Posted on 12/01/2016 8:20:27 PM PST by US Navy Vet
Lt. Gen. James Mattis (USMC) is known as one of the most accomplished commanders in recent history and as one of the finest Marines to walk this planet. He also is a dedicated reader, and credits some of his success in the middle east to studying the works of those who had gone before him. This list is assembled from this list of required reading for CENTCOM USMC officers
(Excerpt) Read more at goodreads.com ...
Impressive!
Good list. I have read many of them.
I would add “The Siege of Mecca”
I like that he reads a variety of sources. Karen Armstrong is a liberal-radical ex-nun, but with an impressive command of knowledge and the ability to write. Her book about the Battle for God between Christians, Jews and muslims is not the usual fare for Generals.
The man is a tactical genius and middle-east expert and will make America and President Trump proud!
If that is mandatory reading, his officers had better not be sleeping much.
Reading one book a month - these are *not* novels, that is over a five year supply. Marine officers are busy guys. They routinely put in 60-80 hour weeks as it is.
I read this one for a college course in Middle East studies a decade ago.
“A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East
by David Fromkin”
Many of Mattis’s recommendations are about the ME and Islam, which makes sense as the former CentCom commander. It’s a good book to read as a foundation for the other recommended works.
PFL
Bookmark.
My entire Army career, all the Colonels and senior officers always had a "reading list."
It's a waste of time for 99% of military officers, who will spend the balance of their careers doing Powerpoint slides, Excel spreadsheets, sending emails and sitting around in meetings.
I appreciate the intent, though.
My entire Army career, all the Colonels and senior officers always had a “reading list.”
It’s a waste of time for 99% of military officers, who will spend the balance of their careers doing Powerpoint slides, Excel spreadsheets, sending emails and sitting around in meetings.
General Mattis said that Powerpoint makes one stupid.
Some of them are books I have read and they run the gamut, which is not a bad thing. I have to admit others of them are books I have half read until I threw them across the room in disgust that so-called "experts" could be so blind and bigoted.
The Thomas Friedman and Amin Maalouf books should not be tossed aside lightly. They should be thrown with great force into a burn barrel.
Ok, you need to read the Amin Maalouf to understand what fairy tales the mohammedans tell themselves.
To hear them tell it they were peacefully minding their own business in their own land when those evil crusaders decided to invade them.
Read with a bucket handy and consider eating only bananas before reading.
Friedman? Just don't bother.
Kinky?
Thomas. Kinky is ok.
Around 30 books are in my home collection.
Only limited books are from native to that region.
Maybe the Friedman and Armstrong books are what caused him to label Israel an apartheid nation.
Get out the popcorn. This is going to be fun watching Liberal heads explode.
Why on earth would he recommend Montgomery and not Patton? Montgomery was far too overrated. The disaster of Dieppe, The Fiasco of Market Garden, his blunders in Sicily, his failure to make his goal at Caen after D Day, and he didn’t beat Rommel at El Alamein, the boys at Bletchley Park and the Brit Navy were overwhelmingly the cause of Rommel’s loss.
I’d add Carlo D’Este’s book on Patton, A Genius of War, to the list.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.