Warriors Required Reading List

[Bill Mattocks]

The US Marine Corps requires every Marine to read at least one book per year, per grade, from the official list of recommended titles. Many of them are of specific interest to Marines, but many are also quite surprising.

What's your list of required reading for the warrior? What are your thoughts on these?

http://www.marines.mil/unit/tecom/mcu/grc/library/Documents/MarineCorpsReadingList2011.pdf

This is not the entire list below; just the ones I thought most interesting and some were a bit surprising. Thoughts?

A Message To Garcia by Elbert Hubbard
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
1984 by George Orwell
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
The Ugly American by Eugene Burdick
A Soldier’s Load and the Mobility of a Nation by S.L.A. Marshall
A Bell for Adano by John Hersey
The Arab Mind by Raphael Patai
On Killing by Dave Grossman
Islands of the Damned by R. V. Burgin
The Accidental Guerilla by David Kilcullen
The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman
The Crisis of Islam by Bernard Lewis
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
Stormtroop Tactics by Bruce Gudmundsson
Attacks by Erwin Rommell
The Landmark Thucydides edited by Robert Strassler
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Goodwin
Decoding Clausewitz by Jon Sumida
Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World by Raghuram Rajan

 

[ballen0351]

When did they start that? I wasnt required to read anything?

I would say off top of my head
Lone Suvivor by Marcus Luterll
Liberty and Tyranny by Mark Levin
House to House by David Bellavia
Carlos Hathcock "white feather" I dont remember who wrote it.

 

[punisher73]

I would say for martial artists, "Living the Martial Way" by F. Morgan. Whether you agree with him or not, it is a book that will at least get you thinking and why you think that way.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

When did they start that? I wasnt required to read anything?

I don't know - I wasn't required to read anything but the Field Manual for Marines, and that only for promotion boards! However, when I was in, there was a push to get more Marines taking MCI courses; do you remember those? I also got a Meritorious Mast because I discovered (by asking, no one in my unit knew) that you could take correspondence training from any US military service. I ended up getting certified in Shore Patrol / Master at Arms by the US Navy and Psychological Warfare by the US Army by taking their certification courses. I wrote up the procedure and taught how to do it to my unit and got a nice MM for it.

I would say off top of my head
Lone Suvivor by Marcus Luterll
Liberty and Tyranny by Mark Levin
House to House by David Bellavia
Carlos Hathcock "white feather" I dont remember who wrote it.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll take a look at those.

 

[billc]

For the civilian interested in fighting:

The writings of Marc "animal" Macyoung.
The Gift of fear, by Gavin Debecker (check the spelling of his name)
To ride, shoot straight, and tell the truth, By Jeff Cooper and his other books and articles.
Mas Ayoobs books on shooting and self-defense.

Well, if Mark Levine can be mentioned, then Liberty and Tyranny, and his new Ameritopia.