Five top books about guerrillas

Max Boot is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. His latest book is Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present.


One of his five best books about guerrillas, as told to the Wall Street Journal:

Into the Land of Bones
by Frank L. Holt (2005)

This excellent accountof Alexander the Great's foray into Afghanistan in 329 B.C. is a reminder that guerrilla warfare is not a recent invention—it is in fact older than civilization itself. Fresh off his dismantling of the Persian Empire, Alexander found the obstreperous tribes of Central Asia harder to subdue. Entire Macedonian detachments were lost in ambushes, and Alexander himself was wounded twice. Frank Holt, a classicist at the University of Houston, narrates his struggle in clear prose that makes this ancient campaign come alive and gives greater appreciation for the challenges that confront all counterinsurgents in Afghanistan—including the U.S. troops still fighting there more than a decade after 9/11.

Read about the other books on Boot's list.

--Marshal Zeringue