Steven Leonard ( of Strategy Strikes Back)

Steven Leonard rated a book it was amazing Terminal Velocity (Jack Ryan, Jr. #14) by M.P. Woodward (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 21, 2026 12:13PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Terminal Velocity by M.P. Woodward. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Terminal Velocity by M.P. Woodward <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steven Leonard rated a book it was amazing Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People) by Amy Gallo	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Amy Gallo's 2002 book, 𝘎𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘈𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨, is the most practically useful book ever written about the one workplace challenge that no amount of technical skill, strategic acumen, or positional authority can fully insulate you from: "that guy." Gallo, a co ...more
Oct 18, 2026 06:40AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Getting Along by Amy Gallo. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Getting Along by Amy Gallo <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steven Leonard rated a book it was amazing Napoleon's Glance: The Secret of Strategy (Nation Books) by William Duggan	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Who can resist a book title than invokes the Dead Prussian? When I picked up my copy of William Duggan's 𝘕𝘢𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘰𝘯'𝘴 𝘎𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘺, I honestly didn't think much beyond the title. That concept is 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘥'𝘰𝘦𝘪𝘭 — French for stroke of the ...more
Oct 14, 2026 02:39PM · like · see review
Steven Leonard rated a book it was amazing The War Journal of Major Damon "Rocky" Gause: The Firsthand Account of One of the Greatest Escapes of World War II by Major Damon Rocky Gause	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The book is one of the most remarkable and least-known survival narratives to emerge from the Second World War. Gause, a US Army Air Corps pilot stationed in the Philippines when the Japanese attack began on December 8, 1941, found himself grounded w ...more
Oct 07, 2026 02:56PM · like · see review
Steven Leonard rated a book it was amazing To Hell and Back by Audie Murphy	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
𝘛𝘰 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘬, Audie Murphy's 1949 autobiography, is the remarkable story of a teenager from a poverty-stricken Texas sharecropping family who returned from World War II as America's most decorated combat veteran, including the Medal of Honor. The ...more
Sep 29, 2026 04:20AM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of To Hell and Back by Audie Murphy. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — To Hell and Back by Audie Murphy <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steven Leonard rated a book it was amazing If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home by Tim O'Brien	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Lately, I've been revisiting some of the most impactful books of my college years. These are all books that have been read and re-read, carried into war in the bottom of a rucksack, and read at night by the light of a red lens flashlight. They're all ...more
Sep 16, 2026 02:44PM · 1 like · like · see review
Steven Leonard rated a book it was amazing A Rumor of War: The Classic Vietnam Memoir by Philip Caputo	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I don't even remember when I first read Philip Caputo's classic memoir of the Vietnam War, 𝘈 𝘙𝘶𝘮𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘢𝘳. As a college student during the Reagan era, I read anything and everything I could get my hands on that addressed the war. And the volume of li ...more
Sep 09, 2026 01:49PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steven Leonard rated a book it was amazing Platoon Leader: A Memoir of Command in Combat by James R. McDonough	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I bought my first copy of James McDonough's classic memoir of the Vietnam War, Platoon Leader, as a college student. It seemed like every week you could find a new memoir from a Vietnam veteran, but McDonough's stood out at the time, and stood the te ...more
Sep 02, 2026 04:28AM · 2 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Platoon Leader by James R. McDonough. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Platoon Leader by James R. McDonough <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steven Leonard rated a book it was amazing Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Rajiv Chandrasekaran's 2006 book, Imperial Life in the Emerald City, is one of the most damning organizational autopsies — a brutal, if accurate term — of a governance effort in crisis. Chandrasekaran, The Washington Post's former Baghdad bureau chie ...more
Aug 26, 2026 04:27AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Steven Leonard rated a book it was amazing The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
As a high school student, I still remember my English teacher, Mrs. Thompson, pulling me aside and encouraging me to read books that challenged me. She introduced me to Thoreau, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald. One day, she gave me a paperback copy of The ...more
Aug 18, 2026 02:24PM · like · see review

Steven Leonard rated a book it was amazing

Terminal Velocity (Jack Ryan, Jr. #14)
by M.P. Woodward (Goodreads Author)

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Steven Leonard rated a book it was amazing

Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People)
by Amy Gallo

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Amy Gallo's 2002 book, 𝘎𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘈𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨, is the most practically useful book ever written about the one workplace challenge that no amount of technical skill, strategic acumen, or positional authority can fully insulate you from: "that guy." Gallo, a co Amy Gallo's 2002 book, 𝘎𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘈𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨, is the most practically useful book ever written about the one workplace challenge that no amount of technical skill, strategic acumen, or positional authority can fully insulate you from: "that guy." Gallo, a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review, brings a decade of research and reporting on workplace dynamics to bear in a book that is simultaneously empathetic, research-grounded, and bracingly honest about how hard this actually is.

