The Greatest Books of All Time on Strategy

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
152 The Prince Niccolo Machiavelli 1532 Italian Italian
379 The Second World War Winston Churchill 1948 British English
483 The Civil War Shelby Foote 1958 American English
541 The Seven Pillars of Wisdom T. E. Lawrence 1926 British English
563 Panchatantra Unknown -300 Multiple Sanskrit
596 The History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides -410 Greek Ancient greek
713 The Killer Angels Michael Shaara 1974 American English
783 Anabasis Xenophon -390 Greek Ancient greek
802 Romance of the Three Kingdoms Guanzhong Luo 1400 Chinese Chinese
835 The Art of War Sun Tzu -500 Chinese Classical chinese
876 Lysistrata Aristophanes -411 Greek Ancient greek
921 Master and Commander Patrick O'Brian 1969 British English
1041 On War Carl Von Clausewitz 1832 German German
1580 The Struggle for Europe Chester Wilmot 1952 British English
1588 The Guns of August Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1962 American English
1682 Asterix the Gaul Rene Goscinny 1959 French French
1709 The Guns Of Navarone Alistair MacLean 1957 British English
2347 The Well Of The Unicorn Fletcher Pratt 1948 American English
2524 The Passage Of Power Robert Caro 2012 American English
2606 Ender's Game Orson Scott Card 1985 American English
2611 What It Takes Richard Ben Cramer 1992 American English
3194 The Best And The Brightest David Halberstam 1972 American English
3232 The Strategy Of Conflict Thomas Schelling 1960 American English
3248 Memoirs of Cardinal De Retz Cardinal de Retz 1717 French French
3324 Tirant Lo Blanc Joanot Martorell 1490 Spanish Catalan
3388 Bomber Len Deighton 1970 British English
3391 Napoleon Emil Ludwig 1926 German German
3472 The Armada Garrett Mattingly 1959 American English
3525 Strange Defeat Marc Bloch 1946 French French
3887 The Moon is a Harsh Mistress Robert A. Heinlein 1966 American English
4197 The Master Of Go Yasunari Kawabata 1951 Japanese Japanese
4291 Finite And Infinite Games James P. Carse 1986 American English
4310 Count Belisarius Robert Graves 1938 British English
4393 The Winds Of War Herman Wouk 1971 American English
4412 Sharpe's Eagle Bernard Cornwell 1981 British English
4499 The Rise And Fall Of The Great Powers Paul Kennedy 1987 British English
4900 The River War Winston Churchill 1899 British English
5042 Black Hawk Down Mark Bowden 1999 American English
5359 Team of Rivals Doris Kearns Goodwin 2005 American English
5761 The Disorderly Knights Dorothy Dunnett 1966 British English
6224 Power Politics Martin Wright 1946 British Unknown
6478 Second World War John Keegan 1989 British English
6520 Management Peter Drucker 1973 American English
6788 The Splendid And The Vile Erik Larson 2020 American English
7077 Autumn In The Heavenly Kingdom Stephen R. Platt 2012 American English
7216 The Two-Ocean War Samuel Eliot Morison 1963 American English
7216 Mémoires Philippe de Commynes 1524 French French
7216 Wallenstein Friedrich Schiller 1799 German German
7609 The Complete War Memoirs Of Charles De Gaulle Charles De Gaulle 1954 French French
7772 Napoleon Vincent Cronin 1971 British English
8777 On Guerilla Warfare Mao 1937 Chinese Chinese
10308 Episodes Of The Cuban Revolutionary War Che Guevara 1963 Argentinian Spanish
10453 Washington's Crossing David Hackett Fischer 2004 American English
10453 Churchill Andrew Roberts 2018 British English
10773 Not One Inch M. E. Sarotte 2021 American English
10920 The Economic Weapon Nicholas Mulder 2022 American English
10971 The Wall Of Storms Ken Liu 2016 American English
10999 How We Won The War Võ Nguyên Giáp 1976 Vietnamese Vietnamese
11162 The Dark Forest Cixin Liu 2008 Chinese Chinese
