Serious reading on military history, strategy, leadership, and the profession of arms. Explore 150+ essays, reviews, interviews, and reading lists.
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Most military reading lists recycle the same 10 titles and call it done.
After 150+ articles reviewing books, mining professional journals, and building reading lists at The Military Reading Room, these are the titles I'd hand any serious reader.
Command under friction:
→ Thinking in Bets, Annie Duke
→ Speed Kills, Alex Vohr
→ The Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson
Tactical adaptation and future warfare:
→ Project Maven, Katrina Manson
→ Practicing Intelligence, Col. Tim Oliver
→ Ortiz's War, Nicholas Reynolds and Katie Sanders
Strategic deterrence and naval power:
→ Anti-Access Warfare, Sam J. Tangredi
→ Fleet Tactics, Wayne Hughes
→ Sea Power, James Stavridis
None of these treat doctrine as a script. They show how leaders adapt when plans break down, communication cuts out, and the operating environment turns hostile.
All of them sharpen how you think about decision-making under friction.
The full archive is at The Military Reading Room on Substack.
The books and studies that actually shape operational thinking almost never appear on airport bestseller lists. They sit inside military journals.
September's Military Journal Picks at The Military Reading Room examines 4 distinct operational areas: tactical adaptation in Vietnam's river deltas, the institutional rise of modern U.S. intelligence tradecraft, command friction in Iraq, and the strategic doctrine guiding China's military ascent.
Read the full overview at The Military Reading Room:
themilitaryreadingroom.subst…
Some worthwhile military books are easy to miss.
They may come from a university press, a specialized military publisher, or simply fall outside the books getting the most attention.
That is part of what Publisher Intelligence is meant to fix.
Our October edition includes a new history of the modern Middle East, an Air University Press volume on leadership and the changing character of war, the 42nd “Rainbow” Division in World War I, enlisted Marine leadership, and a five-volume reference series on North Korea’s armed forces.
Five very different subjects, but each can add context to the military and national security questions we are thinking about today.
Which one would you start with?
Read the full post.
We spend a lot of time reading U.S. military journals. This month, we looked outward.
Our first International Military Journals roundup draws from Indian, British, and Canadian publications, looking at how military professionals and defense thinkers outside the United States are approaching many of the same problems.
India’s relationship with the Strait of Hormuz. Dual-use technology and military advantage. Autonomous air power. Air maneuver in a drone-heavy battlefield. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization. And the larger question of why nations go to war.
The subjects vary, but the value is the same: understanding military problems through someone else’s frame of reference.
Which country’s military journals should we look at next?
Read the full post.
Do you know someone who is interested in military history, strategy, or national security?
Someone who is always looking for the next worthwhile book - or who wants more context behind the headlines?
Share 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝗼𝗼𝗺 with them.
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Vicksburg is one of the clearest case studies in connecting strategic goals to operational objectives.
Grant's victory was never a foregone conclusion. The Army of the Tennessee had to overcome formidable terrain, adapt through repeated operational failures, and maneuver across a 9-month campaign on enemy turf.
The siege gets remembered. The real lesson is the sweep of the campaign that made it possible.
Preparation begins long before the order is given.
What subject are you studying now in preparation for responsibilities you may carry later?
In July 1943, Allied naval gunners shot down 23 Allied C-47 transport planes carrying paratroopers over Sicily.
Every loss came from their own fleet. During Operation Husky, jittery gunners opened fire on approaching transport aircraft, creating a catastrophic breakdown in joint operations.
The standard bureaucratic response would have been burying the disaster as unavoidable operational friction. Dwight Eisenhower and his commanders chose to treat it as a failure of system architecture instead.
They tore airborne procedures apart before the invasion of France.
Flight corridors were completely separated from naval fire zones. Recognition signals and joint radio communications were rebuilt. Ahead of June 6, 1944, Allied leadership forced through a complete procedural overhaul for joint fire deconfliction.
Those fixes made the airborne drops at Normandy possible.
James Holland's Sicily '43: The First Assault on Fortress Europe is the best account of the campaign and the institutional reckoning that followed. The lesson for any operator: a failure you study is worth far more than one you bury.
