Call Sign Chaos
Learning to Lead
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $26.22
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Danny Campbell
-
Written by:
-
Jim Mattis
-
Bing West
About this listen
Number one New York Times best seller
A clear-eyed account of learning how to lead in a chaotic world, by General Jim Mattis - the former Secretary of Defense and one of the most formidable strategic thinkers of our time - and Bing West, a former assistant secretary of defense and combat Marine.
“A four-star general’s five-star memoir.” (The Wall Street Journal)
Call Sign Chaos is the account of Jim Mattis’ storied career, from wide-ranging leadership roles in three wars to ultimately commanding a quarter of a million troops across the Middle East. Along the way, Mattis recounts his foundational experiences as a leader, extracting the lessons he has learned about the nature of warfighting and peacemaking, the importance of allies, and the strategic dilemmas - and short-sighted thinking - now facing our nation. He makes it clear why America must return to a strategic footing so as not to continue winning battles but fighting inconclusive wars.
Mattis divides his audiobook into three parts: Direct Leadership, Executive Leadership, and Strategic Leadership. In the first part, Mattis recalls his early experiences leading Marines into battle, when he knew his troops as well as his own brothers. In the second part, he explores what it means to command thousands of troops, and how to adapt your leadership style to ensure your intent is understood by your most junior troops so that they can own their mission. In the third part, Mattis describes the challenges and techniques of leadership at the strategic level, where military leaders reconcile war’s grim realities with political leaders’ human aspirations, where complexity reigns and the consequences of imprudence are severe, even catastrophic.
Call Sign Chaos is a memoir of a life of war-fighting and lifelong learning, following along as Mattis rises from Marine recruit to four-star general. It is a journey about learning to lead and a story about how he, through constant study and action, developed a unique leadership philosophy, one relevant to us all.
©2019 Jim Mattis and Bing West (P)2019 Random House AudioYou may also enjoy...
-
First Platoon
- A Story of Modern War in the Age of Identity Dominance
- Written by: Annie Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a story that starts off close and goes very big. The initial part of the story might sound familiar at first: it is about a platoon of mostly 19-year-old boys sent to Afghanistan, and an experience that ends abruptly in catastrophe. Their part of the story folds into the next: inexorably linked to those soldiers and never comprehensively reported before is the US Department of Defense’s quest to build the world’s most powerful biometrics database, with the ability to identify, monitor, catalog, and police people all over the world.
-
-
Very interesting.
- By Christa on 2021-04-16
Written by: Annie Jacobsen
-
The Sleepwalkers
- How Europe Went to War in 1914
- Written by: Christopher Clark
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 23 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 is historian Christopher Clark’s riveting account of the explosive beginnings of World War I. Drawing on new scholarship, Clark offers a fresh look at World War I, focusing not on the battles and atrocities of the war itself, but on the complex events and relationships that led a group of well-meaning leaders into brutal conflict.
Written by: Christopher Clark
-
Lions of Kandahar
- The Story of a Fight Against All Odds
- Written by: Major Rusty Bradley, Kevin Maurer
- Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Southern Afghanistan was slipping away. That was clear to then-Captain Rusty Bradley as he began his third tour of duty there in 2006. The Taliban and their allies were infiltrating everywhere, poised to reclaim Kandahar Province, their strategically vital onetime capital. To stop them, the NATO coalition launched Operation Medusa, the largest offensive in its history. The battlefield was the Panjwayi Valley, a densely packed warren of walled compounds that doubled neatly as enemy bunkers.
-
-
Great listen! Must read for Afghanistan veterans!
- By Christian Saulnier on 2019-09-11
Written by: Major Rusty Bradley, and others
-
We Were Soldiers Once... and Young
- Ia Drang - The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam
- Written by: Harold G. Moore, Joseph L. Galloway
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In November 1965, some 450 men of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, were dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. How these men persevered makes a vivid portrait of war at its most inspiring and devastating.
-
-
WOW, Exceptional
- By Gerald Lefebvre on 2022-10-18
Written by: Harold G. Moore, and others
-
Operation Medusa
- The Furious Battle That Saved Afghanistan from the Taliban
- Written by: Major General David Fraser, Brian Hanington, Gen. Lord David Richards
- Narrated by: Paul Gross
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 2006, David Fraser was the Canadian general in charge of NATO's Regional Command South, a territory spanning six Afghan provinces surrounding the Arghandab Valley. Birthplace of the Taliban decades earlier, this fertile region had since become Afghanistan's most deadly turf. It would soon turn deadlier still. Advised in the night by his intelligence officers that the Taliban had secretly amassed for a full-scale military assault, Fraser knew it would fall to him, his Canadians and their allies to avoid the wholesale slaughter of NATO troops.
