Military Novels that Teach Leadership

In this section I am going to provide a brief summary on military novels or biographies that provide leadership lessons within their pages – not necessarily “leadership books.”  While books on leadership have their place, this page is going to focus on novels – a more entertaining way to learn leadership lessons.   

In my opinion if you want to learn to lead like a Marine, you need to read novels written by Marines, about Marines.    Also, there are some other novels written by non-Marines, which also capture some terrific leadership lessons.  Within these stories, you will find leadership lessons that you can apply to everyday life.  What’s great about these books, is that they are so entertaining you do not even realize you are learning leadership lessons. 

Some terrific fiction novels that can teach you great leadership traits are:

Battle Cry by Leon Uris. 

Ok, I am not ashamed to say that I had to choke back tears the first time I read this book.  For those of you who do not know, Leon Uris was a WWII Marine.  He fought in several battles in the Pacific Campaign.  He was also a fantastic writer who wrote some great novels such as Exodus, Trinity and Topaz.

Battle Cry is a fictional account that you can tell was highly influenced by Uris’s experiences.  This novel is the real deal.  It gives you a behind the scenes look for how WWII Marines were trained and turned for individuals to close knit units that became families. 

If you have any interest in WWII history or the mindset of the men who fought in that war, this book is a MUST READ. 

Here is what Uris said about this book: I have been writing for 50 years and readers still read my first book from when I was in the Marine Corps.  

Fields of Fire by James Webb

Before James Webb was a U.S. Senator, before he was the Secretary of the Navy, before he was the Assistant Secretary of Defense, before he was a well published author, he was a U.S. Marine Lieutenant who served in Vietnam.  Fields of Fire is a fictional account of his experiences. 

This is a tremendous book to understand the horrors of warfare and the tolls that war inflicts on the people who fight it.  It also examines the most difficult type of leadership – how a scared 23 year old Marine officer has to learn to lead men in combat. 

I first read this book when I was at the U.S. Naval Academy, and this book is one of the reasons I first gravitated to the Marine Corps.