Rather than offering generic conflict-resolution advice, Gallo identifies eight specific archetypes of difficult coworkers — the insecure boss, the passive-aggressive peer, the know-it-all, the pessimist, the biased colleague, the political operator, the tormentor, and the stone-cold avoider — and tailors strategies to each. The result is a book that reads like an operator's manual for working with problem people in the workplace.

Three key themes run through the book. First, 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳-𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 — before diagnosing the other person, you have to honestly ask how your own behavior may be inviting or amplifying the difficulty. Second, 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 — the willingness to genuinely consider that the other person's perspective might be as legitimate as yours is both the hardest and most productive place to start. Third, 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 — not every difficult person requires the same response, and you have to calibrate your approach rather than defaulting to avoidance or escalation.

For me, the most important takeaway for dealing with "that guy" is that you have more options than you think, and doing nothing is itself a choice with consequences. The ability to confidently and calmly navigate friction with other people isn't just a work skill; its a life skill. ...more

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Napoleon's Glance: The Secret of Strategy (Nation Books)
by William Duggan

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Who can resist a book title than invokes the Dead Prussian? When I picked up my copy of William Duggan's 𝘕𝘢𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘰𝘯'𝘴 𝘎𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘺, I honestly didn't think much beyond the title. That concept is 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘥'𝘰𝘦𝘪𝘭 — French for stroke of the Who can resist a book title than invokes the Dead Prussian? When I picked up my copy of William Duggan's 𝘕𝘢𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘰𝘯'𝘴 𝘎𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘺, I honestly didn't think much beyond the title. That concept is 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘥'𝘰𝘦𝘪𝘭 — French for stroke of the eye, or simply "at a glance" — and it is Clausewitz's answer to the question he spent twenty years trying to answer: what made Napoleon a genius?

Clausewitz defines 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘥'𝘰𝘦𝘪𝘭 in 𝘖𝘯 𝘞𝘢𝘳 as the rapid discovery of a truth which to the ordinary mind is not visible at all or only becomes so after long examination and reflection. It is not mystical intuition and not the product of a plan — it is a flash of insight born from deep knowledge of the past, in which the strategist sees, in a new and unprecedented situation, a combination of previously successful elements that fits the problem at hand. Duggan tests this idea across ten radically different domains — including Picasso's artistic breakthroughs, Martin Luther King Jr.'s civil rights strategy, and the development economics of Muhammad Yunus — demonstrating that 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘥'𝘰𝘦𝘪𝘭 is a truly human phenomenon.

Three key themes run through the book. First, 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 — which means that the depth and breadth of what a leader reads, studies, and reflects upon is the direct upstream cause of the quality of their strategic decisions. Second, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱 — the ability to remain calm and perceptive at the moment of maximum pressure, when lesser minds either freeze or reach for the nearest familiar solution. Third, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 — 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘥'𝘰𝘦𝘪𝘭 without the will to act on it is merely a good idea.

An especially important takeaway with significant contemporary relevance is one that cuts against the grain of how most organizations train their leaders — analytical frameworks and decision-making processes are insufficient preparation for the moment of genuine crisis. The leaders who perform best under uncertainty and duress are those who have accumulated the widest and deepest reservoir of knowledge and learned to trust the synthesis it produces. ...more

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The War Journal of Major Damon "Rocky" Gause by Major Damon Rocky Gause

The War Journal of Major Damon "Rocky" Gause: The Firsthand Account of One of the Greatest Escapes of World War II
by Major Damon Rocky Gause

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The book is one of the most remarkable and least-known survival narratives to emerge from the Second World War. Gause, a US Army Air Corps pilot stationed in the Philippines when the Japanese attack began on December 8, 1941, found himself grounded w The book is one of the most remarkable and least-known survival narratives to emerge from the Second World War. Gause, a US Army Air Corps pilot stationed in the Philippines when the Japanese attack began on December 8, 1941, found himself grounded without an plane and thrown into the defense of Bataan as an infantryman. He was captured, escaped by killing a Japanese guard, fled to Corregidor by boat, was captured again after Corregidor's fall, escaped a second time, and then — alongside fellow officer Captain William Lloyd Osborne — piloted a leaky, hand-crafted wooden boat across more than 3,200 miles of enemy-controlled ocean before reaching the coast of Australia on July 3, 1942. Their journey took ten months. It remains one of the longest and most arduous escapes in history.

