History Main / BigBookOfWar

* The Argentine TV series ''Los únicos'', about secret agents with superpowers, has a set of bylaws for the agents. The main rule is that agents shall not develop romantic relations among themselves (of course, they all defy the rule and get in trouble as a result), but other laws are mentioned from time to time.

* The Dragon Fighting Manual from ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon.''

** 12. A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head. ([[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20021121.html 1]])

* The 18th century treatise ''Reflexiones Militares'' by Álvaro Navia-Osorio y Vigil was one of the greatest books of war at its time, as well as one of the first to address insuergency and counter-insurgency. Both UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte and UsefulNotes/FrederickTheGreat studied it, with the latter even purportedly claiming that if you want to know Frederick's tactics you just had to read that book.

* In UsefulNotes/TheThirtySixStratagems, there are Nine Principles of War.

* [[FourStarBadass Carl von Clausewitz's]] ''On War'' is the West's premier work on military theory. Clausewitz notably argues for the inherent superiority of defense over offense and stresses the moral and political aspects of war. Even though the work is [[DiedDuringProduction unfinished]], it was highly influential at the time of the First World War and remains relevant today. The book coined the concept of the "fog of war" and memorably defined war as "the continuation of politics by other means." [[note]] In popular culture, at least. In reality, "the continuation of politics by other means" is often misunderstood as his whole argument; it was actually the counterweight to his ''other'' definition of war as a scaled-up wrestling match. As a very complex thinker who was writing in an environment that bought into Hegelian dialectics quite heavily, what he was aiming for was a synthesis of these two ideas, but that hasn't stopped many other simpler-minded leaders taking him at his word. [[/note]]

* ''Summary of the Art of War'' was released in the 19th century by Baron Antoine Henri de Jomini, who served under Napoleon and was a professional rival to fellow theorist Clausewitz. Jomini's writing style is noted for his extensive use of historical examples and diagrams to illustrate his points, complete with a LemonyNarrator commentary. These days, most publishers shorten the title to ''The Art of War'', which can lead to confusion.

* Vegetius's ''De Re Militari'' (roughly, ''On Military Matters'') was a major influence on Machiavelli and widely read for centuries.
* The ancient Greeks produced several, including ''The Cavalry Commander'' by Creator/{{Xenophon}}, ''On the Defence of Fortified Positions'' by Aeneas Tacticus, ''Tactics'' by Asclepiodotus and ''The General'' by Onasander. The ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' by Thucydides is 2000 years old and still a solid read for the conduct of war and international relations.
* The Byzantines were very fond of writing military manuals, the most famous of which is the ''Strategikon of Maurice'', allegedly written by the Emperor Maurice. The Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus also wrote a manual on campaigning and Emperor Nikephoros II wrote one titled ''Skirmishing'' and another titled ''Presentation and Composition on Warfare''. But there are a number of others, such as an anonymous, early sixth century, untitled manual on strategy, an anonymous, late tenth century, untitled manual on tactics, and an early eleventh century work titled ''Taktika'' by Nikephoros Ouranos.

* Alfred Mahan's ''The Influence of Sea Power upon History'' (1890) is one of the most influential books of the twentieth century; it basically set U.S. naval policy to where it is now. It's also a current favorite of China's People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).
** It also was one of the favourite textbooks for Wilhelm II and Tirpitz's expansion of the German navy and thus was a major influence on the British-German naval armament race that helped bring about UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.
** Julian Corbett wrote ''Some Principles of Maritime Strategy'' in 1911. It was essentially the British answer to Mahan and was also incredibly influential. While Mahan wrote mainly about old school fleet battles Corbett focused on things like disrupting lines of communication and power projection which means that his work also aged a bit better. Though both are still studied today.
* Italian General Giulio Douhet and his ''Command of the Air'' (1921) exerted a similarly big influence on the air forces of the inter-war years, especially in Britain and Germany.
* Erwin Rommel wrote ''Infantry Attacks'', a memoir of his service in WWI, interspersing battle reports with his thoughts on the lessons learned. Published in 1936, it gained Hitler's attention and led to Rommel's assignment to the commands that brought him fame. It was promptly translated into English for the consumption of American officers. Rommel followed it up with a detailed diary during WWII that he intended to turn into a similar work on armoured warfare; halted by his death, it was later published as ''The Rommel Papers''.
** Among these allegedly was George S. Patton, prompting his MemeticMutation line in ''Film/{{Patton}}''.

