UNITED STATES NAVY - Recommended Reading (Be Ready)

	Theres a reason this latest telling of an oft-told tale became such a bestseller; in just under 300 pages, David McCullough manages to chronicle with great verve and immediacy the sweeping story of that fateful year of the title. Rather than focus on events in Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was being drafted, 1776 sticks mainly to the military events, charting the triumphs and travails of the nascent Continental Army, from its successful siege of Boston to its near-destruction in New York to its ending the year with one of the most audaciousand profoundly successful Hail Mary Passes in history, the crossing of the Delaware and the Battle of Trenton. Of course, the man at center stage through this stirring saga is George Washington, and Mc­Cullough does an admirable job of showing just how monumental were the odds stacked against this natural leader. His indomitable will and his innate genius are vividly con­veyed. Washington benefited from a pair of loyal and talented staff officers, Henry Knox and Nathanael Greene, whose important contributions to the struggle are given their just due. As one reads this fast-paced narra­tive, a few points recur throughout: that the birth of America was by no means a foregone conclusion, that the causes fate hung by a tenuous thread on more than one occasion, that the Revolution so easily might have been crushed any number of times, and that the barefoot, bedraggled amateurs who fought, bled, and died for this new country are worth remembering. Always. This is popular history at its best.
	by Stephen Carter This Recommended category, Be Ready book examines why the virtue of integrity holds such sway over the American imagination.  By weaving together insights from philosophy, theology, history and law, along with examples drawn from current events and a dose of personal experience, author Stephen Carter offers a vision of integrity that has implications for everything from marriage and politics to professional football.  He discusses the difficulties involved in trying to legislate integrity as well as the possibilities for teaching it.  Integrity is an engaging, sometimes challenging and provocative examination of a human value that is essential to Navy Core Values.
	by Christopher Kolenda Edited by Christopher Kolenda; foreword by General Barry R. McCaffrey, USA (Ret.) This varied collection of essays brings together some of the foremost military thinkers as they look at the dynamics of leadership in the crucible of command. Contributors include General Gordon Sullivan, former U.S. Army Chief of Staff; Conrad Cane; Fred Kagan, Dennis Showal­ter; and Cole Kingseed. The principles drawn from historical examples are shown to be applicable to the business environment as well. The anthology covers leadership concepts from the classical to the modern, from Alexander the Great to the Second World War. The 19 essays are grouped into three sections: Ancient and Modern Concepts of Leadership, Historical Case Studies, and Contemporary Experiences and Reflections on Leadership. In all, this work is a bold, fresh, and broad-scale examination and analysis of the single most critical factor in what makes groups drive for success in the face of daunt­ing resistance. It is a volume of monumental significance. To the military professional, it is a sterling addition to the leadership bookshelf.
	Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day--and had been for centuries.  Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land.  Thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution.  One man, John Harrison, in complete opposition to the scientific community, dared to imagine a mechanical solution--a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land.  Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer.  Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world.
	by Patrick OBrian This, the first in the splendid series of histori­cal novels depicting the Age of Fighting Sail, establishes the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey, RN, and Stephen Maturin, ships surgeon and intelligence agent, against a thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Details of a life aboard a man-of-war are faultlessly rendered: the conversational idiom of the officers in the ward room and the men on the lower deck, the food, the floggings, the mysteries of the wind and the rigging, and the roar of broadsides as the great ships close in battle. It is the dawn of the 19th century; Britain is at war with Napoleons France. When Jack Aubrey, a young lieutenant in Nelsons navy, is promoted to captain, he inherits command of HMS Sophie, an old, slow brig unlikely to make his fortune. But Captain Aubrey is a brave and gifted seaman, his thirst for adventure and victory immense. With the aid of his intrepid friend Maturin, Aubrey and his crew engage in one thrilling battle after another, their journey culminating in a stunning clash with a mighty Spanish frigate against whose guns and manpower the tiny Sophie is hopelessly outmatched. Jack Aubrey is a literary icon, and this book, which serves as the launch for all the other (also recommended) adventures in this well-loved series, establishes what is at the core of the characters appeal: He has all the qualities of naval leadership to which any officer in any navy would aspire.