How the story became a book is tragic in its own right. Gause was killed in a plane crash over London in March 1944, never knowing his son. The journal was recovered from his footlocker decades later by that son — who never knew his father — and published in 1999 with a foreword by Stephen Ambrose.

Three key themes run through the journal. First, 𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 — Gause and Osborne built their escape boat from salvaged materials, navigated without reliable charts, and solved problems that no training had prepared them to face, one day at a time. Second, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 — the two men's bond is the books quiet emotional core, a reminder that survival in extremity is almost never a solo act. Third, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗲𝗳𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 — stripped of rank, resources, and any realistic expectation of survival, Gause's decisions are unencumbered by the institutional considerations that complicate leadership in safer circumstances.

But what stood out to me was something that is absolutely timeless: resourcefulness is not a personality trait — it is a skill developed under pressure, and the leaders who develop it are those who have been forced, by circumstance, to solve problems that doctrine can't. Gause's ten-month improvisation across enemy-held waters is a useful reminder of what human ingenuity looks like when stripped of every other option. ...more

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To Hell and Back
by Audie Murphy

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𝘛𝘰 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘬, Audie Murphy's 1949 autobiography, is the remarkable story of a teenager from a poverty-stricken Texas sharecropping family who returned from World War II as America's most decorated combat veteran, including the Medal of Honor. The 𝘛𝘰 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘬, Audie Murphy's 1949 autobiography, is the remarkable story of a teenager from a poverty-stricken Texas sharecropping family who returned from World War II as America's most decorated combat veteran, including the Medal of Honor. The first time I read this book, I found it as remarkable for what it does as for what it refuses to do.

Murphy never glorifies himself. Never postures on his decorations, which were amazing in their own right. And never allows the myth of the war hero to overshadow the truth of the man. He narrates his war, moving from the beaches of Sicily through Italy, France, and into Germany — a relentless campaign of advance, loss, and attrition told from ground level. Murphy introduces his comrades the way replacements were always introduced to veterans: briefly, because brevity was the honest acknowledgment of how long any of them might last.

Three key themes define the book. First, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝘂𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 — Murphy's account strips away rank and reputation and returns every man, regardless of his decorations, to the same foxhole, the same fear, and the same exhaustion. Second, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗮𝗿 — as officers and leaders come and go, mostly killed or wounded, Murphy observes that what sustains a fighting unit is not leadership from above but loyalty from within, the bond between the man on your left and the man on your right. Third, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗮𝗿 — Murphy ends the book neither triumphant nor broken, but altered in ways that the word "hero" cannot adequately contain.

For me, the most important takeaway from the book still has contemporary relevance today: no soldier ever really survives a war — a truth that every generation of veterans has had to teach the civilians who sent them, and that institutions have still not fully learned. As Murphy wrote, "I may be branded by war, but I will not be defeated by it." That sentence speaks volumes about the man and says everything about the cost of war. ...more

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If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home
by Tim O'Brien

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Lately, I've been revisiting some of the most impactful books of my college years. These are all books that have been read and re-read, carried into war in the bottom of a rucksack, and read at night by the light of a red lens flashlight. They're all Lately, I've been revisiting some of the most impactful books of my college years. These are all books that have been read and re-read, carried into war in the bottom of a rucksack, and read at night by the light of a red lens flashlight. They're all that good.

One of those is Time O'Brien's 𝘐𝘧 𝘐 𝘋𝘪𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘣𝘢𝘵 𝘡𝘰𝘯𝘦, a book that remains, more than fifty years after its publication, one of the most brutally honest accounts of what it means to fight a war you believe is wrong. O'Brien began writing it in the quiet moments or respite between firefights, completing roughly twenty pages in Vietnam and filling in the rest in the two years after he returned home from the war. What he produced is like a Venn diagram of a conventional memoir and a novel — it moves back and forth in time, braids philosophy with combat narrative, and reads like an author sorting through something he has not yet fully understood, which is precisely its power.

Several themes run through the book with the consistency of a man determined to tell the truth at any cost. First, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗱𝘂𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 — O'Brien never resolves this tension, and the book is more honest for refusing to. Second, 𝗮 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲, stripped of its mythology — O'Brien argues, through his relationship with the admirable Captain Johansen, that grace under pressure is not courage. True courage requires moral agency, the willingness to act on principle at personal cost. Third, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 — the Army's systems, culture, and social pressures produced soldiers who did things they knew were wrong, not because they were evil but because the organization made resistance nearly impossible.

