This week's reading list: Rep. Skelton on military history

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Friday, September 11, 2009 - 4:31 PM Share

It must be a month or more since I've posted a reading list on a national security topic. Here is a great list, and I'd say it even if my books weren't on it. I've read most of the works recommended here. Anyone preparing to appear before the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee might considering checking out this list.

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EXPLORE:RECOMMENDED READING, HISTORY, MILITARY

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AIRSIX

4:49 PM ET

September 11, 2009

Don't forget...

...this is Part II of his 100-volume list. (And don't worry, Tom, you're in Part I as well.)

And yes, for the skeptics -- knowing Chairman Skelton, I can say he has read all of these and far more. Not your typical "defense-y" congressman.

RPM

5:05 PM ET

September 11, 2009

but then...

I found Meachum's book on Jackson unreadable. After 200+ pages of the Peggy Eaton affair you just give up and read something else. HW Brands' 2005 biography is much better - and actually spends more than a couple of pages on his career before the presidency.

Halberstam's book on the Korea War is really a book about how the United States got into Vietnam. There is precious little military history in the darned thing. Important to be sure, but Max Hastings' book on Korea is far better if you want to learn about the actual war.

Finally, ever since Bill Casey gave a dying interview to Woodward that no one else witnessed I have taken all of his reporting with a big grain of salt. He seems to start with a thesis and then set out to prove it.

And sure, the esteemed chairman may have read all these books... but the cut and paste comments from Amazon and other sources make the thing seem like the final product of some rich donor's kid doing a summer internship.

GRANT

1:34 AM ET

September 12, 2009

A good list I suppose but I

A good list I suppose but I have a small problem with it. Nearly every single book on the list is Euro-centric. I could accept that the books solely consisted of ones on the United States, but with the inclusion of books on Britain during the Napoleonic Wars and the European powers leading up to the First World War it makes the list seem biased. If it's argued that we can learn quite a bit from how decisions were made by other nations then obviously we can learn something from Chinese, Russian, and Iraqi authors can't we?

CMH

3:31 AM ET

September 12, 2009

Decent list, but...

No room for historical fiction? With resources and patience spread thin, now might be a good time to add Wallace Breem's Eagle in the Snow to everyone's reading list.

ADMIRAL

4:48 PM ET

September 12, 2009

Great List of War Porn

Great list if you get off on war porn. Skelton is a war monger that worships war machine USA. What kind of person would spend there time reading this list of mostly myths and pure propoganda? Easy, the war mongers of America.

AIRSIX

8:31 PM ET

September 12, 2009

Part I of the list is far

Part I of the list is far less Euro-centric, and the stub reviews aren't cut-and-paste.

WALKING WOUNDED

1:42 AM ET

September 13, 2009

Lukin's 10 Best Books On 4th Gen. Warfare

I happened to run up on this 2005 list while trolling for William Lind articles.
Ten Best Books On Fourth Generation Warfare
http://www.d-n-i.net/lukin/lukin_best_4gw_books.htm

I wonder how Lind and his 1989 "Changing Face of War" collaborator's rate the enemy's progress toward 4GW synthesis, in 2009.

After scanning Skelton's weighty list, it's easy to see why Team Bush dilettantes wanted no advice from the former ranking minority Democrat.

GRANT

7:32 PM ET

September 13, 2009

I would be careful with Lind,

I would be careful with Lind, in military theory his ideas are interesting (jury's still out on whether he's right) but on his social theories it's all I can do to not spam his email.

JSTRUMMER

4:25 AM ET

September 13, 2009

A lot of nonsense on this list

Barbara Tuchman on the July Crisis? Tom Brokaw? Doris Kearns Goodwin? Malcolm Gladwell?

This is not a serious list. This is a list of books read by someone who lives and works in Washington, has limited time to devote to actual policy, and likes to easy-to-digest, but often wrong, stuff written for a popular audience. This is so when he's at a dinner party, he can say to Doris and Tom, hey, I just read your book on the Greatest Generation, great stuff, Tom.

JSTRUMMER

4:30 AM ET

September 13, 2009

Chairman Skelton sez: America rocks, Tom Brokaw told me so.

"And yes, for the skeptics -- knowing Chairman Skelton, I can say he has read all of these and far more. Not your typical "defense-y" congressman."

Actually this reading list is exactly what I'd expect from a "defense-y" congressman. Easy-to-read general narratives that put the spotlight on America's warmaking throughout the last 100 years. Nothing terribly serious in this list, just book after book to reassure the reader that, whatever America's failings, it's not been for lack of good will and noble purpose.

GRANT

7:30 PM ET

September 13, 2009

I'd say that good will and

I'd say that good will and noble purpose is actually one of our public failings. I think the United States public sometimes has a tendency to see the world too much in terms of either bad dictators who are hated by everyone or rational, reasonable people who all want democracy, and so when we do things like nation building we act under those assumptions. It would help a lot if we spent more time studying those places before we went to them.

FASHION

7:33 AM ET

September 17, 2009

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