	by Clayton Christensen This revolutionary bestseller takes the radi­cal position that great companies can fail precisely because they do everything right. Harvard professor Clayton M. Christensen demonstrates why outstanding companies that had their competitive antennae up, listened astutely to customers, and invested aggressively in new markets still lost their market leadership when confronted with disruptive changes in technology and market structure. And he tells how to avoid a similar fate. Christensen argues that good business practicessuch as focusing investments and technology on the most profitable products that are currently in high demand by the best customersultimately can weaken a great firm. Drawing on patterns of innovation in a variety of industries, including comput­ers, retailing, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, and steel, he shows how truly important breakthrough innovationor disruptive technologiesare initially rejected by main­stream customers because they cannot cur­rently use them. This rejection can lead firms with strong customer focus to allow strategi­cally important innovations to languish. An excessive customer focus prevents firms from creating new markets and finding new customers for the products of the future. As they unwittingly bypass opportunities, such firms can clear the way for more nimble, entrepreneurial companies to catch the next great wave of industry growth. Using the lessons of successes and failures of leading companies, The Innovators Dilemma presents a set of rules for capital­izing on the phenomenon of disruptive innovation.
	by Malcolm Gladwell Why did the crime rate in New York plum­met so precipitously in the 1990s? How does a hitherto unknown writer become a bestselling novelist? Why is adolescent cigarette use rampant, when it is common knowledge that smoking is deadly? What makes a television program such as Sesame Street so effective at teaching children how to read? Why was Paul Reveres famous ride a communications success? In The Tipping Point, New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell examines why big changes in society so often can occur suddenly and unexpectedly. Ideas, behavior, messages, and products, he asserts, sometimes spread like infec­tious-disease outbreaks. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a few fare-beaters and graffiti artists fuel a subway crime wave, or a satisfied customer fill the empty tables of a new restaurant. These are social epidemics, and the moment when they take off, when they reach their critical mass, is the Tipping Point. Gladwell introduces the reader to the particular personality types who are natural pollinators of new ideas and trends, the people who create the phenomenon of word of mouth. He analyzes fashion trends, smoking, childrens television, direct mail, and the early days of the American Revolution for clues about making ideas infectious, and visits a religious commune, a successful high-tech company, and one of the worlds greatest salesmen to show how to start and sustain social epidemics.
	by James Hirsch Two Souls Indivisible tells the inspiring story of an amazing, unlikely friendship, formed in one of the most hideous places imagin­ablea North Vietnamese POW camp that prisoners nicknamed the Zoo. Prisoner-of-war Fred Cherry, an Air Force pilot, was the first black officer captured by the North Viet­namese. Prisoner-of-war Porter Halyburton, a Navy pilot, was a Southern bigot. The North Vietnames threw these two incom­patible individuals into the same stinking cell, convinced that their mutual animosity would lead them each to crack. But Cherry and Halyburton overcame their distrust and dislike for one another and and ended up be­ing each others salvation. When Halyburton first saw him, Cherry was a wreck. One arm, damaged in his plane crash, hung uselessly at his side. He hadnt bathed in weeks, and he could barely walk. In his own mind, Cherry was steeling himself for death. Halyburton was also weakening, emotionally battered from the interrogations and isolation that his sheltered life had not prepared him for. He had to learn how to endure, or he would become one of the incoherent wraiths who haunted the Zoo. Halyburton and Cherry became legendary among fellow POWs for the singular friendship that enabled them to overcome prodigious suffering and unspeak­able torture. Author James Hirsch weaves through this account a surprising, sometimes shocking view of the toll these mens captiv­ity took on their loved ones. Often inspiring, sometimes heartbreaking, Two Souls Indivis­ible shows how trust and hope can cheat death, and how good people can achieve greatness in hellish circumstances.