There is one important takeaway from the book that will always have relevance: politicians ask young people to fight wars that those young people did not choose, did not design, and frequently do not believe in. That dynamic did not end with Vietnam.

One especially meaningful quote earns its place precisely because it refuses comfort: "I would go to war — I would kill and maybe die — because I was embarrassed not to." It is the most honest sentence ever written about why young men go to war, and it echoes across history. If you ever watched the interviews of Easy Company veterans for 𝘉𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴, then you probably remember them talking about very similar feelings, and young men who took their own lives after being declared 4F for military service. ...more

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A Rumor of War: The Classic Vietnam Memoir
by Philip Caputo

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I don't even remember when I first read Philip Caputo's classic memoir of the Vietnam War, 𝘈 𝘙𝘶𝘮𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘢𝘳. As a college student during the Reagan era, I read anything and everything I could get my hands on that addressed the war. And the volume of li I don't even remember when I first read Philip Caputo's classic memoir of the Vietnam War, 𝘈 𝘙𝘶𝘮𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘢𝘳. As a college student during the Reagan era, I read anything and everything I could get my hands on that addressed the war. And the volume of literature that emerged during that period proved formative to my learning as a cadet.

The book is widely regarded as the first major memoir of the Vietnam War. Caputo, a Marine lieutenant who landed with the first ground combat unit deployed to Vietnam in March 1965, writes not as a journalist but as a witness — and what he witnesses, in himself as much as around him, is the systematic destruction of the idealism that carried him into uniform in the first place.

That was powerful.

A handful of key themes run through the book, revealing the impact the war had on Caputo. First, the seduction of war and the violence of its disenchantment — Caputo arrives believing in the mission and departs believing in almost nothing, including himself. Second, the moral erosion that follows when the line between legitimate and illegitimate killing is deliberately blurred — the policies of free-fire zones did not merely permit moral confusion; they institutionalized it. Third, the institutional dishonesty at every level of command — senior officers consumed with trivial matters and body-count metrics while the men they led navigated a moral landscape that no training had prepared them for.

For me, the most important takeaway with contemporary relevance is one Caputo states with the hindsight of a man who has seen the truth: "I guess every generation is doomed to fight its war, suffer the loss of the same old illusions, and learn the same old lessons on its own." When it comes to war, the distance between what our leaders promise a war will accomplish and what it actually delivers is the space in which young men and women are asked to live and die.

A great read. A sobering read. A reason why it still holds a place in my library today. ...more

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Platoon Leader: A Memoir of Command in Combat
by James R. McDonough

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I bought my first copy of James McDonough's classic memoir of the Vietnam War, Platoon Leader, as a college student. It seemed like every week you could find a new memoir from a Vietnam veteran, but McDonough's stood out at the time, and stood the te I bought my first copy of James McDonough's classic memoir of the Vietnam War, Platoon Leader, as a college student. It seemed like every week you could find a new memoir from a Vietnam veteran, but McDonough's stood out at the time, and stood the test of time.

McDonough, a United States Military Academy at West Point graduate who served as a platoon leader in Vietnam's Binh Dinh province in 1970–71, wrote the book years later while serving as a battalion commander, explicitly as an professional development tool. That origin gives the book its distinctive character: it is less interested in the politics of Vietnam than in the irreducible human demands of leading soldiers in mortal conditions.

McDonough arrives in Vietnam desperately trying to learn what he was already supposed to know — a focus on self-assessment that immediately establishes the book's brutally honest tone. He's assigned as a platoon leader engaged in the strategic hamlet program. He doesn't romanticize his men or himself. He assesses other leaders with the unsentimental precision of a young man who has learned to note the raw truth and adjust accordingly: "Moray was timid, Smalley was weak, Evans was eager. I did not condemn them for that. I noted it and adjusted. We were in a war, not a community social."

Key themes run through every chapter with the economy of a leader who has learned to say only what matters. First, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 — McDonough establishes early that a platoon leader earns authority not through rank but through demonstrated willingness to share every danger his soldiers face. Second, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗰𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁. Third, 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗶𝘁 — the book's deepest argument is that war's absence of order creates a gravitational pull toward the absence of morality, and that leadership is the only counterforce available. Fourth, 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 — the company commander is almost entirely absent both in the book and in the fight, leaving McDonough to lead with almost no support from above.

