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16 Best War Books

Goal: Find the best War books according to the internet (not just one person's opinion).

Method:

  1. Search for "best war books" and study the top 5+ pages.
  2. Add only the books mentioned 2+ times.
  3. Rank the results neatly here.

16 Best War Books

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1

The Red Badge of Courage

by Stephen Crane

3

War And Peace

by Leo Tolstoy

4

Catch-22

by Joseph Heller

5

On War

by Carl von Clausewitz

6

The Iliad

by Homer

7

All Quiet on the Western Front

by Erich Maria Remarque

8

History of the Peloponnesian War

by Thucydides

9

Slaughterhouse-Five

A Novel

by Kurt Vonnegut

Also recommended by:

Alexis Ohanian, Ryan Shea, Jack Edwards

10

With the Old Breed

At Peleliu and Okinawa

by E. B. Sledge

Also recommended by:

Jocko Willink, Howard Stern, Paul Graham

11

The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

by Ulysses S. Grant

Also recommended by:

Mark Twain, Jamie Dimon

12

The Things They Carried

by Tim O'Brien

Also recommended by:

Caroline Paul, Tim Ferriss

13

The Guns of August

The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Classic About the Outbreak of World War I

by Barbara W. Tuchman

Also recommended by:

Doris Kearns Goodwin

14

We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young

Ia Drang—The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam

by Harold G. Moore

Also recommended by:

Jocko Willink

15

1776

by David McCullough

16

The Forever War

by Dexter Filkins

Sources

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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16 Best War Books (2025)