Gen Simmons has written a good, but very superficial history of the Marine Corps. If you know nothing of the service's history, this provides a good overview. But if you are interested in anything but a generic overview, based solely on secondary sources, and lacking any critical analysis, than move on to something else.

BGen Simmons' excellent general history of the Marine Corps is just that a general history. I note with distain the comments from the Alexandria reader. Clearly they don't understand the book's purpose and intended audience. It tells the tale. It doesn't twist tails with analyis.

This is the 3rd edition of General Simmons' classic account of the United States Marine Corps. It is very readable and traces the complete history of the Corps. This edition brings his general history up-to-date and covers the Persian Gulf War and other recent conflicts. I highly recommended it.

The original book, although impossible to find is a stellar resource to have and I highly recommend it. However, the version on Amazon is a photocopy of the original and the histopathology slides and information is useluess when the copy is viewed due to loss of detail. Buyer beware.