Read Like a Military Historian

Want to read like an academic military historian? Here's the place to start!

When graduate students studying military history in the US finish their Masters Degree and then prepare for their PhD studies, they take a big test (of sorts) called a candidacy or general exam. They're expected to read a LOT of books, understand the various debates in their specific fields of study, and then be able to discuss all of that in both a written and oral exam. It's really stressful because failing the exam means you're out of grad school.

While no one is going to test you (hurray!), if you want to be educated like a PhD-ed military historian, here's a list of books to read so you can be. These books cover a wide variety of topics on a global scale from the ancient to the modern eras, and they're organized in alphabetical order by author first name. Any professional military historian should be aware of at least some of these books given that each in its own way makes an important contribution to the wider study of war.

It's quite a lot to read, but to quote a much-loved aphorism amongst graduate students: "It's only a lot of reading if you do it!"

• Adam Tooze, Wages of Destruction (2006)

• Alan Prestwich, Armies and Warfare in the Middle Ages (1996)

• Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace (2006)

• Allan R. Millett and Williamson Murray, eds., Military Effectiveness (3 vols.) (2010)

• Allan R. Millett and Williamson Murray, eds., Military Innovation in the Interwar Period (1998)

• Andrew de la Garza, The Mughal Empire at War (2016)

• Archibald Lewis and Thomas Runyan, European Naval and Maritime History (1985)

• Arthur Eckstein, Mediterranean Anarchy, Interstate War, and the Rise of Rome (2002)

• Berbard S. Bachrach and David S. Bachrach, Warfare in Medieval Europe (2021)

• Bernard B. Fall, Street Without Joy (2005)

• Bernard Bailyn, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967)

• Branda J. Buchanan, Gunpowder, Explosives, and the State (2006)

• Carlo Cipolla, Guns, Sails, and Empires (1965)

• Clifford J. Rogers, ed., The Military Revolution Debate (1995)

• David Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon (1966)

• David Evans and Mark Peattie, Kaigun (1997)

• David Graff and Robin Highim, A Military History of China (2002)

• David Graff, Medieval Chinese Warfare (2001)

• David Parrot, The Business of War (2012)

• David Ralston, ed., Importing the European Army (1996)

• Dennis E. Showalter, Railroads and Rifles (1975)

• Edward Luttwak, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire (1976)

• Edward N. Luttwak, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire (1976)

• Fred Anderson, The Crucible of War (2001)

• Geoffrey Parker, ed., The Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare (2021)

• Geoffrey Parker, The Military Revolution (1988)

• Gunther E. Rothenberg, The Art of Warfare in the Age of Napoleon (1977)

• Hew Strachan, The First World War (2005)

• J.R. Hale, War and Society in Renaissance Europe, 1450 – 1620 (1985)

• Jack A. Goldstone, Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World (1991)

• James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom (2003)

• Jan Glete, War and State in Early Modern Europe (2001)

• Jeremy Black, A Military Revolution? (1990)

• Jeremy Black, Naval Warfare, A Global History (2017)

• Jim Bradbury, The Medieval Archer (1985)

• John A. Nagle, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife (2002)

• John Brewer, The Sinews of Power (1989)

• John Dower, War without Mercy (1986)

• John F. Guilmartin, Jr., Gunpowder and Galleys (2003)

• John France, Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades, 1000 – 1300 (1999)

• John K. Thornton, Warfare in Atlantic Africa, 1500-1800 (1999)

• John Lynn, Bayonets of the Republic (1984)

• John Lynn, Feeding Mars (1993)

• John Lynn, Women, Armies, and Warfare (2008)

• Karl Friday, Hired Swords (1992)

• Kelly DeVries, Infantry Warfare in the Early Fourteenth Century (1996)

• Kelly DeVries, Medieval Military Technology (1992)

• Kenneth Swope, Warfare in China Since 1600 (2005)

• Lawrence Keeley, War Before Civilization (1996)

• MacGregor Knox and Williamson Murray, The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300 – 2050 (2001)

• Mark Edward Lewis, Sanctioned Violence in Early China (1989)

• Mark Grimsley and Clifford J. Rogers, Civilians in the Path of War (2002)

• Mark Grimsley, The Hard Hand of War (1995)

• Martin can Creveld, Supplying War (1997)

• Michael Howard, “The Use and Abuse of Military History” (1981)

• Michael Howard, War in European History (1976)

• Michael Wert, Samurai: A Concise History (2019)

• Modris Ecksteins, Rites of Spring (1989)

• N.A.M. Rodger, The Command of the Ocean (2004)

• N.A.M. Rodger, The Safeguard of the Sea (1997)

• Nathan Rosenstein, Rome at War (2004)

• Neil Ferguson, The Pity of War (1998)

• Nicola di Cosmo, ed., Military Culture in Imperial China (2009)

• Noel Perrin, Giving Up the Gun (1979)

• Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory (1975)

• Paul Kennedy, Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987)

• Peter C. Perdue, China Marches West (2005)

• Peter Lorge, The Asian Military Revolution (2008)

• Peter Lorge, War, Politics and Society in Early Modern China, 900-1795 (2005)

• Raaflaub and Rosenstein, War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds (1999)

• Reina Pennington, Wings, Women, and Warfare (2002)

• Richard Bessel, Nazism and War (2002)

• Richard Frank, Downfall (1999)

• Richard J. Overy, The Air War (2005)

• Richard J. Overy, Why the Allies Won (1995)

• Richard Reid, Warfare in African History (2012)

• Richard White, The Middle Ground (1991)

• Ronald H. Spector, Eagle Against the Sun (1985)

• Ross Hassig, War and Society in Ancient Mesoamerica (1992)

• Stephen Kern, The Culture of Time and Space (1983)

• Stephen LeBlanc, Prehistoric Warfare in the American Southwest (1999)

• Stephen Turnbull, The Samurai: A Military History (1977)

• Susan Rose, Medieval Naval Warfare 1000 – 1500 (2001)

• Tonio Andrade, The Gunpowder Age (2016)

• Ute Frevert, A Nation in Barracks (2004)

• Victor Davis Hanson, Carnage and Culture (2001)

• Victor Davis Hanson, The Western War of War (1989)

• William Farris, Heavenly Warriors (1992)

• William H. McNeil, The Pursuit of Power (1982)