The most important takeaway is one that has timeless relevance: the quality of small-unit leadership is decisive at the point of attack. That truth has not aged a day. One especially meaningful quote from the book is also its most transcendent leadership lesson: "The challenge lies not in denying fear, but in being able to function in the face of it." It is a line written about combat and applicable to every high-stakes leadership environment where the honest leader has no choice but to acknowledge what the pretending leader will not. ...more

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Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone
by Rajiv Chandrasekaran

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Rajiv Chandrasekaran's 2006 book, Imperial Life in the Emerald City, is one of the most damning organizational autopsies — a brutal, if accurate term — of a governance effort in crisis. Chandrasekaran, The Washington Post's former Baghdad bureau chie Rajiv Chandrasekaran's 2006 book, Imperial Life in the Emerald City, is one of the most damning organizational autopsies — a brutal, if accurate term — of a governance effort in crisis. Chandrasekaran, The Washington Post's former Baghdad bureau chief, spent months inside the Coalition Provisional Authority, the civilian administration charged with rebuilding Iraq after the 2003 invasion. What he found there was an institution organized, almost perfectly, for failure.

The central image is the Green Zone itself: a heavily fortified four-square-mile enclave in the heart of Baghdad. The physical isolation was merely a symptom of the deeper one. Many of the people inside the Green Zone were not just separated from Iraq by concrete barriers. They were separated by ideology, inexperience, and a governing philosophy that had almost no connection to the realities unfolding outside the Green Zone.

Three key themes run through the book, foreshadowing institutional self-destruction. First, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗰 𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗮𝗹𝘁𝘆 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 — much of the effort was put into the hands of inexperienced twentysomethings chosen for their party affiliation rather than for their knowledge of Arabic, Islamic culture, post-conflict reconstruction, or Iraq itself. Second, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝘀𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 — ignoring what Iraqis said they wanted or needed, elements of the team pursued irrelevant solutions and unrealistic policies instead of rebuilding looted buildings and restoring electricity, producing initiatives that angered the locals and fueled the insurgency. Third, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗽 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 — leaders who can't see the consequences of their decisions can't correct them, and the Green Zone's physical and psychological walls ensured that the CPA's most consequential failures registered inside the bubble as bureaucratic inconveniences rather than strategic catastrophes.

The first theme should have been a cautionary reminder for any administration. There's no substitute for competence. Full stop. ...more

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The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
by Timothy Egan (Goodreads Author)

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As a high school student, I still remember my English teacher, Mrs. Thompson, pulling me aside and encouraging me to read books that challenged me. She introduced me to Thoreau, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald. One day, she gave me a paperback copy of The As a high school student, I still remember my English teacher, Mrs. Thompson, pulling me aside and encouraging me to read books that challenged me. She introduced me to Thoreau, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald. One day, she gave me a paperback copy of The Grapes of Wrath. Few books engaged me in the same way. Until I read Timothy Egan's 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦.

Just as Steinbeck told us the story of the Oakies, Egan weaves the narrative history of one of the most consequential and least examined disasters in America. The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing seen before or since — a catastrophe that was simultaneously ecological, economic, and deeply human. And Egan tells the story through the lives and memories of those who stayed when a generation of their neighbors fled.

The Dust Bowl was the consequence of shortsightedness delivered at scale — the Great Plains were plowed into agricultural production by a generation of settlers and speculators who saw the land as a resource to extract rather than a system to steward. Most of what Americans know about the Dust Bowl comes from the story of those who left, the westward migration that became its own mythology. Egan takes a different perspective: who stayed, and why, and what does survival under those conditions actually mean?

When I read, I look for #leadership lessons. And though Egan doesn't frame it as such, his story of Hugh Bennett — the soil scientist who spent years trying to persuade Congress that the plains were being destroyed by human mismanagement — is a powerful lesson in leadership. Bennett timed his congressional testimony to coincide with a dust storm blowing in from the plains, letting the evidence voice his argument when his words had failed. It is a MasterClass in the patient, strategic deployment of truth against institutional resistance.

The most important takeaway from the book is one that remains relevant today: the Dust Bowl was not a natural disaster. It was a man-made catastrophe produced by choices made over decades, the types of shortsighted choices we make every day. In the words of Hugh Bennett: "Of all the countries in the world, we Americans have been the greatest destroyers of land of any race of people barbaric or civilized." ...more

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	Strategy Strikes Back: How Star Wars Explains Modern Military Conflict by Max Brooks (Goodreads Author) (Editor), John Amble (Editor), M.L. Cavanaugh (Editor) 3.93 avg rating — 355 ratings — published 2018 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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