Geronimo: Leadership Strategies of an American Warrior

Why it’s on the list: The football coach Mike Leach, with historian Buddy Levy, reading Geronimo’s decades of resistance as a leadership case — a commander with almost no resources holding out against two armies by choosing where and when to be found. Leach’s own coaching philosophy is visible throughout.

Where I heard about it

• A reply to @typesfast — named as “Geronimo: Leadership Strategies of an American Warrior — Mike Leach” in answer to his question “What’s the best history book you’ve read?” in a thread on X, June 2025. The full set of replies lives on What’s the best history book… (tweet).

Connections

• Frontier — the Apache wars in the southwest.
• Power — asymmetric resistance as a strategic problem.
• People Over Politics
• Conquistador — Buddy Levy’s other book on Kyle’s list from these threads.
• What’s the best history book… (tweet) — the thread this recommendation came from.