* Hugo Grotius' ''Law of War and Peace'' is a massive philosophical tome on military and political ethics that inspired much of modern international law. It was perhaps backlash to current events of the time for the seventeenth was emphatically not famed for [[LetsFightLikeGentlemen gentlemanly warfare.]]
* ''Literature/TheDefenceOfDuffersDrift'' (written in 1905 about a fictional skirmish in the Boer war) and ''The Defense of Hill 781'' both lay down principles of warfare (the former for infantry, the latter mechanized combined arms operations) through similar narrative devices. Both are near-required reading for U.S. Army officers.
** The concept is still popular, and many imitations have been written for different situations, nationalities and types of warfare.
* The Apache traditionally had a very complex set of rules for raiding and warfare (two distinct operations in their culture), passed down orally. One rule was not letting men whose wives were pregnant come on expeditions (they'd be distracted); another was an argot, "warpath words", consisting of using different words for nearly every action ("dragged something" rather than "walked", for instance), so that even enemies who knew Apache wouldn't understand plans.

* ''Guerrilla Warfare'' by Ernesto "Che" Guevara, based largely on the tactics he used in the Cuban revolution.

* In 1899 a certain Robert Baden Powell, the youngest colonel in the British Army, published a quite small and specialised book of war called Aids to Scouting, about the art of military scouting and how to train people in it. When he returned home a few years later he discovered it had become a bestseller, amongst teachers and teenagers. The man decided to run with it, wrote a new book called Scouting for Boys (which became the 4th best selling book of the 20th century) and started what might very well be the biggest youth movement of all time. Not all books pan out like they're supposed to.
* Heinz Guderian wrote the book - literally - on combined arms warfare and the most effective use of tanks when he penned ''Achtung – Panzer!'' in 1936. Despite the book being heavily influenced by the writings of British strategists such as Hobart, Fuller and Liddell-Hart, the German Blitzkrieg of 1940 still caught the Allies by surprise.
** One of Guderian's self-acclaimed foremost influences, Basil Liddell-Hart, had quite the archive on armoured theory, currently in the possession of King's College London. Widely regarded as one of the greatest exponents of mechanisation, he was a driving force in helping to push Britain towards preparing for World War Two.

* ''Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics for the Exercise and Manoeuvres of Troops When Acting as Light Infantry or Riflemen'' (1855) by William J. Hardee (a.k.a ''Hardee's Tactics''), the most widely used infantry drill manual of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar ... by both sides.
** Despite the title, it only covers drill and ceremony, and contains no tactical instruction. Officers of the period learned to actually direct battles from Jomini instead.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Dragonlance}}'' deconstructs this trope with the Measure, the overarching manual for the [[KnightInShiningArmor Knights of Solamnia]]. The Measure contains not only battle strategies but rules on everything from proper Knightly chivalry and conduct to parliamentary procedure for how the Knighthood governs itself. The deconstruction comes from the fact that it's ridiculously out of date by the time of the original Literature/DragonlanceChronicles. The Knights focus on [[TheSpiritOfTheLawVsTheLetterOfTheLaw the obsolete rules the Measure describes, wasting their time on power games and politics instead of honoring the spirit of their Oath, "My Honor Is My Life," that the Measure is meant to put into practice.]] When [[BigBad Takhisis]] and her Dragonarmies start the War of the Lance, the Knights' efforts to fight them are seriously hindered. It eventually takes [[spoiler:a HeroicSacrifice by Sturm Brightblade, one of the Knights who actually followed the spirit of the Oath]] to bring the Knights to their senses. After the War of the Lance, the Knights finally update the Measure. The new version of the Measure is much slimmer than the old version, having shed many of the outdated LawfulStupid rules and bureaucracy while allowing the Knights to be more flexible in fulfilling the Oath.

* In ''Literature/GoodOmens'', Crowley and Aziraphale often make reference to The Agreement, which was formed when they first decided to become friends, shortly after meeting on the newly-created Earth. Recognising most of the responsibilities of Demons and Angels are practically the same, each offered to cover for each other in certain situations, since the job was going get done ''anyway''. This lead to a set of rules that state that whilst covering for the other, [[NobleDemon Crowley]] doesn't get to do anything ''too'' good, [[NiceGuy Aziraphale]] gets to refuse to do anything too evil, while neither is allowed to ''directly'' interfere with the other's work. Crowley gets to corrupt Manchester and Glasgow, while Aziraphale is allowed to develop Edinburgh and the whole of Shropshire. Each believes the other is responsible for [[AcceptableTargets Milton Keynes]], but both report it to their superiors as a "''success''".

