9. The First Casualty, From the Crimea to Vietnam: The War Correspondent as Hero, Propagandist, and Myth Maker, by Phillip Knightley. Published in 1975, this first-rate book stays in print because it’s never been equaled as an account—from the journalists’ side—of media coverage in wartime. Knightley’s a superb writer and his judgments are usually sensible and balanced. Strongly recommended to those who want to understand the history behind today’s juggernaut media.

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10. The River War, by Winston Churchill. It’s often overlooked that, after he left his cavalry regiment, Churchill worked as a war correspondent (covering the Boer War for the Morning Post, for example). The River War is an enduringly splendid account of Kitchener’s Omdurman campaign, to which Churchill was an eyewitness. One of the last century’s great masters of English-language prose, the future prime minister demonstrated what happens when a military veteran takes up the pen and writes honestly about war. Churchill might have had a great career as a journalist—but it turned out that he had other things to do.

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