I agree and I would submit that many people, maybe even most, are not good at assessing their own needs. Many officers think they *need* to read about war at the expense of reading other things. My argument here is that, for officers who have a good grasp of the basics, additional reading of books not directly related to war will have a higher payoff on average.
“This is why when I do read about military history, I prefer to study failures and blunders.”
Not a professional military officer or enlisted men myself. Nonetheless, I’ve spent my entire life for the military history. I agree with this. I also think studying smaller wars and lesser known wars and mostly forgotten wars, to the extent you can find material about them is also helpful. The battle of Gettysburg is over studied and over theorized. But what the hell was happening in Paraguay in the 19th century? There’s not that much in English, it’s a very strange conflict. There have to be lessons there. Memoir literature from older wars is also helpful. Getting people’s thoughts right after the conflict, before the official narrative has hardened into place, is helpful. For example, the memoirs about World War I written immediately afterward did not suggest that the conflict was futile and pointless and that the British leadership were incompetent, and that their men were slaughtered for no reason. There was some of that, certainly. But they did after all win the war. And also their army was the only one that did not crack. They must’ve been doing something right. Good post.
War memoirs can be helpful for pushing back against simple narratives and just-so stories. I've learned to pair a history book with memoir(s) for mutuaI support. I read Rommel's Infantry Attacks before I had enough contextual knowledge to maximise its value. Had I read Stormtroop Tactics at that point in my career, it would have helped me understand why Rommel was exceptional for his time, since many things we take for granted now were innovative in WWI.
One older book I found extraordinarily valuable was The Story of a Soldiers Life. It is a two volume autobiography, which covers about 2/3 of his absolutely astonishing career, by Garnet Wolseley. No one remembers him now. But in his day he was one of the most famous soldiers in the world. He rose from a penniless teenage subaltern to be in commander of the entire British army under Queen Victoria. He fought in Burma, India, China, the Crimea, Canada, West Africa, Egypt, Zululand, and was involved in various aspects of British military affairs beyond his incredible combat record. There is not a dull page in the book. It is absolutely thrilling. He is brutally honest about himself and others. It has a very modern feel. There is no Victorian sentimentality at all. It’s amazing to me that this brilliant and valuable book is completely forgotten.
“I also think studying smaller date wars and lesser known wars and mostly forgotten wars, to the extent you can find material about them is also helpful.”
Excellent point! Not only do many officers tend to read too much about war, their reading is often biased towards a few major conflicts.
One great thing we have these days is archive.org, which make out of print books available for free. There are a lot of high-quality books from the Victorian Edwardian era books which would otherwise be unavailable which can now be had easily. You can download it as a PDF and read it on the Kindle or on a computer.
Totally agree, studying the standard promoted cannon of war material can limit your understanding of war to the standard promoted cannon of war material. I'd fiction can lead to good insights also, no one would argue science fiction has led some military innovation. Taking a break and NOT reading, but sitting with your own observations and engaging with them will almost certainly lead to innovation and understanding. Hard for me to find people who argee with giving not reading a chance though, haha.
I WOULD SUGGEST fiction can lead to good insights. Sorry, typing this with my phone in one hand and egg nog in the other. Another recommendation for thinking freely.
I agree on the fiction. I began reading much more fiction this last year, and I’m amazed, looking back, the value I got from it in expression and insight.
A business school professor once said to me that studying failures yields much more information than studying successes. Same principle.
On the other hand, failure narratives are also often oversimplified and focus on an unrealistically small number of contributing factors. Because business books are written for idiots, any high-profile failure is often ascribed even to a single factor "If only they had done X earlier!". We now laugh at Blockbuster who got overtaken by Netflix, but how many people know that Blockbuster had a streaming platform project in the works before Netflix? Blockbuster was just so weighed down by buy-out debt loaded on it by private equity owners that it had to focus on current rather than future business.
I’ve always found it useful to go beyond professional reading by immersion in classic literature or, for that matter, almost any type of fiction. Both the heavy hitters of world literature and the run of the mill folk will provide useful insights into human nature that you’ll not find anywhere else
I agree and I would submit that many people, maybe even most, are not good at assessing their own needs. Many officers think they *need* to read about war at the expense of reading other things. My argument here is that, for officers who have a good grasp of the basics, additional reading of books not directly related to war will have a higher payoff on average.
