First to Fight: An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps

First to Fight: An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps by Victor H. Krulak was on my 2009 reading list.

It's a brief, very readable history of the USMC, with more emphasis on the struggles the Marine Corps has faced to survive as a separate military entity than on the early years. Krulak gives an insider's view of the various attempts by the other branches of service to absorb or eradicate the Marines, but his writing isn't whiny or full of fault-finding.

Made me proud of my Marines.