2019 Commandant of the Marine Corps Reading List.

The 2019 Marine Corps Reading list was recently published in ALMAR 005/19 and is available below. The Commandants Reading List contains 120 books and is broken up between entry level through senior level categories and officer and enlisted.

The Marine Corps puts out their reading list annually and it is published through the Marine Corps University Library.

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Commandant’s Choice MCDP-1: Warfighting

1. Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future by A. McAfee and E. Brynjolfsson
2. Non-Obvious: How to Predict Trends and Win the Future  by R. Bhargava
3. The Leader’s Bookshelf  By J. Stavris
4. First to Fight by Lt Gen. Victor. Krulak
5. Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam by M. Bowden
6. A World in Disarray by R. Haas
7. Legacy: 15 Lessons in Leadership  by James Kerr

Entry Level Enlisted: (Poolee, Recruit)

1. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by A. Duckworth
2. Battle Cry By  L. Uris
3. Corps Values  by Z. Miller
4. Gates of Fire By S. Pressfield
5. Starship Troopers by R. Heinlein

Entry Level Officer (Candidate, Midshipman)

1. Battle Cry By  L. Uris
2. Corps Values  by Z. Miller
3. Gates of Fire By S. Pressfield
4. I’m Staying with My Boys by J. Proser and J. Cutter
5. My Men Are My Heroes By N. Helms
6. Starship Troopers by R. Heinlein
7. The Killer Angels By M. Shaara

Primary Level Enlisted (Pvt, LCpl)

1. Chesty By J. Hoffman
2. Ender’s Game By O. Card
3. The Last Stand of Fox Company By B. Drury and T. Clavin
4. The Marines of Montford Point By M. McLaurin
5. On Call in Hell  By R. Jadick
6. Ready Player One By E. Cline
7. Rifleman Dodd By C. Forester
8. The Warrior Ethos By S. Pressfield

Primary Level Officer (2ndLt, 1stLt)

1. What Now Lieutenant? By Gen. R. Neal
2. All Quiet on the Western Front By E. Remarque
3. The Last Stand of Fox Company By B. Drury and T. Clavin
4. The Marines of Montford Point By M. McLaurin
5. With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa By E. Sledge
6. Chesty By J. Hoffman
7. What It is Like to Go to War By K. Marlantes
8. Ready Player One By E. Cline
9. Fields of Fire By J. Webb
10. At The Water’s Edge: Defending against the Modern Amphibious Assault By T. Gatchel
11. The Defense of Hill 781: An Allegory of Modern Mechanized Combat by J. Mcdonough

Career Level Enlisted (Cpl, Sgt)

1. On Combat: the Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace by D. Grossman
2. Resilience By E. Greitens
3. Outliers By M. Gladwell
4. The Defense of Duffers Drift By E. Swinton
5. The Killer Angels M. Shaara
6. With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa By E. Sledge
7. Battle Leadership  By A. Von Schell
8. Ghost Fleet By P. Singer and A. Cole
9. We Were Soldiers Once… and Young By  H. Moore and J. Galloway
10. The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us about Coming Conflicts and the Battle against Fate  By R. Kaplan
11. Left of Bang  By P. Van Horne and J. Riley
12. On Killing  By D. Grossman

Career Level Officer (WO, CWO2, Capt)

1. This Kind of War   By T. Fehrenbach
2. What Now Lieutenant?  By R. Neal
3. Attacks  By E. Rommel
4. Black Hearts By Jim. Frederick
5. Into The Tiger’s Jaw by F. Petersen and J. Phelps
6. War Made New  By M. Boot
7. Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends On It  by I. Leslie
8. Forgotten Warriors By T. Hammes
9. Assault from the Sea: Essays on the History of Amphibious Warfare  By M. Bartlett
10. The Starfish and the Spider By O. Brafman and R. Beckstrom
11. Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrill By a D. Kilcullen
12. Neptune’s Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal  By J. Hornfischer
13. On Killing  By D. Grossman

Intermediate Level Enlisted (SSgt, GySgt)

1. Towards the Flame By  H. Allen
2. All Quiet On the Western Front By E. Remarque
3. American Spartans J. Warren
4. The Changing Face of War  By M. Van Creveld
5. This Kind of War  By T. Fehrenbach
6. Fields of Fire By J. Webb
7. Leading Change By J. Kotter
8. My Men Are My Heroes By N. Helms
9. Thinking Fast and Slow  By D. Kahneman
10. The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution By W. Isaacson
11. Once an Eagle By  A. Myrer

Intermediate Level Officer (CWO3, CWO4, Maj, LtCol)

1. Fleet Tactics and Naval Operations  By W. Hughes and R. Girrier
2. Command Culture By J. Muth
3. Defeat into Victory W. Slim
4. Military Innovation in the Interwar Period W. Murray and A. Millett The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle By J. Gray
5. The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World  By R. Smith
6. Team of Teams By S. McChrystal and T. Collins
7. Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World’s First Digital Weapon By K. Zetter
8. After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam By  L. Hazelton
9. Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power  By R. Kaplan
10. Cobra II: The Inside Story Of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq By M. Gordon and B. Trainor
11. The Blitzkrieg Legend: The 1940 Campaign in the West By K. Frieser
12. The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution By W. Isaacson
13. Storming the City: US Military Performance in Urban Warfare from WWII to Vietnam By  A. Wahlman
14. The Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security By  G. Hammond

Senior Level Enlisted (MSgt, 1stSgt, MGySgt, SgtMaj)

1. Achilles in Vietnam By  J. Shay
2. Command Culture By J. Muth
3. Forgotten Warriors By T. Hammes
4. Just and Unjust Wars By  M. Walzer
5. No Bended Knee By  M. Twining
6. The Face of Battle By  J. Keegan
7. Team of Teams By S. McChrystal
8. The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future By  K. Kelly
9. The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail  C. Christensen
10. The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology R. Kurzweil
11. On Combat  By D. Grossman
12. Guns of August By  B. Tuchman
13. Start with Why By  S. Sinek

Senior Level Officer (CWO5, Col-Gen)

1. Another Bloody Century By C. Gray
2. Assignment Pentagon: How to Excel in A Bureaucracy By  P. Smith and D. Gerstein
3. Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff And the Lies That Led to Vietnam By H. McMaster
4. Diplomacy  By  H. Kissinger
5. Little Book Of Economics: How the Economy Works in the Real World  By G. Ip
6. Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen and Leadership in Wartime  By E. Cohen
7. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln By D. Goodwin
8. The Federalist Papers By A. Hamilton
9. The Landmark Thucydides By R. Strassler
10. Every War Must End By  F. Ikle
11. Strategy: A History By L. Freedman
12. Treasury’s War By J. Zarate
13. Guns of August By  B. Tuchman
14. The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail  C. Christensen
15. The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future K. Kelly
16. Stilwell and the American Experience In China: 1911-1945 By B. Tuchman
17. Chairman Xi Remakes the PLA: Assessing Chinese Military Reform By  P. Saunders, A. Ding, A. Scobell, A. Yang, and J. Wuthnow

Previous Commandants Reading Lists

• 2017 Marine Corps Commandants Reading List

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