL. A Democracy at War: America's Fight at Home and Abroad in WWII (strategy)
PALMER. The 25-Year War: America's Military Role in Vietnam (strategy)
POTTER. Nimitz (biography)
RIDGEWAY. Korean War (operations/campaigns/battles)
RYAN. A Bridge Too Far (operations/campaigns/battles)
SHULIMSON. The Marine Corps Search for a Mission 1880-1898 (heritage)
SIMPKIN. Race to the Swift: Thoughts on Twenty First Century Warfare (theory)
SMYTHE. Pershing, General of the Armies (biography)
THUCYDIDES. The Peloponnesian War (strategy)
TRAVERS. The Killing Ground: The British Army, The Western Front, and the Emergence of Modern Warfare, 1900-1918 (tactics)
VAN TIEN DUNG. Our Great Spring Victory: An Account of the Liberation of South Vietnam (small wars)
VANDEGRIFT. Once a Marine: The Memoirs of General A. A. Vandegrift, USMC (heritage)
WEIGLEY. Eisenhower's Lieutenants: The Campaign of France and Germany, 1944-1945 (memoir)
For Generals. Select from the books listed below.
BARTLETT. Lejeune: A Marine's Life, 1867-1942 (heritage)
FULLER. Generalship, Its Diseases and Their Cure: A Study of the Personal Factor in Command (theory)
HALBERSTAM. The Best and the Brightest (policy)
KAGAN. On the Orgins of War and the Preservation of Peace (strategy)
KENNEDY. Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500-2000 (sinews)
KISSINGER. Diplomacy (strategy)
MACDONALD. Giap: The Victor in Vietnam (small wars)
MCNAMARA. In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam (strategy)
MOORE. A Woman at War: Storming Kuwait with the U.S. Marines (operations/campaigns/battles)
MURRAY. Airwar in the Gulf (doctrine)
NEWMAN. What Are Generals Made Of? (theory)
POWELL. My American Journey (leadership)
ROYSTER. Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman (memoir)
SCHMIDT. Maverick Marine: General Smedley Butler and the Contradictions of American Military History (heritage)
SHEEHAN. A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam (small wars)
TIMBERG. The Nightingale's Song (memoir)
TWINING. No Bended Knee (heritage)
Current issues reading list. All marines should read at least one book from each of the following two groupings (military affairs and national security issues and professional and societal issues), annually. The following books are listed by subject category, title, and author (in parenthesis):
MILITARY AFFAIRS AND NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUES:
-- Roles and Missions:
(1) America's Cutting Edge: U.S. Marine Corps Roles and Missions (GREENWOOD and NEIMEYER)
-- Peace Operations:
(1) Angels from the Sea: Relief Operations in Bangladesh (SMITH);
(2) NATO: From Berlin to Bosnia (DREW);
(3) Peacekeeper (MCKENZIE)
-- Revolutions In Military Affairs:
(1) 1995-1996 Brassey's Mershon American Defense Annual (MURRAY);
(2) War and Anti-War (TOFFLER and TOFFLER)
-- Information Warfare:
(1) Information Warfare (SCWARTAU);
(2) The First Information War (CAMPEN);
(3) What is Information Warfare? (LIBICKI)
-- International Nuclear Proliferation:
(1) Managing Non-Proliferation Regimes in the 1990's (VAN HAM);
(2) Nuclear Non-Proliferation: A Primer (REINER)
-- Military and the Media:
(1) Big Story (BRAESTRUP);
(2) Hotel Warriors (FIALKA)
PROFESSIONAL AND SOCIETAL ISSUES:
-- Professional Development:
(1) Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (COVEY);
(2) Taking Charge, Making the Right Choices (SMITH);
(3) The Deming Management Method (WALTON);
(4) The Fifth Discipline (SENGE)
-- Cultural Diversity:
(1) Beyond Race and Gender (THOMAS);
(2) Cultural Diversity Manual (BUCHEN);
(3) Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal (HACKER)
-- Ethics:
(1) Book of Virtues (BENNETT);
(2) Integrity (CARTER)
-- Women in the Military:
(1) Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces, 15 nov 1992;
(2) Step Forward (WEBB);
(3) Woman Marine (YIANILOS);
(4) Women and War (ELSHTAIN)
The "Commandant's Choice" is a book selected annually for its timeliness and value to all marines; it complements a theme taken from our core values. The "Commandant's Choice" is announced by separate ALMAR annually and should be read by all Marines. Rifleman Dodd by C. S. FORESTER is currently "CMC's Choice."
Books on the professional reading list can be obtained through bookstores, Marine Corps or civilian libraries, Marine Corps exchanges, or the Marine Corps Association (Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134 or by telephone at 703-640-6161 or toll free at 1-800-336-0291). Some books on the list may not be in print but remain on the list because of their enduring value. Books not in stock or out of print may also be special ordered.
The Marine Corps professional reading program remains dynamic. Recommendations are encouraged and should be forwarded to CG, MCCDC (C 40OP), 2042 South Street, Quantico, VA 22134.//
This page was last modified:
14.March.2002
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