"Favorite wargaming or history related book?" Topic

I'm sure most folks here have a pretty good sized collection of books. If you had to pick just one, what would be your favorite? A book that you pick up over and over again not just as a reference but because you really enjoy the book.
I'm curious to see what people would choose.

Mine is Fire and Stone by Duffy. I'm fascinated by the construction and sieges of artillery forts.

So what is your favorite wargaming or history related book?

The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides.

It is the best history book I've ever read, I think. Sure it has its holes and some of them have to be deliberate but it is so well written.

Cassell's Battlefields of Britain & Ireland by Richard Brooks

Castles of Steel by Massie

Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. Okay, it's not much a resource for reference, but it's a heck of an inspirational read.

The Campaigns of Napoleon by David Chandler.

Napoleonic Wargaming by Charles Grant.

Regards,

J. P. Kelly

The Art of War in the Sixteenth Century by Sir Charles Oman.

Not a lot of quality research included, but a great read and a real inspiration.

Like Brian above, Chandler's book got me interested in the period then wargaming in general.

Not a single book but a series – Conway's 'History of the Ship'. Always loved the naval side and this stretches over the whole spectrum.

Man…

Give me a decade or so to think about this.

Picking a favorite is tough but Killer Angels probably for me as well.

Peter Connolly's Greece and Rome at War. The perfect combination of excellent writing, history and inspirational illustrations.

Napoleonic Wargaming for Fun by Paddy Griffith for wargaming.

Lundy's Lane by Donald Graves for history.

Tacitus' Histories

Bernard Cornwell's 'Sharpe' series. Not necessarily great history, nor great literature. But boy can he put you in the grit and blood of the Napoleonic Wars. These novels have been absolutely inspiring to my not-so-serious take on military history.

"Enemy at the Gates". NOT the film, however. Bleargh.

I read "Enemy at the Gates" a few years ago and I remember liking it.

Corneilus Ryan's "The Last Battle" is good; I haven't read his other books.

J adams by mccullough

That is a hard one to answer, I mean, really hard.

Iron Men and Saints by Harold Lamb, though I could add the second volume, Flames of Islam (sometimes found together as The Crusades), the first "part" is the part I have read over a dozen times.

Close runners up include Swords Around a Throne by Elting, A Bridge Too Far by Ryan, Conquest of Mexico by Prescott, … list could go on forever :)

Chalfant

Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway

link

The Guns of August by Tuchman.

2nd: Kasserine Pass Battles
Staff Ride Background Materials found for free here: link

Well my favorite is actually a trilogy, that would be Norwich's Books on Byzantium. Close runners up;

Chandlers Campaigns of Napoleon
The Washing of the Spears
The Guns of August

Okay guys ready for the S to hit the fan. I like most of the books by Stephen Turnbull and David Nicolle.

E. Coddington's The Gettysburg Campaign

This is a really tough question, but, I can pour through A Guide to the Armies of the American War of Independence by Greg Novak for hours on end. I very much appreciate the work and heart that went into it.

The Shelby Foote 3 vol. series on the ACW.

Eiji Yoshikawa's "Musashi."
I love samurai skirmishing (the unarmored, chanbara kind), and Musashi is chock full of a variety of action.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Roméo Dallaire's Shake Hands With The Devil

George Malcolm Thompson's 'the First Churchill'.
Although a kid's book 'Le Roy Soleil' by Gustave Toudouze is a book I never get tired of looking at thanks to the full page illustrations of Maurice Leloir. They are inspirational and my bad French is good enough to allow me to read it.

If forced to pick just one, then Mailed Fist by John Foley (autobiography). Runners up include Six Armies in Normandy, The Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough and The Soviet Conduct of Tactical Manouvre. All rated in terms of times read.

Hannibal, by Dodge.

With Eagles to Glory by Jack Gill followed by Johnson's 2 books on the French Cavalry followed by Norwich's 3 volumes on Byzantium. A good "Desert Island Collection".

Notebooks of Captain Coignet. Read it at age 9 or 10 and used my allowance and grocery store flyer delivery service money to buy my first Airfix Napoleonics.

DM

Normally I would've said perhaps Chandler's 'The Campaigns of Napoleon' but in the last five years I've read '1776' by David McCullough at least ten times. I think its a fabulous read.

The Face of Battle by the late John Keegan.

Ron

Iron men and Saints.
What a good book! Great for wargame inspiration.

History-1776 by David McCullogh
Historical novels-any from the Horatio Hornblower series
Wargaming-Sea Battles in Miniature by Paul Hague. At one time I was assembling a flotilla of British ironclads (scratchbuilt) for the 1870s to 1880s. Beautiful, they were!

Foundry Miniatures Painting & Modeling Guide by Kevin Dallimore.
Plenty of good stuff inside and once you pick it up you canny put it down.

For historical fiction my favorite book is "Eagle in the Snow," by Wallace Breem. For historical nonfiction it would be either Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian War" or the volumes of William Kendrick Pritchett's "The Greek State at War."