Stanley McChrystal's six favorite books

Stanley McChrystal retired in July 2010 as a four-star general in the U.S. Army. His last assignment was as the commander of the International Security Assistance Force and as the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He had previously served as the direc­tor of the Joint Staff and as the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command. He is currently a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and the cofounder of the McChrystal Group, a leadership consulting firm.

McChrystal's new book is My Share of the Task: A Memoir.

One of his six favorite books, as told to The Week magazine:

The Face of Battle by John Keegan

In The Face of Battle — published the year I graduated from West Point — Keegan writes that military academy cadets' knowledge of war is "theoretical, anticipatory, and secondhand." His book is an antidote to this, putting the reader amid the clang of armor and putrid trench mud.

Read about the other books on McChrystal's list.

The Face of Battle is among Stephen Hunter's five best books about soldiers at war and Thomas C. Schelling's most influential books.

--Marshal Zeringue