Reading List / Curriculum
For a complete curriculum in war studies, please view the War Studies Primer – an introductory course on the study of war.
The intention of this curriculum is to provide a reference library of subjects that can be used both by new users of NOSI to bring them up-to-date on a subject; and by long-time users of NOSI to help them quickly review a subject. In addition, taken in whole, the War Studies Primer serves as a basic introduction to, and curriculum in, war studies that may be used to give context to current and future naval operations.
Look at slides 2 and 3 in the War Studies Primer for its Table of Contents (reproduced below), and then choose a lecture to read and enjoy.
- In the Beginning
- Why We Fight
- Philosophers of War
- Almost as Good as the Sims (Tools for Studying War / Wargaming)
- Follow Me! (Leadership and Personnel Training)
- Poor Bloody Infantry (Weapons, focusing on armies)
- Planning and Logistics
- Intelligence
- Naval Warfare
- Up in the Air, Junior Birdman (Aerial Warfare)
- Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (Space Warfare)
- Information Warfare
- How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Weapons of Mass Destruction)
- Graceful Degradation (C4I – Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence)
- How To Win a War (A Discussion of Strategy)
- Is That All There Is? (How do Wars End?)
- Wars That Never End (Guerilla Wars)
- Rosie the Riveter (The Homefront)
- Collateral Damage (Civilians and War)
- Lest We Forget (Heroism in War)
- Rise and Fall (Empires)
- Future Wars and Geopolitics
- Future War Technology
- There Will Be No Fighting in the War Room (Lawfare)
- Corpsman Up! (Military Medicine)
- All We Are Saying – Is Give Peace a Chance (How to Keep the Peace / Prevent Wars)
- Art in War
- Conclusion
To read any article abstracted in the War Studies Primer, go to Google and type the title of the article, in quotes, into its Web search engine.
Finally, there are two great sources of weekly lectures on the Web related to geopolitics, world history, and military history:
- BookTV on C-SPAN2 every weekend has at least one interesting interview with or reading by an author / historian related to their recent books. These shows can be viewed live on the television or later on the Web via streaming video.
- The Pritzker Military Library has a weekly military history podcast that consists of either a lecture from an author, an interview with an author, an interview with a Medal of Honor Winner, or a current affairs roundtable.