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
1708 The Guns Of Navarone Alistair MacLean 1957 British English
2345 The Well Of The Unicorn Fletcher Pratt 1948 American English
2522 The Passage Of Power Robert Caro 2012 American English
2605 Ender's Game Orson Scott Card 1985 American English
2610 What It Takes Richard Ben Cramer 1992 American English
3193 The Best And The Brightest David Halberstam 1972 American English
3231 The Strategy Of Conflict Thomas Schelling 1960 American English
3247 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
3888 The Moon is a Harsh Mistress Robert A. Heinlein 1966 American English
4196 The Master Of Go Yasunari Kawabata 1951 Japanese Japanese
4290 Finite And Infinite Games James P. Carse 1986 American English
4309 Count Belisarius Robert Graves 1938 British English
4392 The Winds Of War Herman Wouk 1971 American English
4411 Sharpe's Eagle Bernard Cornwell 1981 British English
4498 The Rise And Fall Of The Great Powers Paul Kennedy 1987 British English
4899 The River War Winston Churchill 1899 British English
5039 Black Hawk Down Mark Bowden 1999 American English
5358 Team of Rivals Doris Kearns Goodwin 2005 American English
5758 The Disorderly Knights Dorothy Dunnett 1966 British English
6220 Power Politics Martin Wright 1946 British Unknown
6476 Second World War John Keegan 1989 British English
6518 Management Peter Drucker 1973 American English
6787 The Splendid And The Vile Erik Larson 2020 American English
7077 Autumn In The Heavenly Kingdom Stephen R. Platt 2012 American English
7215 The Two-Ocean War Samuel Eliot Morison 1963 American English
7215 Mémoires Philippe de Commynes 1524 French French
7215 Wallenstein Friedrich Schiller 1799 German German
7608 The Complete War Memoirs Of Charles De Gaulle Charles De Gaulle 1954 French French
7771 Napoleon Vincent Cronin 1971 British English
8774 On Guerilla Warfare Mao 1937 Chinese Chinese
10305 Episodes Of The Cuban Revolutionary War Che Guevara 1963 Argentinian Spanish
10450 Washington's Crossing David Hackett Fischer 2004 American English
10450 Churchill Andrew Roberts 2018 British English
10769 Not One Inch M. E. Sarotte 2021 American English
10916 The Economic Weapon Nicholas Mulder 2022 American English
10967 The Wall Of Storms Ken Liu 2016 American English
10995 How We Won The War Võ Nguyên Giáp 1976 Vietnamese Vietnamese
11158 The Dark Forest Cixin Liu 2008 Chinese Chinese
11322 The Prince R. M. Koster 1972 Unknown English
11660 War Margaret MacMillan 2020 Canadian English
11660 Deadly Gambits Strobe Talbott 1984 American English
11939 Roosevelt and Hopkins Robert E. Sherwood 1948 American English
11939 George Washington Douglas Southall Freeman 1948 American English
11939 John Paul Jones Samuel Eliot Morison 1959 American English
11939 Memoirs George F. Kennan 1967 American English
11939 A Prince of Our Disorder John E. Mack 1976 American English
11939 Machiavelli in Hell Sebastian de Grazia 1989 American English
11939 George F. Kennan John Lewis Gaddis 2011 American English
12076 Ninefox Gambit Yoon Ha Lee 2016 American English
12225 Persepolis Rising James S. A. Corey 2017 American English
12324 Lawrence Of Arabia Jeremy Wilson 1989 British English
12324 Kissinger Walter Isaacson 1992 American English
12324 Stalin And The Bomb David Holloway 1994 American English
13303 The Final Reflection John M. Ford 1984 American English
13599 The Battle Patrick Rambaud 1997 French French
13736 Heir To The Empire Timothy Zahn 1991 American English
13763 Foundation And Empire Isaac Asimov 1952 American English
13770 Garibaldi And The Thousand, May 1860 George Macaulay Trevelyan 1907 British English
13885 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
14457 Money Well Spent Paul Brest, Hal Harvey 2008 American English
14553 Give Smart Thomas J. Tierney 2011 American English
14616 Chess King Shi-Kuo Chang 1988 Chinese Chinese
14678 Zeng Guofan Tang Haoming 1992 Chinese Chinese
14730 Measure What Matters John Doerr 2017 American English
14730 Destined For War Graham Allison 2017 American English
14762 The Histories Polybius -150 Greek Greek
14788 Eastern Approaches Fitzroy Maclean 1949 British English
14832 Blitzscaling Reid Hoffman 2018 American English
14897 The Longest Day Cornelius Ryan 1959 American English
14962 The Origins of the Second World War A. J. P. Taylor 1961 British English
14984 A Stillness at Appomattox Bruce Catton 1953 American English
14984 Russia Leaves the War George F. Kennan 1956 American English
14984 Ender's Shadow Orson Scott Card 1999 American English
14984 The Player Of Games Iain Banks 1988 Scottish English
14984 The Warrior's Apprentice Lois McMaster Bujold 1986 American English
14984 Alex Ferguson Sir Alex Ferguson 2013 British English
14984 Catching Fire Suzanne Collins 2009 American English
14984 The Boer War Thomas Pakenham 1979 British English
14984 Stalingrad Antony Beevor 1998 British English
15561 Loonshots Safi Bahcall 2019 American English
15561 The Ride Of A Lifetime Robert Iger 2019 American English
15610 Play Nice But Win Michael Dell 2021 American English
15680 According To Hoyle Edmond Hoyle English English
15798 To The Indies C.S. Forester 1940 British English
15834 Bodyguard Of Lies Anthony Cave Brown 1975 British English
15898 Theory of Games and Economic Behavior John Von Neumann 1944 American English
15898 Their Finest Hour Winston Churchill 1949 British English
15898 Talleyrand Duff Cooper 1932 British English
15898 The Gathering Storm Winston Churchill 1948 British English
15898 The Story Of Anzac C E W Bean 1921 Australian English
15898 Trumpet To Arms Bruce Lancaster 1944 Unknown English
15898 Roll, Shenandoah Bruce Lancaster 1949 American English