Strategy Books

The Art Of War

Sun Tzu

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

NOT THE BOOK 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is just the cliffnotes to the book. This is not the actual book. Also, very poorly published.

The Art Of War 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is the BEST book on strategy that has ever been written! This book is timeless. I have seen strategies from this book utilized in business and politics. It does not take long to read, but has a wealth of information.

the art of war 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The book was very interesting. It really made look at issues in a totally different light. I love this book.

Ancient Timeless Knowledge 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

While this book is barely 70 pages long, the classic strategies in it are concise and valuble, quite timeless. The book was written 2500 years ago as a basic primer on strategy - and has withstood the test of time. It won't take long to digest the book - but that gives you more time to implement its strategies. There are sections on strategies, planning maneuvers, deception, etc., Together with Robert Green's book on Strategy it is a fine combination.


Michael Mandaville, Author of the upcoming "Citizen Soldier Handbook: 101 Ways For Every American To Fight Terrorism"

Editorial Review:

Twenty-Five Hundred years ago, Sun Tzu wrote this classic book of military strategy based on Chinese warfare and military thought. Since that time, all levels of military have used the teaching on Sun Tzu to warfare and cilivzation have adapted these teachings for use in politics, business and everyday life. The Art of War is a book which should be used to gain advantage of opponents in the boardroom and battlefield alike.

The U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

When the U.S. military invaded Iraq, it lacked a common understanding of the problems inherent in counterinsurgency campaigns. It had neither studied them, nor developed doctrine and tactics to deal with them. It is fair to say that in 2003, most Army officers knew more about the U.S. Civil War than they did about counterinsurgency.

The U.S. Army / Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual was written to fill that void. The result of unprecedented collaboration among top U.S. military experts, scholars, and practitioners in the field, the manual espouses an approach to combat that emphasizes constant adaptation and learning, the importance of decentralized decision-making, the need to understand local politics and customs, and the key role of intelligence in winning the support of the population. The manual also emphasizes the paradoxical and often counterintuitive nature of counterinsurgency operations: sometimes the more you protect your forces, the less secure you are; sometimes the more force you use, the less effective it is; sometimes doing nothing is the best reaction.

An new introduction by Sarah Sewall, director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, places the manual in critical and historical perspective, explaining the significance and potential impact of this revolutionary challenge to conventional U.S. military doctrine.
An attempt by our military to redefine itself in the aftermath of 9/11 and the new world of international terrorism, The U.S. Army / Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual will play a vital role in American military campaigns for years to come.

The University of Chicago Press will donate a portion of the proceeds from this book to the Fisher House Foundation, a private-public partnership that supports the families of America’s injured servicemen. To learn more about the Fisher House Foundation, visit www.fisherhouse.org.

(20070713)

The Making of the Atomic Bomb

Richard Rhodes

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 160 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Outstanding Book 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Myself not being a scientist there were parts of this book that were hard to understand theoretically speaking, but the historical story the book brings forth is hard not to understand. Between the people making blind discoveries to educated guesses to scientific brilliance it's all here. Leading up to the climatic climax. This book is long and could be hard to read at times but the important historical facts leave nothing to wonder. A fantastic account of the making of the atomic bomb from around the world to then center on two cities in Japan was a page turner through and through. A giant collection a names, dates and ego's that ethics aside did stop a war cold in it's tracts. A weapon with hopefully will never see the light of day again.

Editorial Review:

If the first 270 pages of this book had been published separately, they would have made up a lively, insightful, beautifully written history of theoretical physics and the men and women who plumbed the mysteries of the atom. Along with the following 600 pages, they become a sweeping epic, filled with terror and pity, of the ultimate scientific quest: the development of the ultimate weapon. Rhodes is a peerless explainer of difficult concepts; he is even better at chronicling the personalities who made the discoveries that led to the Bomb. Niels Bohr dominates the first half of the book as J. Robert Oppenheimer does the second; both men were gifted philosophers of science as well as brilliant physicists. The central irony of this book, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award, is that the greatest minds of the century contributed to the greatest destructive force in history.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu - Special Edition

Sun Tzu

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This Special Edition of The Art of War by Sun Tzu presents this timeless classic in two forms:

Section I contains the complete thirteen chapters of Sun Tzu's masterpiece in Chinese together with the English translation of Lionel Giles without notes or commentary. This presentation avoids the objection that commentary tends to clutter and obscure the clarity of thought of the ancient military genius.

