The Makers of Modern Strategy from Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age

Though we have tried to avoid edited volumes in making this list, Peter Paret’s book is an exception because it is considered a classic. His use of the term “strategy” relates to military strategy, as opposed to grand strategy. Essays by eminent historians and commentators focus on the origins of war; the evolution of war, including the effects of mass mobilization and industrialization; the thinking of principal strategists among the combatants in the two world wars; major theorists of land, naval, and air power; and the post-World War II thinkers on the nuclear age and revolutionary warfare. A reader can delve into the material selectively, but this is a book that all national security practitioners of a certain age read as they prepared to enter this field. It has stood the test of time.