[Verginius Rufus]

Some older books: Xenophon's The Persian Expedition (also called The Anabasis); Herodotus' The Persian Wars; Caesar's Gallic War; Bernal Diaz, The Conquest of New Spain. All available as Penguin paperbacks (although the Oxford World's Classics editions are better when they are available).

Xenophon's book is about a Greek army which gets involved in an invasion of Iraq about 400 B.C. and also does a lot of fighting in Kurdistan.

[armymarinemom]

I plan to print these out. Yes he is interested in serious study. He plans to either apply for CWO or green to gold. His intended major is Military History. His ASVABS were in the 98th percentile so he stand a pretty good chance.

He also requested some good tutorial books for learning German as a second language

[4mer Liberal]

I suggest, The Iliad, by Homer, and The Gathering Storm, by Sir Winston Churchill. The latter gives a very detailed, behind the scene view of the appeasemet of Germany by the major powers of europe in the view of Sir Winston, and the warnings he gave that were ignored as Germany became stronger and stronger and was more emboldened by the failure to act on part of the powers of the time. It is Apropos to undersatnding the current conflict, in terms of how Al Queda became emboldened by our lack of leadership to confront them until after 9-11. It is actually almost haunting.

[Verginius Rufus]

For a serious student of history, Thucydides is an essential author. His Peloponnesian War is available in several paperback translations. Plutarch's Lives are worth reading & also available in various translations--there is a good new selection in the Oxford World's Classics in two volumes: Greek Lives and Roman Lives.

For American history, there's Ulysses Grant's Personal Memoirs (Penguin ed.) and Jay Winik, April 1865: The Month That Saved America. A readable general history of the U.S. (to the 1970s) by an outsider is Hugh Brogan's The Pelican History of the United States of America.