# War Canon
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 22, 2007, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164 "2007-04-22T09:36:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2007, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/1 "2007-04-22T09:36:48Z")
Pun intended.
I always like to think about books about certain topics or with common themes that are otherwise quite different (same with music, actually.) Take war, for example. There are tons of war stories, starting from at the very least Antiquities. Say we were to take the best and/or most important literature about war. What would we have to include? What would definitely _not_ belong in the canon?
I have a few starting candidates:
**The Iliad** : Homer is brilliant (the Lombardo translation is best to bring out the tone, IMHO.) He paints the gritty scene of armies meeting with his extended metaphors and individual match-ups, his account of the back-and-forth of battle. As an added bonus, it’s really, really old, and really, really unique.
**All Quiet on the Western Front** : The ultimate anti-war novel. This is such a shoe-in, I’m not sure I have anything more to add.
**Black Hawk Down** (Mark Bowden): This book really isn’t literature, but I think it belongs here anyway. Why? 1) Influence – it actually had a real effect on American attitudes. 2) Detail – no other non-fiction work that I have read contains the level of detail, brought about thanks to the massive amount of resources available to Bowden. 3) Age (or lack thereof) – it’s still very recent.
Obviously, this isn’t even a drop in the bucket. Further, I’m not exactly qualified to make these judgements – but I know lots of Dopers are far more qualified. That brings us to the last question: on what basis should one judge war stories?
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### Author:  [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2007, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/2 "2007-04-22T09:43:44Z")
[The Forgotten Soldier](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forgotten_Soldier), despite controversy is an excellent read.
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### Author:  [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2007, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/3 "2007-04-22T16:38:51Z")
Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin novels pretty much say it all for the Napoleonic period at sea.
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### Author:  [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2007, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/4 "2007-04-22T16:49:54Z")
I am reading Memoirs and Letters U.S. Grant. Very well written civil war story…
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### Author:  [@Can\_Handle\_the\_Truth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Can_Handle_the_Truth)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2007, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/5 "2007-04-22T19:45:13Z")
[Guns Up!](http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Up-Johnnie-Clark/dp/0345450264/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-4957243-6160913?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177270467&sr=1-1) by Johnnie Clark is a great read – even though every cliche’ you ever heard about Vietnam seems to have actually happened to the author.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2007, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/6 "2007-04-22T20:51:45Z")
Are we counting nonfiction? Because if so, we ought to include Sun Tsu’s _The Art of War_ and Caesar’s _The Gallic Wars_, at the very least. Plus several others in similar veins that I’m not remembering right now.
On the fiction side, _Catch-22_.
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### Author:  [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2007, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/7 "2007-04-22T20:56:03Z")
Band of Brothers - Stephen Ambrose
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### Author:  [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2007, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/8 "2007-04-22T21:27:48Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos]
Are we counting nonfiction? Because if so, we ought to include Sun Tsu’s _The Art of War_ and Caesar’s _The Gallic Wars_, at the very least. Plus several others in similar veins that I’m not remembering right now.
[/QUOTE]
Wonderful suggestions (and I mean that for everyone.) And yes, we are including non-fiction (_Black Hawk Down_ is non-fiction, for one.)
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### Author:  [@pprgrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pprgrl)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2007, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/9 "2007-04-22T22:14:16Z")
I have to vote for [Johnny Got His Gun](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Got_His_Gun) by Dalton Trumbo for the greatest anti-war novel ever, though All Quiet has been one of my favorites forever.
If we’re allowed to include books about fictional wars, I’m voting for [The Forever War](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forever_War) by Joe Haldeman. Even if it isn’t allowed in the official “war canon” it’s still a very thought provoking book.
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### Author:  [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2007, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/10 "2007-04-23T00:37:31Z")
I’d suggest The [Killer Angels by Michael Shaara](http://www.amazon.com/Killer-Angels-Michael-Shaara/dp/0345348109/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-7811508-8217568?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177288429&sr=8-2), to this list.
A bit more anecdotal would be one of my favorite WWII books: U-505 by RADM Daniel Gallery. Part autobiographical account, and part meticulously researched view of the U-Boat war I think it works very well on both counts.
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### Author:  [@parthenokinesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parthenokinesis)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2007, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/11 "2007-04-23T00:57:49Z")
I would think no war book list would be complete without [Slaughterhouse Five](http://www.amazon.com/Slaughterhouse-Five-Kurt-Vonnegut/dp/0385333846/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-0914904-9363044?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177289723&sr=8-1)
RIP Kurt.
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### Author:  [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/12 "2007-04-24T01:59:00Z")
[Clausewitz’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_von_Clausewitz) book, On War, available [online](http://www.clausewitz.com/CWZHOME/VomKriege2/ONWARTOC2.HTML) for free, and there are many annotated versions in print.
Rommel’s papers regarding strategy and tactics were printed in German in 1937. There are several English translations around now. [This one](http://www.amazon.com/Attacks-ROMMEL-Erwin-Rommel/dp/0960273603/) seems to be highly rated. It was considered seminal reading at the time, and his insights shaped the German blitzkrieg attacks. I’ve only read bits of it and would love to actually read through the whole thing sometime.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/13 "2007-04-24T02:54:49Z")
[The Red Badge of Courage](http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext93/badge10.txt) by Stephen Crane.
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### Author:  [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/14 "2007-04-24T02:57:57Z")
“The Guns of August” by Barbara Tuchman.
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### Author:  [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/15 "2007-04-24T05:08:09Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo]
[The Red Badge of Courage](http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext93/badge10.txt) by Stephen Crane.
[/QUOTE]
:smack: Should have thought of that one. Obviously classic.
Keep them coming, all!
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### Author:  [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/16 "2007-04-24T05:28:20Z")
How about [The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich](http://www.amazon.com/America-Alone-End-World-Know/dp/0895260786/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-8930792-2628647?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177389827&sr=1-1) by William Shirer.
I haven’t read it, but [A Savage War of Peace](http://www.amazon.com/Savage-War-Peace-1954-1962-Classics/dp/1590172183/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-8930792-2628647?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177392436&sr=1-1) by Alistair Horne, about the Algerian War, is considered a classic.
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### Author:  [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/17 "2007-04-24T07:04:09Z")
Oh yeah, forgot about this earlier: [A Soldier of the Great War](http://www.amazon.com/Soldier-Great-War-Mark-Helprin/dp/0380715899), a darn good read, though not concerned exclusively with war.
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### Author:  [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/18 "2007-04-24T08:04:32Z")
You’d have to include Xenophon, Herodotus, and Thucydides.
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### Author:  [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/19 "2007-04-24T13:39:27Z")
\*\*Bridge on the River Kwai \*\* and **The Guns of Navarone** are to me the archetypes of the “commando raid.” Both even have the cliche of having a precise deadline for the demolition.
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### Author:  [@ColonelDax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColonelDax)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2007, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-canon/401164/20 "2007-04-24T14:58:17Z")
[QUOTE=Rodgers01]
I haven’t read it, but [A Savage War of Peace](http://www.amazon.com/Savage-War-Peace-1954-1962-Classics/dp/1590172183/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-8930792-2628647?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177392436&sr=1-1) by Alistair Horne, about the Algerian War, is considered a classic.
[/QUOTE]
I own a copy, it’s an excellent book.
This is fiction, but Loyd Little’s _Parthian Shot_, which unfortunately is out of print, is well worth a search, IMHO. Let’s just say that before I read it I would never have believed that a satiric novel set in the Vietnam War even existed, let alone that it could be so hilarious.
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