[[caption-width-right:259:You could say Space Marines do it '[[{{Pun}} by the book]]'. ''[--[[NoblewomansLaugh Ohohohoho]]!--]'']]

* Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli was a noted military commander for the Florentine Republic, and had a bit of a fixation on military affairs. It should come as no surprise that his book ''Literature/ThePrince'', which covers military strategy as it pertains to ruling monarchs, and his Literature/DiscoursesOnLivy, which devotes the second of its three sections chiefly to conducting war as a republic, both qualify (well, ''The Prince'' is really more like a Little Book of War, but see the bit about Sun Tzu above). Machiavelli is also responsible for ''Literature/{{The Art of War|Machiavelli}}'', a NamesTheSame work (in English, anyway) with Sun Tzu's. While not as famous as the Chinese one, it is often cited as the book that paved the way for military reforms of early modern period in Europe. It also predates Clausewitz's stance on war as extension of politics by three centuries. Part of Machiavelli's intention is to convince his readers that the Italian city-states should not be reliant on mercenaries, and should instead build up citizen militias. His tactics were gradually amended over the years and became the basis for linear tactics--i.e. arraying your infantry in lines rather than blocks, which was standard until after Napoleon--and the modern professional army (i.e. raised from among the population of the state that fielded it, paid by the government, utilizing a rank structure, and rigorously trained and drilled). Machiavelli's ''The Prince'', is often compared to India's ''Arthashastra''.
* ''Summary of the Art of War'' was released in the 19th century by Baron Antoine Henri de Jomini, who served under Napoleon and was a professional rival to fellow theorist Clausewitz. Jomini's writing style is noted for his extensive use of historical examples and diagrams to illustrate his points, complete with a LemonyNarrator commentary. These days, most publishers shorten the title to ''The Art of War'', which can [[NamesTheSame lead to confusion]].

* [[UsefulNotes/{{India}} Kautilya's]] ''Arthashastra'' is an ancient treatise written around the 4th Century BCE, during the Mauryan Empire that ruled over the Indian subcontinent. Kautilya (also known as Chanakya or Vishnu Sharma) was the legendary teacher of Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Mauryan Empire and the first emperor of India. Written in Sanskrit, the ''Arthashastra'' is a treatise on statecraft, political science, economic policy, and military strategy. This text disappeared around the 12th century until it was rediscovered in the 20th century and was subsequently translated into English.

* [[UsefulNotes/{{India}} Kautilya's]] ''Arthashastra'' is an ancient treatise written around the 4th Century BCE, during the Mauryan Empire that ruled over the Indian subcontinent. Written in Sanskrit, the ''Arthashastra'' is a treatise on statecraft, political science, economic policy, and military strategy. This text disappeared around the 12th century until it was rediscovered in the 20th century and was subsequently translated into English.

* [[UsefulNotes/India Kautilya's]] ''Arthashastra'' is an ancient treatise written around the 4th Century BCE, during the Mauryan Empire that ruled over the Indian subcontinent. Written in Sanskrit, the ''Arthashastra'' is a treatise on statecraft, political science, economic policy, and military strategy. This text disappeared around the 12th century until it was rediscovered in the 20th century and was subsequently translated into English.

* Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli was a noted military commander for the Florentine Republic, and had a bit of a fixation on military affairs. It should come as no surprise that his book ''Literature/ThePrince'', which covers military strategy as it pertains to ruling monarchs, and his Literature/DiscoursesOnLivy, which devotes the second of its three sections chiefly to conducting war as a republic, both qualify (well, ''The Prince'' is really more like a Little Book of War, but see the bit about Sun Tzu above). Machiavelli is also responsible for ''Literature/{{The Art of War|Machiavelli}}'', a NamesTheSame work (in English, anyway) with Sun Tzu's. While not as famous as the Chinese one, it is often cited as the book that paved the way for military reforms of early modern period in Europe. It also predates Clausewitz's stance on war as extension of politics by three centuries. Part of Machiavelli's intention is to convince his readers that the Italian city-states should not be reliant on mercenaries, and should instead build up citizen militias. His tactics were gradually amended over the years and became the basis for linear tactics--i.e. arraying your infantry in lines rather than blocks, which was standard until after Napoleon--and the modern professional army (i.e. raised from among the population of the state that fielded it, paid by the government, utilizing a rank structure, and rigorously trained and drilled).

* ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler'': "When in doubt... consult... ''The Brigands' Handbook!''"

[[caption-width-right:259:You could say Space Marines do it '[[{{Pun}} by the book]]'. ''[--[[NoblewomansLaugh Ohohohoho]]!--]"'']]

[[caption-width-right:259:You could say Space Marines do it '[[IncrediblyLamePun by the book]]'. ''[--[[NoblewomansLaugh Ohohohoho]]!--]"'']]

[[quoteright:259:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/warhammer_codex_astartes_comic_4.png]]