Books like The Forever War

01

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

Lawrence Wright · History

Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower is the most comprehensive account of how al-Qaeda came to attack the United States on September 11, 2001.

A kindred history read.

02

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

Patrick Radden Keefe · History

Say Nothing opens with a scene that sets its register precisely: Jean McConville, a widowed mother of ten, is dragged from her Belfast flat by a gang of masked strangers in December 1972 and never seen alive again.

A kindred history read.

03

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Laura Hillenbrand · Biography

Unbroken follows Louis Zamperini from his juvenile delinquency in Depression-era California to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he ran the 5,000 meters at nineteen and briefly caught Hitler's attention.

Both dig into war.

04

Between the World and Me

Ta-Nehisi Coates · Memoir

Between the World and Me is a letter from Ta-Nehisi Coates to his teenage son, Samori, about what it means to live in a Black body in the United States.

A kindred history read.

05

All Quiet on the Western Front

Erich Maria Remarque · History

All Quiet on the Western Front follows Paul Bäumer, a young German soldier who enlists with his classmates during the First World War after being swept up in patriotic speeches.

Both dig into war.

06

Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission

Hampton Sides · History

Ghost Soldiers tells the story of the January 1945 raid on the Cabanatuan prisoner-of-war camp in the Philippines — a mission to rescue 513 American and Allied prisoners, survivors of the Bataan Death March, before the retreating Japanese army could execute them.

Both dig into war.

07

History of the Peloponnesian War

Thucydides · History

Thucydides' account of the twenty-seven-year conflict between Athens and Sparta stands as the founding document of political realism and the first work of history that treats evidence and causation as problems to be solved rather than stories to be told.

Both dig into war.

08

Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy During the Cold War

John Lewis Gaddis · History

Strategies of Containment is John Lewis Gaddis's systematic analysis of how American national security policy evolved across successive administrations from Truman through Reagan.

Both dig into american foreign policy.

09

The Best and the Brightest

David Halberstam · History

David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest, published in 1972, is both a history of American intervention in Vietnam and a study of institutional failure.

Both dig into american foreign policy.

10

The Histories

Herodotus · History

Herodotus wrote The Histories in the fifth century BCE as an inquiry into the causes of the wars between Greece and Persia that had recently convulsed the Mediterranean world.

Both dig into war.

11

The Prize

Daniel Yergin · History

The Prize is Daniel Yergin's comprehensive history of the oil industry from its origins in Pennsylvania in 1859 through the Gulf War of 1990 and 1991.

Both dig into war.

12

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Ishmael Beah · Memoir

Ishmael Beah was twelve years old when the Sierra Leone civil war reached his village and he was separated from his family.

Both dig into war.