The success of D-Day was built in the wreckage of Sicily.
Beyond the siege: Vicksburg was Grant's clinic in leadership. Adapting, innovating, and coordinating forces for 9 months until the Confederacy was split.
A strategic victory forged by operational brilliance.
The Cauldron connects the region's past directly to current conflicts.
Disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb show why historical context remains necessary for understanding today's security environment.
Russia's failure at Hostomel Airport has prompted commentators to declare air maneuver obsolete on modern battlefields.
In The British Army Review, a senior officer challenges that conclusion. That failure demonstrated shortcomings in execution rather than an obsolete concept, and adaptation can preserve air maneuver's operational advantages. With proper adaptation, moving forces by air remains an essential operational tool on a lethal battlefield.
Discarding a capability because an adversary botched the execution misreads the real tactical lesson.
Read our survey of foreign military journals at The Military Reading Room:
themilitaryreadingroom.subst…
Economic sanctions are instruments of national power, but how credible are they when domestic energy pressures intervene?
Blackwill and Harris explore this dilemma in War by Other Means: Geoeconomics and Statecraft (2016).
A timely lesson in strategy beyond the battlefield.
Sanctions relief will continue. I think the diesel deal and the move regarding the Lindsey Graham Act are not the end of it. Unfortunately.
It’s unfortunate because we all had great respect for Lindsey. He devoted his life to America. We had an excellent relationship with him. And shortly before the tragedy, Lindsey was in Ukraine. He always supported us very strongly and pushed for as much assistance to Ukraine as possible.
It’s difficult without him, I’ll be honest. I want to thank both Democrats and Republicans who supported his bill. That was a major victory: this truly bipartisan support. And now, the decision to undo all of this, to block all of it, seems wrong to me. And it definitely helps only the Russians. It only fuels their satisfaction and their desire to keep killing people. This certainly does not stop the war.
From answers to journalists’ questions. (1/3)
With drones and expanding air defenses in Ukraine, it is easy to assume air maneuver is obsolete.
In The British Army Review, a senior officer argues the operation failed on execution, and tactical adaptation preserves air maneuver's advantages on lethal battlefields.
We are looking forward to this release. Another for your consideration!
BOOK RELEASE update: My book with @LiamSCollins "The War for Karabakh: Strategy, Technology, and Victory" is now available for pre-order: lnkd.in/gEt5vNUF
"The 2020 Karabakh War was one of the most consequential armed conflicts of the twenty-first century. It ended nearly three decades of military stalemate, transformed the geopolitical landscape of the South Caucasus, and sparked worldwide debate over the future of warfare. Many observers concluded that the conflict heralded a new era in which drones and precision-strike systems had fundamentally changed the character of war. The War for Karabakh challenges that conventional wisdom.
Drawing on extensive battlefield reconnaissance, official military records, operational maps, open-source intelligence, social media analysis, and interviews with more than one hundred military commanders, government officials, and combat veterans from both Azerbaijan and Armenia, Liam Collins and John Spencer present the most comprehensive operational history of the conflict published to date. Spanning the First Karabakh War, Azerbaijans twenty-six-year military transformation, the 2020 campaign, and the decisive 2023 operation that restored Azerbaijani control over the region, this book offers the first complete analysis of the conflicts strategic evolution and military outcome. Throughout the volume, the authors use the term Karabakh rather than Nagorno-Karabakh, consistent with the books historical interpretation."
A timely recommendation from Dr. Robert Lyman on Stalin's Apostles...
Listen to the short video for another possible read to add to your list.
Reading a book a week is serious discipline.
I haven't read Ernle Bradford's The Great Siege yet, so I can't speak to the details of his account. But this is a time period we have not addressed.
Putting this on our list. If you follow The Military Reading Room, this one might be worth a look for your shelf as well.
Do you know someone who is interested in military history, strategy, or national security?
Someone who is always looking for the next worthwhile book - or who wants more context behind the headlines?
Share 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝗼𝗼𝗺 with them.
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The Military Reading Room retweeted
Lovely to get the proofs for this today and to see that it is being published by @PenguinUKBooks on 18 Feb 2027