-
-
Came across as making excuses
- By Peter on 2018-05-24
Written by: Major General David Fraser, and others
-
Disunited Nations
- The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World
- Written by: Peter Zeihan
- Narrated by: Peter Zeihan, Roy Worley
- Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Disunited Nations, geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan presents a series of counterintuitive arguments about the future of a world where trade agreements are coming apart and international institutions are losing their power. Germany will decline as the most powerful country in Europe, with France taking its place. Every country should prepare for the collapse of China, not North Korea. We are already seeing, as Zeihan predicts, a shift in outlook on the Middle East: it is no longer Iran that is the region’s most dangerous threat, but Saudi Arabia.
-
-
Great analysis from Zeihan
- By Andrey S. on 2024-03-19
Written by: Peter Zeihan
-
First Platoon
- A Story of Modern War in the Age of Identity Dominance
- Written by: Annie Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is a story that starts off close and goes very big. The initial part of the story might sound familiar at first: it is about a platoon of mostly 19-year-old boys sent to Afghanistan, and an experience that ends abruptly in catastrophe. Their part of the story folds into the next: inexorably linked to those soldiers and never comprehensively reported before is the US Department of Defense’s quest to build the world’s most powerful biometrics database, with the ability to identify, monitor, catalog, and police people all over the world.
-
-
Very interesting.
- By Christa on 2021-04-16
Written by: Annie Jacobsen
-
The Sleepwalkers
- How Europe Went to War in 1914
- Written by: Christopher Clark
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 23 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 is historian Christopher Clark’s riveting account of the explosive beginnings of World War I. Drawing on new scholarship, Clark offers a fresh look at World War I, focusing not on the battles and atrocities of the war itself, but on the complex events and relationships that led a group of well-meaning leaders into brutal conflict.
Written by: Christopher Clark
-
Lions of Kandahar
- The Story of a Fight Against All Odds
- Written by: Major Rusty Bradley, Kevin Maurer
- Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Southern Afghanistan was slipping away. That was clear to then-Captain Rusty Bradley as he began his third tour of duty there in 2006. The Taliban and their allies were infiltrating everywhere, poised to reclaim Kandahar Province, their strategically vital onetime capital. To stop them, the NATO coalition launched Operation Medusa, the largest offensive in its history. The battlefield was the Panjwayi Valley, a densely packed warren of walled compounds that doubled neatly as enemy bunkers.
-
-
Great listen! Must read for Afghanistan veterans!
- By Christian Saulnier on 2019-09-11
Written by: Major Rusty Bradley, and others
-
We Were Soldiers Once... and Young
- Ia Drang - The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam
- Written by: Harold G. Moore, Joseph L. Galloway
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In November 1965, some 450 men of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, were dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. How these men persevered makes a vivid portrait of war at its most inspiring and devastating.
-
-
WOW, Exceptional
- By Gerald Lefebvre on 2022-10-18
Written by: Harold G. Moore, and others
-
Operation Medusa
- The Furious Battle That Saved Afghanistan from the Taliban
- Written by: Major General David Fraser, Brian Hanington, Gen. Lord David Richards
- Narrated by: Paul Gross
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 2006, David Fraser was the Canadian general in charge of NATO's Regional Command South, a territory spanning six Afghan provinces surrounding the Arghandab Valley. Birthplace of the Taliban decades earlier, this fertile region had since become Afghanistan's most deadly turf. It would soon turn deadlier still. Advised in the night by his intelligence officers that the Taliban had secretly amassed for a full-scale military assault, Fraser knew it would fall to him, his Canadians and their allies to avoid the wholesale slaughter of NATO troops.
-
-
Came across as making excuses
- By Peter on 2018-05-24
Written by: Major General David Fraser, and others
-
Disunited Nations
- The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World
- Written by: Peter Zeihan
- Narrated by: Peter Zeihan, Roy Worley
- Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Disunited Nations, geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan presents a series of counterintuitive arguments about the future of a world where trade agreements are coming apart and international institutions are losing their power. Germany will decline as the most powerful country in Europe, with France taking its place. Every country should prepare for the collapse of China, not North Korea. We are already seeing, as Zeihan predicts, a shift in outlook on the Middle East: it is no longer Iran that is the region’s most dangerous threat, but Saudi Arabia.
-
-
Great analysis from Zeihan
- By Andrey S. on 2024-03-19
Written by: Peter Zeihan
-
Helmet for My Pillow
- From Parris Island to the Pacific: A Young Marine's Stirring Account of Combat in World War II
- Written by: Robert Leckie
- Narrated by: James Badge Dale, Tom Hanks (introduction)
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The celebrated 2010 HBO miniseries The Pacific, winner of eight Emmy Awards, was based on two classic books about the War in the Pacific, Helmet for My Pillow and With The Old Breed. Audible Studios, in partnership with Playtone, the production company co-owned by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, and creator of the award-winning HBO series Band of Brothers, John Adams, and The Pacific, as well as the HBO movie Game Change, has created new recordings of these memoirs, narrated by the stars of the miniseries.
