Books on the military

The quarantine that resulted from the pandemic  was a difficult adjustment. For most Filipinos the difficulty was trying to find food and other necessities for their families. For those lucky enough to be able to survive financially during the lockdown period, there are a few benefits. The most talked about has been having more time with the family. For some, like me, it was a great time to have extra time for reading books.

For quite a few years, I had limited my reading fare to mostly nonfiction in the fields of business, strategy, economics geopolitics, history, geography and current affairs. However, I have the bad habit  of buying books I like; but putting them aside to read at some future date. There is actually a term for that, tsundoku, buying books you don’t actually read immediately.

One of the topics that I have always found fascinating is  the military and major battles. I taught strategic management in De La Salle University’s MBA program for 22 years. I always told my students that the root of business strategy is military strategy. In fact the term “strategy” is derived from the ancient Greek term “ strategos” which was a word that referred to a military commander or in today’s term, a general.

Over the years I have accumulated a small library of military oriented books, not all of which I have read. During the lockdown, I was able to finally find time to read a few.

The first one was a book I bought years ago; but which I have had only time to browse. Finally,  I  found enough time to read this 675-page book Cassell’s World History of Warfare by Holger Herwig, Christon Archer, Timothy Travers and John Ferris published by Cassell, Wellington House, 2002.

This book is the most comprehensive and thoughtful book on the history of warfare. According to the publishers:

“Since the dawn of civilization, organized violence has been the ultimate way by  which human societies settle arguments. It was wisely believed that the occasional war was beneficial for a country, a necessary test that weeded out the weak. In medieval times, recourse to war was seen as an appeal to God whose judgment would be reflected in the outcome. And from Genghis Khan to Adolf Hitler there have been political figures for whom war was more  than the means to an end. Societies have been molded by wars, just as warfare has been transformed by changes in society, technology, politics, geography and the climate.”

The book traces the evolution of military strategy and tactics from Stone Age raiding parties all the way to computer warfare. The book is divided into 13 chapters, plus an introduction and an epilogue. The chapters are: Warfare of the Ancient Empires, War and Society in the Classical West; Migrations and Invasions;  European Chivalry and the Rise of Islam; Eastern Styles of Warfare; The Age of Gunpowder and Sail; New Signs of Total War; Absolutism and War; The Revolutionary Era; The Beginnings of Industrial Warfare; The West Conquers the World; Twentieth Century Militarism and Technological Warfare; Third World War.

Each chapter investigates the agents, the drivers that transformed warfare. For those who are interested in the details of warfare, there are 25 illustrations and 16 maps. The first illustration is a depiction on an ancient tablet of the Assyrians conducting siege warfare attacking a town in Egypt in the year 645 B.C.; and the last illustration is an old photo of British soldiers hauling artillery out of the mud on Aug. 9, 1917 on the Western Front during the First World War.

The authors believe that the origin of warfare is still a mystery. Organized war did not seem to have been programed into early man. One widely accepted possibility is that warfare emerged at the point of transition between wandering hunter-gatherer bands and  the settlement of some groups into settled village life around 655 BC in Western Asia. The accumulation of surplus foods in the settled villages  became worth stealing by the roving groups of hunters --  gatherers. The earliest weapons were the tools used for hunting.

My special interest in this book is because  it shows, using examples of warfare, how and why strategy have evolved throughout history.

I  have forgotten when I bought this book Philippine Campaigns by Uldarico Baclagon  published by Graphic House, 1952. I am almost sure this is now out of print. I have treasured this book using it as a reference . This is the first time I read it from cover to cover.

In the foreword.  General Calixto Duque wrote: “ ...this book is the first military historical account of the Philippines...” I believe that it is still the only one.

The book is divided into 18 chapters which are grouped into five parts. The first part is Campaigns During the Spanish Regime with these three chapters: Resistance Against Spanish Conquest; Filipinos in the Armed Service of Spain; and, The Philippine Revolution.

The second part is War With the United States with three chapters: American Occupation of the Philippines; The Filipino American War; Collapse of Filipino Resistance.

The third part is Defense Against Japanese Invasion with four chapters: Prelude to Japanese Invasions; Japanese Landing;  Defense of Bataan; Defense of Corregidor, Visayas and Mindanao.

The fourth part is The Resistance Movement with three chapters: Guerrilla Forces of North and Central Luzon; Resistance in the Visayas; Resistance in Mindanao and Sulu.

The fifth part is The Liberation Campaign with four chapters: The Leyte-Samar Campaign; Luzon Campaign Part I and Part II; Visayas-Mindanao Campaign.

This is an absolute must reading for any civilian or military man to learn our country’s military history.

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