RAND Classics
The RAND Corporation has been advancing human knowledge for over 60 years. Certain RAND books and reports that stand out as classics are now available online in their entirety.
The Operational Code of the Politburo — 2007
Study from 1951 provides insight into the political leadership and foreign policy in the Soviet Union and other communist states; the development of Soviet military strategy and doctrine; and the organization and operation of the Soviet economy.
The Compleat Strategyst: Being a Primer on the Theory of Games of Strategy — 2007
Classic game theory primer from 1954 that discusses basic concepts of game theory and its applications, and which popularized the subject for amateurs, professionals, and students throughout the world.
Space Handbook: Astronautics and Its Applications — 2007
Seminal guide from 1958 on the uses and characteristics of space systems, including astronautics and its applications, technology, rocket vehicles, propulsion systems, propellants, internal power sources, guidance, communication, and more.
Strategy in the Missile Age — 2007
Classic work from 1959 that discusses the origins of air power, its cornerstone position in the evolution of Cold War era nuclear strategy, and its treatment of preventive and preemptive attacks, deterrence, and the economics of strategy.
Games of Strategy: Theory and Applications — 2007
Classic work from 1961 discusses basic concepts of game theory and its applications for military, economic, and political problems, as well as its usefulness in decisionmaking in business, operations research, and behavioral science.
Planets for Man — 2007
Endeavors to determine — on the basis of then-current biological and cosmological knowledge — whether there are other worlds where man can survive or where human life may even now be flourishing.
Habitable Planets for Man — 2007
Habitable Planets for Man examines and estimates the probabilities of finding planets habitable to human beings, where they might be found, and the number there may be in our own galaxy.
The Road to Total War — 2007
Examines the various factors that impelled leaders on both sides of the conflict in World War II to respond to immediate problems with actions resulting in effects that were often neither planned nor foreseen.
Counterinsurgency: A Symposium, April 16-20, 1962 — 2006
Originally published in 1962 and featuring a new foreword by Stephen T. Hosmer, this report is based on the Symposium on Counterinsurgency held at RAND’s Washington Office during the week of 16 April 1962.
Pacification in Algeria, 1956-1958 — 2006
Originally published in 1963 and featuring a new foreword by Bruce Hoffman, this account of the author’s successful command in the Algerian war for independence presents a striking parallel to present-day counterinsurgency operations.
How Much Is Enough? Shaping the Defense Program, 1961-1969 — 2005
An account of the application of powerful ideas to the problem of managing the Department of Defense and a history of the controversies inspired by that effort, this book details the use of a new system for allocating defense resources. The system — the Planning, Programming, and Budgeting System (PPBS) — was used to evaluate military needs and to choose among alternatives for meeting those needs.
A study of the efficient use of transportation systems with an emphasis on the effects of traffic congestion — 1955
The History of the Johnniac — 1968
Security Controls for Computer Systems, Report of Defense Science Board Task Force on Computer Security — 1979
Full
Document (HTML) with a new introduction by
Willis Ware.
The Delphi Method, III: Use of Self Ratings to Improve Group Estimates — 1969
This file was rendered in PDF from the original document by Barry K. Sanford, The University of Louisville
Full
Document (PDF, 1999)
A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates — 1955
Now available, a 2001 edition of this RAND Classic with a new foreword by RAND’s Executive Vice President, Michael D. Rich.
Toward an Ethics and Etiquette for Electronic Mail — 1954-1968
Selected Writings of Albert Wohlstetter — 1951-1970
Albert Wohlstetter became one of the world’s leading nuclear and national security strategists. His studies led to concepts for deterring nuclear war, and reduced the probability of accidental war.
Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship — 1946
In May 1946 — more than eleven years before the orbiting of Sputnik, history’s first artificial space satellite--Project RAND, then active within Douglas Aircraft Company’s Engineering Division, released its first report. This visionary study is available to the public for the first time since its historic debut over 50 years ago and is reprinted in its original format.
Comment on RAND Building Program — 1950
After a few years in rented quarters, RAND began to plan for its own building to house its staff, including about 250 researchers. John Williams, head of the Mathematics Division, surfaced the idea for creating a building that would increase the probability of chance personal meetings. Such meetings, he argued, would promote the interdisciplinary aspect of RAND — the use of mixed teams of analysts in addressing a problem. Williams’ December 26, 1950 memo to RAND staff built the case for a system of closed courts or patios — which led him to the theory of regular lattices, with average distances between points shown in a two-element matrix. The resulting set of patios, he felt, would ensure the maximum number of chance meetings and at the same time enhance, for the RAND staff, the qualities of privacy, quiet, natural light and air, and spaciousness.
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