This essential list is based on my research into the global phenomenon of the “professional military reading list.” These educational tools are used by armies, air forces, and navies around the world to encourage and support the development of broad and deep professional knowledge of the military arts and sciences among current and future cohorts of military professionals. I collected and analyzed nearly 70 of these playlists from services and armed forces across Asia, Oceania, the Americas and Europe, analyzed a bunch of data and compiled, among other things, the most reliable list of “essential readings”. I will probably find it for military professional development.
All academic articles and data behind this list are available for free at Readingforwisdom.com.
No. 10 is the wartime command of Martin Van Creveld. Read this provocative thought leader's blog at http://www.martin-van-creveld.com/
Number 9 is Eliot Cohen's Supreme Command. Follow https://www.youtube.com/watch?vaj3mJX-aQmI to hear Cohen on providing advice to strategic leaders.
#8 is Masters of War by Michael Handel. A review of this classic by Eliot Cohen is available at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2001-05-01/masters-war-classical-strategic-thought-third-revised-edition
Number 7 is The Mask of Command by John Keegan. Check out the great TV series /"Soldiers" based on the work of Keegan and Richard Holmes at https://www.youtube.com/watch?vF7BMcZmP-Xg
#6 is We Were Soldiers Once and Young by Harold Moore and James Galloway. Wow! Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?vxKMPCNbOla0 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v4r0WrlOs6r0 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?vwGNxHMFjigA and https://www. youtube.com/watch?vrh5FpxWlpCA
ReadingforWisdom is a YouTube channel aimed at exploring some of the ideas around the idea of the book as a timeless technology, essential to our intellectual evolution as a species. Considering “books” can and will take us on all kinds of intellectual journeys, but the channel has a natural penchant for discussions about books, their ideas and their authors that focus on history, war, politics , culture, science and the human condition (ok, most of the things that matter then). The videos will explore the history of religion but, unlike most content on the web referencing "wisdom", this is an entirely secular endeavor, with the editor-in-chief being a long-time religious skeptic .
The channel is a companion to https://readingforwisdom.com, a site curated by Dr. Emmet McElhatton to modestly add to what Chicago scholar Robert Maynard Hutchings, editor of the Great Books of the Western World series and, with his colleague Mortimer Adler, founder of the Great Books movement, described as the “great conversation” of history; the dialogue created by the exchange of ideas through published writings. Although the material on https://readingforwisdom.com is based on rigorous study, the result of ongoing reading, we hope to provide and recommend material that is accessible, thought-provoking, and free from unnecessary academic stylings.
This video series is filmed and edited by Caleb McClure. Music is provided by https://www.bensound.com/
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