The most important book I read as a student at West Point was a weighty tome titled “Makers of Modern Strategy.” It covered the evolution of strategic thinking from Machiavelli to the nuclear age, explaining the rise and fall of states as a result of choices made by statesmen and generals about how, where, when and why to employ military force to achieve political objectives. It was an edited text—no one person, it seems, was erudite enough to be an expert across such a broad range of history—and hence suffered from differences in writing style and inconsistencies in theme, but it was the best education in grand strategy…