Martin Dempsey prepared the following professional reading list as the 37th Army Chief of Staff (pdf here), with this introduction:
This Professional Reading List is intended for all Army Soldiers, leaders and civilians. I’ve found these books to be thought-provoking about leadership, our Army and our history. Soldiers and civilians with a thirst for learning should consider using this list as a springboard for additional reading and study. I’d suggest you not limit yourselves to this or any other reading list you’ve been issued in the past. I just ask that you read and broaden your perspectives and develop your own passionate curiosity through reading and study.
History and Heritage
- John M. Schofield and the Politics of Generalship (Donald B. Connelly, 2006)
- The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane, 1990)
- This Kind of War: A Study in Unpreparedness (T. R. Fehrenbach, 2001)
- America’s First Battles: 1776-1965 (Charles E. Heller and William A. Stofft, eds., 1986)
- We Were Soldiers Once… and Young (Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway, 2004)
- Between War and Peace (Matthew Moten, ed., 2011)
- Once an Eagle (Anton Myrer, 2001)
- The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of Little Bighorn (Nathaniel Philbrick, 2010)
- Gates of Fire (Steven Pressfield, 1999)
- The Killer Angels (Michael Shaara, 2004)
- The Art of War (Sun Tzu, 2005)
- April 1865: The Month That Saved America (Jay Winik, 2006)
Leadership
- Click: The Forces behind How We fully Engage with People, Work, and Everything We Do (Ori and rom Brafman, 2010)
- The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations (Ori and Rom Brafman, 2006)
- Outliers: The Story of Success (Malcolm Gladwell, 2011)
- Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (Chip and Dan Heath, 2010)
- War (Sebastian Junger, 2010)
- The Defence of Duffer’s Drift (E. D. Swinton, 1916)
- Managing the Unexpected: Resilient Performance in an Age of Uncertainity (Karl E. Weick and Kathleen M. Sutcliffe, 2007)
Critical Analysis and the Global Context
- On War (Carl von Clausewitz, Howard and Paret eds., 1989)
- The World Is Flat (Thomas Friedman, 2005)
- The Lexus and the Olive Tree (Thomas Friedman, 2000)
- Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power (Robert D. Kaplan, 2010)
- The Age of the Unthinkable (Joshua C. Ramo, 2009)
- Soldier’s Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point (Elizabeth D. Samet, 2007)
- The Global Achievement Gap (Tony Wagner, 2008)