“This is why when I do read about military history, I prefer to study failures and blunders.”
Not a professional military officer or enlisted men myself. Nonetheless, I’ve spent my entire life for the military history. I agree with this. I also think studying smaller wars and lesser known wars and mostly forgotten wars, to the extent you can find material about them is also helpful. The battle of Gettysburg is over studied and over theorized. But what the hell was happening in Paraguay in the 19th century? There’s not that much in English, it’s a very strange conflict. There have to be lessons there. Memoir literature from older wars is also helpful. Getting people’s thoughts right after the conflict, before the official narrative has hardened into place, is helpful. For example, the memoirs about World War I written immediately afterward did not suggest that the conflict was futile and pointless and that the British leadership were incompetent, and that their men were slaughtered for no reason. There was some of that, certainly. But they did after all win the war. And also their army was the only one that did not crack. They must’ve been doing something right. Good post.
War memoirs can be helpful for pushing back against simple narratives and just-so stories. I've learned to pair a history book with memoir(s) for mutuaI support. I read Rommel's Infantry Attacks before I had enough contextual knowledge to maximise its value. Had I read Stormtroop Tactics at that point in my career, it would have helped me understand why Rommel was exceptional for his time, since many things we take for granted now were innovative in WWI.
Both excellent books.
One older book I found extraordinarily valuable was The Story of a Soldiers Life. It is a two volume autobiography, which covers about 2/3 of his absolutely astonishing career, by Garnet Wolseley. No one remembers him now. But in his day he was one of the most famous soldiers in the world. He rose from a penniless teenage subaltern to be in commander of the entire British army under Queen Victoria. He fought in Burma, India, China, the Crimea, Canada, West Africa, Egypt, Zululand, and was involved in various aspects of British military affairs beyond his incredible combat record. There is not a dull page in the book. It is absolutely thrilling. He is brutally honest about himself and others. It has a very modern feel. There is no Victorian sentimentality at all. It’s amazing to me that this brilliant and valuable book is completely forgotten.
Thanks for this tip. I’ll be on the lookout for it.
Wolseley's Red River expedition is the stuff of legend. The Story of a Soldier's Life is in the Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/storysoldierslif01wols/page/n17/mode/2up
Thank you very much! I read the first page and am already hooked.
Yes. I excerpted that here:
https://contarini.substack.com/p/the-total-distance-to-be-traversed
“I also think studying smaller date wars and lesser known wars and mostly forgotten wars, to the extent you can find material about them is also helpful.”
Excellent point! Not only do many officers tend to read too much about war, their reading is often biased towards a few major conflicts.
One great thing we have these days is archive.org, which make out of print books available for free. There are a lot of high-quality books from the Victorian Edwardian era books which would otherwise be unavailable which can now be had easily. You can download it as a PDF and read it on the Kindle or on a computer.
Totally agree, studying the standard promoted cannon of war material can limit your understanding of war to the standard promoted cannon of war material. I'd fiction can lead to good insights also, no one would argue science fiction has led some military innovation. Taking a break and NOT reading, but sitting with your own observations and engaging with them will almost certainly lead to innovation and understanding. Hard for me to find people who argee with giving not reading a chance though, haha.
I WOULD SUGGEST fiction can lead to good insights. Sorry, typing this with my phone in one hand and egg nog in the other. Another recommendation for thinking freely.
I agree on the fiction. I began reading much more fiction this last year, and I’m amazed, looking back, the value I got from it in expression and insight.
The needs will vary from individual to individual, the important thing is to keep reading and sharing the lessons
A business school professor once said to me that studying failures yields much more information than studying successes. Same principle.
On the other hand, failure narratives are also often oversimplified and focus on an unrealistically small number of contributing factors. Because business books are written for idiots, any high-profile failure is often ascribed even to a single factor "If only they had done X earlier!". We now laugh at Blockbuster who got overtaken by Netflix, but how many people know that Blockbuster had a streaming platform project in the works before Netflix? Blockbuster was just so weighed down by buy-out debt loaded on it by private equity owners that it had to focus on current rather than future business.
I’ve always found it useful to go beyond professional reading by immersion in classic literature or, for that matter, almost any type of fiction. Both the heavy hitters of world literature and the run of the mill folk will provide useful insights into human nature that you’ll not find anywhere else