Section II contains the complete translation by Lionel Giles including his extensive introduction and the fully annotated text with explanatory notes and critical commentary. His Introduction includes an historical account of Sun Tzu's work, evaluations by and of early Chinese commentators, an essay examining the traditional Chinese attitudes toward war and a bibliography that details Giles' source materials. The text in this section includes critical commentary and notes by both the Chinese historians as well as by Giles himself.

Lionel Giles, as the Keeper of the Department of Oriental printed Books and Manuscripts of the British Museum, was uniquely qualified to translate and explain this great classic Chinese work to Western readers. First published in 1910, Giles' translation is widely considered to be the definitive English version.

Other Special Editions in this series which deal with the subject of warfare and strategy include:
The Art of War By Mao Tse-tung - Special Edition
The Art of War By Baron De Jomini - Special Edition
The Art of War & The Prince By Machiavelli - Special Edition

The Art of War (Shambhala classics)

Sun Tzu

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 280 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Art of War is the Swiss army knife of military theory--pop out a different tool for any situation. Folded into this small package are compact views on resourcefulness, momentum, cunning, the profit motive, flexibility, integrity, secrecy, speed, positioning, surprise, deception, manipulation, responsibility, and practicality. Thomas Cleary's translation keeps the package tight, with crisp language and short sections. Commentaries from the Chinese tradition trail Sun-tzu's words, elaborating and picking up on puzzling lines. Take the solitary passage: "Do not eat food for their soldiers." Elsewhere, Sun-tzu has told us to plunder the enemy's stores, but now we're not supposed to eat the food? The Tang dynasty commentator Du Mu solves the puzzle nicely, "If the enemy suddenly abandons their food supplies, they should be tested first before eating, lest they be poisoned." Most passages, however, are the pinnacle of succinct clarity: "Lure them in with the prospect of gain, take them by confusion" or "Invincibility is in oneself, vulnerability is in the opponent." Sun-tzu's maxims are widely applicable beyond the military because they speak directly to the exigencies of survival. Your new tools will serve you well, but don't flaunt them. Remember Sun-tzu's advice: "Though effective, appear to be ineffective." --Brian Bruya

Citizen Soldiers: The U. S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany

Stephen E. Ambrose

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 271 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Perfect. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Just like a book from Barnes & Noble. Perfect Quality. No issues. No complaints. Delivered before it was supposed to be and arrived early. Great!

Citizen Soldiers 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

As a wounded veteran of the Battle of the Bulge, I found this book spell binding. I found a few facts that I never knew even when I was there as rifleman in the 90th Division. The ineptitude of a great number of our generals and colonels was plainly laid out for all to see.
His telling of the desolvment of the ASTP program in which I was enrolled
was very graphic and to the point. All in all, if you can read about violent and deadly warfare and call it interesting, then that describes my reaction to the book.

Editorial Review:

Stephen E. Ambrose combines history and journalism to describe how American GIs battled their way to the Rhineland. He focuses on the combat experiences of ordinary soldiers, as opposed to the generals who led them, and offers a series of compelling vignettes that read like an enterprising reporter's dispatches from the front lines. The book presents just enough contextual material to help readers understand the big picture, and includes memorable accounts of the Battle of the Bulge and other events as seen through the weary eyes of the men who fought in the foxholes. Highly recommended for fans of Ambrose, as well as all readers interested in understanding the life of a 1940s army grunt. A sort of sequel to Ambrose's bestselling 1994 book D-Day, Citizen Soldiers is more than capable of standing on its own.

Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission

Hampton Sides

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 138 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

On January 28, 1945, 121 hand-selected U.S. troops slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines. Their mission: March thirty rugged miles to rescue 513 POWs languishing in a hellish camp, among them the last survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March. A recent prison massacre by Japanese soldiers elsewhere in the Philippines made the stakes impossibly high and left little time to plan the complex operation.

In Ghost Soldiers Hampton Sides vividly re-creates this daring raid, offering a minute-by-minute narration that unfolds alongside intimate portraits of the prisoners and their lives in the camp. Sides shows how the POWs banded together to survive, defying the Japanese authorities even as they endured starvation, tropical diseases, and torture. Harrowing, poignant, and inspiring, Ghost Soldiers is the mesmerizing story of a remarkable mission. It is also a testament to the human spirit, an account of enormous bravery and self-sacrifice amid the most trying conditions.

Operation Hotel California: The Clandestine War Inside Iraq

Mike Tucker, Charles Faddis

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

worthless book 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Hotel California is a poorly written, worthless book. Don't waste your money. I am taking it to the used bookstore after only reading maybe half of it. I considered throwing it into the trash. I have read maybe 20 or so books about OIF and this is, by far, the worst.

Editorial Review:

On July 10, 2002, more than eight months before the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime, eight American CIA operatives slipped into northern Iraq. They endured almost a year of being denied vital supplies by a NATO ally, Turkey, as they pursued a covert operation with profound consequences for both the War on Terror and the Iraq War: Operation Hotel California.

Operation Hotel California tells the inside story of the dangerous mission that paved the way for the Iraq invasion—and delivers the most blistering indictment to date by any American counterterrorism officer of the Bush administration’s blunders vis-à-vis Iraq and al Qaeda. Drawing on exclusive interviews with Charles Faddis, the operation’s leader, and other team members, Operation Hotel California is a riveting work that will shake Washington to the core.

Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed

Ben R. Rich, Leo Janos

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 76 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Of its time 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 7 people found this review helpful.

This book is very much of its time, and has to be regarded as such. I was forced to read this for work by an over zealous client. I gritted my teeth to the end. Yes, on one level it is fascinating as a piece of history. Even I quite enjoyed the history of the U2 and Blackbird, which I vaguely remember from newspapers in my youth. But as a chronicle of social mores, it made my toes curl. Unfortunately, as a female of mid years clinging to the corporate ladder, I still remember when the kind of casual misogeny portrayed here was the norm not the exception. Can't say I miss 'the good 'ol days' one bit. The interchangeable wives and sophomoric giggling over the pin ups?

It isn't even very well written.

I have to read 'Patton on Leadership' next. Time to look for a new job maybe?

Editorial Review:

An insider's story of Lockheed's Skunk Works, the supersecret facility that developed the U-2 American spy plane and other high-technology aircraft, follows the period of the author's career from 1975 to 1990. Reprint. NYT.

On War (Oxford World's Classics)

Carl von Clausewitz, Beatrice Heuser

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Total reviews: 66 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

On War is one of the most important books ever written on the subject of war. Clausewitz, a Prussian officer who fought against the French during the Napoleonic Wars, sought to understand and analyze the phenomenon of war so that future leaders could conduct and win conflicts more effectively. He studied the human and social factors that affect outcomes, as well as the tactical and technological ones. He understood that war was a weapon of government, and that political purpose, chance, and enmity combine to shape its dynamics. On War continues to be read by military strategists, politicians, and others for its timeless insights. This abridged edition by Beatrice Heuser, using the acclaimed translation by Michael Howard and Peter Paret, selects the central books in which Clausewitz's views on the nature and theory of war are developed. Heuser's introduction explains the originality of Clausewitz's ideas, his education and background, and summarizes his key theories, while explanatory notes provide further information on the historical examples Clausewitz cites.