-
-
Hell in The Pacific: One Man’s Journey
- By Scott William Burrows on 2025-01-08
Written by: Robert Leckie
-
All Secure
- A Special Operations Soldier's Fight to Survive on the Battlefield and the Homefront
- Written by: Tom Satterly, Steve Jackson
- Narrated by: Tom Satterly
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a senior non-commissioned officer of Delta Force, the most elite and secretive special operations unit in the US military, Command Sergeant Major Tom Satterly fought some of this country's most fearsome enemies. Tom is a legend even among other Tier One special operators. Yet the enemy that cost him three marriages, and ruined his health physically and psychologically, existed in his brain. Told through Satterly's firsthand experiences, it also weaves in the reasons for his career-long battle against the most insidious enemy of all: post-traumatic stress.
-
-
An incredible from an incredible man.
- By Daven N. on 2024-10-30
Written by: Tom Satterly, and others
-
Sea Stories
- My Life in Special Operations
- Written by: William H. McRaven
- Narrated by: William H. McRaven
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Admiral William H. McRaven is back with amazing stories of bravery and heroism from his career as a Navy SEAL and commander of America's Special Operations Forces.
-
-
A must read and listen!
- By BY on 2020-05-27
Written by: William H. McRaven
-
The Fall of Carthage
- The Punic Wars 265-146BC
- Written by: Adrian Goldsworthy
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The struggle between Rome and Carthage in the Punic Wars was arguably the greatest and most desperate conflict of antiquity. The forces involved and the casualties suffered by both sides were far greater than in any wars fought before the modern era, while the eventual outcome had far-reaching consequences for the history of the Western World, namely the ascendancy of Rome. An epic of war and battle, this is also the story of famous generals and leaders: Hannibal, Fabius Maximus, Scipio Africanus, and his grandson Scipio Aemilianus, who would finally bring down the walls of Carthage.
-
-
It's a basic outline of the 3 Punic wars
- By Duy B. on 2019-03-20
Written by: Adrian Goldsworthy
-
About Face
- Written by: Colonel David H. Hackworth US Army Ret., Julie Sherman
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 40 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From age 15 to 40, David Hackworth devoted himself to the US Army and fast became a living legend. In 1971, however, he appeared on television to decry the doomed war effort in Vietnam. With About Face, he has written what many Vietnam veterans have called the most important book of their generation.
-
-
awesome
- By The bestest friends on 2021-07-12
Written by: Colonel David H. Hackworth US Army Ret., and others
-
Juno Beach
- Canada's D-Day Victory: June 6, 1944
- Written by: Mark Zuehlke
- Narrated by: Steve Kehela
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On June 6, 1944, the greatest armada in history stood off Normandy and the largest amphibious invasion ever began as 107,000 men aboard 6,000 ships pressed toward the coast. Among them were 14,500 Canadians, who were to land on a five-mile-long stretch of rocky ledges fronted by a dangerously exposed beach. Drawing on personal diaries as well as military records, Juno Beach: Canada's D-Day Victory, June 6, 1944 dramatically depicts Canada's pivotal contribution to the critical Allied battle of World War II.
-
-
A Disappointment
- By John McElwain on 2019-05-16
Written by: Mark Zuehlke
What the critics say
“Combining simplicity and thoughtfulness, Jim Mattis has produced a classic account of a lifetime of service. Call Sign Chaos is a lesson in leadership and an evocation of humanity in the cause of peace.” (Henry Kissinger)
“In this magnificent memoir, Jim Mattis details many important events in his career, but he also does much more: He explains how he is informed by his experiences in a way that teaches you how to learn from your own. Read, enjoy, and learn.” (George Shultz)
What listeners say about Call Sign Chaos
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- braden
- 2019-10-24
one of the best books on the site
I'd highly recommend this book to everybody, the lessons that can be learned and brought over I to everyday life are incredible, both as a leader and individual
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- AR
- 2019-09-29
Great book
What a legend. I just hope that more like him exist. Only wish it was him that read the book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kevin
- 2019-10-17
great book
I loved it very informative. Well written and well narrated. I have already recommend this book to multiple friends.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Andrew
- 2023-06-16
Great lessons, but wanted to hear more
Mattis provided valuable lessons from his experience. He set out to provide lessons that were applicable to civilian life and work, as I assume the majority of his readers are civilian. But this was lacking. These ideas needed further development to apply in a world where subordinates are not legally bound to follow your lead. Maybe this book is best applicable to military leaders in training.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ben and Leia
- 2020-06-05
Overrated
I used to admire Mattis before he sold out to private equity and Leftist ideology. Appreciate his service to the country, but it’s high time he rode off into the sunset.
Spend your money elsewhere.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!