11326 The Prince R. M. Koster 1972 Unknown English
11662 War Margaret MacMillan 2020 Canadian English
11662 Deadly Gambits Strobe Talbott 1984 American English
11940 Roosevelt and Hopkins Robert E. Sherwood 1948 American English
11940 George Washington Douglas Southall Freeman 1948 American English
11940 John Paul Jones Samuel Eliot Morison 1959 American English
11940 Memoirs George F. Kennan 1967 American English
11940 A Prince of Our Disorder John E. Mack 1976 American English
11940 Machiavelli in Hell Sebastian de Grazia 1989 American English
11940 George F. Kennan John Lewis Gaddis 2011 American English
12077 Ninefox Gambit Yoon Ha Lee 2016 American English
12226 Persepolis Rising James S. A. Corey 2017 American English
12326 Lawrence Of Arabia Jeremy Wilson 1989 British English
12326 Kissinger Walter Isaacson 1992 American English
12326 Stalin And The Bomb David Holloway 1994 American English
13306 The Final Reflection John M. Ford 1984 American English
13600 The Battle Patrick Rambaud 1997 French French
13737 Heir To The Empire Timothy Zahn 1991 American English
13763 Foundation And Empire Isaac Asimov 1952 American English
13771 Garibaldi And The Thousand, May 1860 George Macaulay Trevelyan 1907 British English
13886 Raven Stratagem Yoon Ha Lee 2017 American English
13971 The Monster Baru Cormorant Seth Dickinson 2018 American English
14051 The Power To Compete Hiroshi Mikitani, Ryoichi Mikitani 2014 Japanese English
14078 The Trouble With Peace Joe Abercrombie 2020 British English
14078 The Tyrant Baru Cormorant Seth Dickinson 2020 American English
14138 The Mule Isaac Asimov 1945 American English
14212 Ender's War Orson Scott Card 1985 American English
14212 Frank Stewart's Bridge Club Frank Stewart 2001 American English
14458 Money Well Spent Paul Brest, Hal Harvey 2008 American English
14554 Give Smart Thomas J. Tierney 2011 American English
14617 Chess King Shi-Kuo Chang 1988 Chinese Chinese
14679 Zeng Guofan Tang Haoming 1992 Chinese Chinese
14731 Measure What Matters John Doerr 2017 American English
14731 Destined For War Graham Allison 2017 American English
14762 The Histories Polybius -150 Greek Greek
14788 Eastern Approaches Fitzroy Maclean 1949 British English
14833 Blitzscaling Reid Hoffman 2018 American English
14899 The Longest Day Cornelius Ryan 1959 American English
14963 The Origins of the Second World War A. J. P. Taylor 1961 British English
14985 A Stillness at Appomattox Bruce Catton 1953 American English
14985 Russia Leaves the War George F. Kennan 1956 American English
14985 Ender's Shadow Orson Scott Card 1999 American English
14985 The Player Of Games Iain Banks 1988 Scottish English
14985 The Warrior's Apprentice Lois McMaster Bujold 1986 American English
14985 Alex Ferguson Sir Alex Ferguson 2013 British English
14985 Catching Fire Suzanne Collins 2009 American English
14985 The Boer War Thomas Pakenham 1979 British English
14985 Stalingrad Antony Beevor 1998 British English
15567 Loonshots Safi Bahcall 2019 American English
15567 The Ride Of A Lifetime Robert Iger 2019 American English
15616 Play Nice But Win Michael Dell 2021 American English
15686 According To Hoyle Edmond Hoyle English English
15794 To The Indies C.S. Forester 1940 British English
15842 Bodyguard Of Lies Anthony Cave Brown 1975 British English
15915 Theory of Games and Economic Behavior John Von Neumann 1944 American English
15915 Their Finest Hour Winston Churchill 1949 British English
15915 Talleyrand Duff Cooper 1932 British English
15915 The Gathering Storm Winston Churchill 1948 British English
15915 The Story Of Anzac C E W Bean 1921 Australian English
15915 Trumpet To Arms Bruce Lancaster 1944 Unknown English
15915 Roll, Shenandoah Bruce Lancaster 1949 American English