The 2024 War on the Rocks Holiday Reading List

Every year we kick off the holiday season with a roundup of books recommended by the War on the Rocks team. Enrich your friends’ libraries, get a family book club going, or treat yourself to something new. We hope you enjoy! Kerry Anderson MBS: The Rise to Po…
Jenni Kuphal · 14 days ago · 4 minutes read


Books Worth Reading for the Holidays

Non-Fiction

MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed bin Salman by Ben Hubbard

The Iran Wars: Spy Games, Bank Battles, and the Secret Deals that Reshaped the Middle East by Jay Solomon

To Fix a National Character: The United States in the First Barbary War, 1800–1805 by Abigail Mullen

Too Far on a Whim: The Limits of High-Steam Propulsion in the US Navy by Tyler Pitrof

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley

Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts

Biographical series on Lyndon Johnson (4 thus far) by Robert Caro

AI Snake Oil by Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor

On Settler Colonialism by Adam Kirsch

This Earthly Globe: A Venetian Geographer’s Quest to Map the World by Andrea Di Robilant

Planning for Protraction: A Historically Informed Approach to Great-Power War and Sino-US Competition by Iskander Rehman

The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone by Olivia Laing

Sparks: China’s Underground Historians and Their Battle for the Future by Ian Johnson

The Demon in the Freezer: A True Story by Richard Preston

The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the CIA, and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq by Steve Coll

Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality by Frank Wilczek

Routledge Handbook of Proxy Wars edited by Assaf Moghadam, Vladimir Rauta, and Michel Wyss

Advanced Land Warfare: Tactics and Operations edited by Mikael Weissman and Niklas Nilsson

The Wizard of the Kremlin by Giuliano da Empoli

Freedom. Memoirs 1954 -2021 by Angela Merkel

Superpower Interrupted: The Chinese History of the World by Michael Shuman

The Dark Path: The Structure of War and the Rise of the West by Williamson Murray

Invisible China by Scott Rozelle and Natalie Hell

Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild

Beyond Ukraine: Debating the Future of War edited by Tim Sweijs and Jeffrey Michaels

Melting Point. High Command and War in the 21st Century by Kenneth. F. McKenzie, Jr.

Oceans Rise Empires Fall: Why Geopolitics Hastens Climate Catastrophe by Gerard Toal

On Wars by Michael Mann

Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War by Raj M. Shah and Christopher Kirchhoff

Oceans Rise Empires Fall: Why Geopolitics Hastens Climate Catastrophe by Gerard Toal

Economic War: Ukraine and the Global Conflict between Russia and the West by Maximillian Hess

On Obedience by Pauline Shanks Kaurin

Just and Unjust Wars by Michael Walzer

The Black Box: Demystifying the Study of Korean Unification and North Korea by Victor Cha

Training for Victory: U.S. Special Forces Advisory Operations from El Salvador to Afghanistan by Frank Sobchak

The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson

The Glorious Cause: the American Revolution 1763-1789 by Robert Middlekauff

Land Between the Rivers: a 5,000 Year History of Iraq by Bartle Bull

The City and its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami

Faustian Bargain: The Soviet-German Partnership and the Origins of the Second World War by Ian Ona Johnson

Anticipating Total War: The German and American Experiences, 1871-1914 edited by Manfred M. Bomeke

Putin’s Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine by Mark Galeotti

Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters by Brian Klaas

You Dreamed of Empires by Alvaro Enrigue

The Cutting Off Way: Indigenous Warfare in Eastern North America, 1500-1800 by Wayne E. Lee

The Embrace of Unreason: France, 1914-1940 by Frederick Brown

Polostan by Neal Stephenson

A Woman I Know: Female Spies, Double Identities, and a New Story of the Kennedy Assassination by Mary Haverstick

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist by Clarissa Ward

Exercise of Power: American Failures, Successes, and a New Path Forward in the Post-Cold War World by Robert M. Gates

Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying by James M. Olson

Putin’s World: Russia Against the West and With the Rest by Angela Stent

Image: Adam Bernaert via Wikimedia Commons.