War books aren’t exactly the first thing people think of when they think of leisure reading, but since you’re here on The Loadout Room, you’re probably more than open to the idea of reading a war book to kick off the new year. Heck, you likely have a pile of unread best war book recommendations right now that you picked up throughout 2022 because of friend recommendations.
As great as new books are, we like to revisit our old favorites every now and then. That’s why this list of the best war books you can read this 2023 is a mix between classics you’ve definitely heard of, underrated gems, and books you’ve probably never considered reading before due to how abstract they can get about war.
TOP CHOICES
Best War Strategy Book
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is hands down the most well-known war book currently in print. It’s straightforward, widely-applicable advice on how to maintain control over situations, deal with enemies, and organize groups and resources make it a fantastic guide book to the war, the workplace, and life.
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Best War Fiction Book
All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
All Quiet on the Western Front is a WW1 war book written by Erich Maria Remarque, a veteran of said war. It talks about the horrors of wartime and the struggle of German soldiers to maintain their sanity and humanity in a time that showed them exactly how fragile both can be.
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Best Autobiographical War Book
Dispatches by Michael Herr
Dispatches talks about Michael Herr’s experiences as a Vietnam war correspondent in the late ’60s for Esquire. While it’s based on his experiences, it isn’t 100% autobiographical as most of the book is fictional. Underneath that all, it’s easy to tell that there’s a genuine core of truth to Dispatches that focuses more on the feeling rather than the material facts of Herr’s life in Vietnam.
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1The Art of War by Sun Tzu
Best War Strategy Book
The Art of War is one of those books that often get quoted in Facebook “badass” posts and LinkedIn self-hype/motivation posts.
As cheesy as that kind of content can be, the actual book itself is a gold mine of advice about how to deal with adversity and managing emergency situations, whether they happen at work or in you private life. If you can read between the lines of Sun Tzu’s advice, you’ll be able to use his advice on logistics and war tactics for just about anything. It’s basically The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius but for war books.
This legendary military treatise has been used for over a thousand years. On top of inspiring every LinkedIn influencer, it has advised notable figures such as Douglas MacArthur and Mao Zedong. Its philosophy of winning without confrontation works in meetings just as well as it does on the battlefield.
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2War And Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Tolstoy’s War and Peace blurs the line between philosophy, fiction, and reality by covering the events of the French invasion of Russia through the lens of his fictional characters who each have something solemn to say about the events they’re forced to live through.
Against the backdrop of the French-Russian war, War and Peace follows several aristocratic families and lower class characters as they struggle with each other to protect their best interests.
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3Human Acts by Han Kang
A recent personal favorite of mine, Human Acts by Han Kang is an uncomfortable foray into the events the little-known Gwangju Uprising that took place in South Korea during the ’80s. Human Acts is shifts the lens of war to the side of an underpowered civilian militia made up of students who quickly realize that they don’t have the stomach for the kind of violence war and rebellion calls for.
Unfortunately for them, their enemies don’t have the same qualms and even receive rewards for their cruelty towards them.
Like Dispatches, Human Acts is a fictionalized account of real events. The novel takes you forward and backward in time, through the keyholes of its characters’ memories, to show you how deeply its events affected the characters and how easily the world has forgotten about them, despite their great sacrifices for freedom.
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4All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Best War Fiction Book
All Quiet on the Western Front situates readers in the Western Front during World War I and in the shoes of Paul Baumer, a student who is convinced to enlist for the Imperial German Army, blinded by the promises and passion of youth and his teacher Kantorek.
When Paul arrives at the Western Front, he quickly realizes how fragile his noble notions are and true gravity of war. Paul and his group of friends suffer through squalid and bleak conditions, leading Paul to wonder if their struggle is truly worth it when they seem to be stuck in an eternal stalemate with the enemy.
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5The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
Let’s turn back time a bit further back with The Peloponnesian War, an account of a war during the 400s B.C. between Athens and Sparta as they vie for control over Greece. Its author, Thucydides, was a veteran of said war and served on the Athenian side as a general. Afterwards, he wrote his book on the war which later became one of the few surviving records of its events. While it’s not agreed upon by historians to be 100% accurate, it’s about as close as you’ll get to a time machine for now.
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6On War by Carl von Clausewitz
Written by Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz, On War is a military treatise in the same vein as The Art of War except it has a more philosophical bend. It works as a loose history of notable wars during his time, particularly Napoleon’s, and an attempt to explain war as a concept and function.
Now, whether it actually is a satisfactory explanation of what war is and the functions of war is up to you. What’s notable about this book is that you can’t quite shake the feeling that Clausewitz is trying to explain it to himself, first and foremost.
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7Dispatches by Michael Herr
Best Autobiographical War Book
Since its publishing in 1977, Dispatches has been praised for its storytelling and reporting on the Vietnam War. Written by Michael Herr, the book is born of the journalist’s experiences as a correspondent working for Esquire. Herr insists most of Dispatches is fictional, but the vividness of its sentiments and scenes make it clear there’s more than just a smidge of truth in the book.
A lot can be said about Dispatches but like Human Acts, describing its synopsis isn’t enough to make it stand out. Have a look at an excerpt of the book to get a sense of how impactful this book can be to see what I mean.
