Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart. Achebe’s first great novel. According to the New York State Writers’ Institute website, "The ability to shape and mould English to suit character and event and yet still give the impression of an African story is one of the greatest of Achebe’s accomplishments."

Pat Barker. Regeneration. A WW I novel about the complex process of recuperation after the brutality of WW I, whose major characters include one of the first modern psychoanalysts, Dr. William Rivers, and the poets Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon, with major questions asked about why societies go to war and the costs and sacrifices asked of them, the nature of sanity and insanity, and of the way to healing and regeneration after such major cultural dislocation. (See also the biography of Sassoon by Max Egremont in Section 2, below.)

Andrea Barrett. The Voyage of the Nahrwahl. According to Amazon.com,

Robert Bolt. A Man for All Seasons. A play about Thomas More, the Catholic saint beheaded by Henry VIII because More would not compromise his religious principles for political expediency.

Elizabeth Bowen. The Heat of the Day. This beautifully written and atmospheric novel treats betrayal -- in war, in love -- during World War II. London, 1942, is the setting. On a background of general catastrophe, Bowen’s heroine experiences a personal crisis when she discovers that the man she loves is suspected of selling secrets to the enemy.

John Buchan. The Thirty Nine Steps. A predecessor to Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond series of books, this non-stop "thriller" traces a man as he evades both police and a shadowy organization up to no good in the shadows of WW I.

Orson Scott Card. Ender's Game. A brilliant science fiction novel in which a young man develops his special abilities as a military strategist. If you’ve already read the first in the series, try Ender’s Shadow, which follows the life of one of Ender’s top lieutenants.

Raymond Chandler. The Big Sleep. The first of the Philip Marlowe novels, this tense, well-written thriller changed detective novels forever.

Erskine Childers. Riddle of the Sands. On board a yacht in the Baltic, a seasoned sailor and his cosmopolitan friend attempt to solve a riddle on which the fate of Britain may depend. The first espionage novel and a classic of naval literature.

Joseph Conrad. Heart of Darkness. A captain learns about the temptations that can make a person ignore the rules of society.

Joseph Conrad. Lord Jim. After a merchant officer makes a cowardly mistake, he spends his life trying to reform his character.

Joseph Conrad. The Secret Sharer. After an inexperienced skipper rescues a fugitive officer who killed a man, he must decide whether the individual or society has the greatest claim on him.

Joseph Conrad. Typhoon. This is a story of a huge typhoon in the Yellow Sea and the impact of the storm on human character.

Pat Conroy. The Great Santini. An autobiographical novel about the relationship of a Marine fighter pilot and his son.

Pat Conroy. The Lords of Discipline. A novel dealing with the conflicts of four years of student life at the Citadel.

Bernard Cornwall. Sharpe’s Trafalgar: Spain 1805. The Richard Sharpe series is a blast: sort of like James Bond in the nineteenth century. Bloodier, gutsier, sexier, and, yes, simpler reading than the prose of the Patrick O’Brian Aubrey-Maturin series, yet you’ll still get a dose of history. Start here for an army rifleman’s take on the great naval battle with Nelson’s fleet against Napoleon’s.

J. M. Coetzee. Disgrace. Like the above novel, Coetzee’s demanding reading and sympathetic characters absorb us in attempts to find a moral compass of any kind in contemporary South Africa’s disintegrating society.

J. M. Coetzee. Life and Times of Michael K. Coetzee won the Booker Prize for this gripping novel, which according to Cythia Ozick voices a "subdued yet urgent lament for the sadness of South Africa." Coetzee’s feel for the absurd yet horrifying predicament of modern South African society makes his novels rough but unforgettable going, in writing highly reminiscent of Franz Kafka.

Fyodor Dostoevsky. Crime and Punishment. (I recommend the new translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky [Knopf, 1992].) The classic novel of a young intellectual who plans on becoming a superman but sorely miscalculates the outcome of his deeds.

Jan de Hartog. The Captain. Adventures of a tugboat captain in Murmansk (on the Arctic Ocean). A graphic description of the life of Dutch merchant seamen sucked into action against the Nazis in the Second World War.

Jan de Hartog. Commodore. The tugboat captain’s further exploits. Now 70 years old, the hero has one series of hair-raising adventures after another on an ultramodern ocean-going tug.

Sebastian Faulks. Birdsong. A beautifully written novel about love, friendship and survival during the harsh battles of WW I.

Sebastian Faulks. Charlotte Grey. Amazon’s blurb reads as follows:

Ian Fleming. Casino Royale. The first novel in the James Bond series. Lots of action, manly exploits, "savoir-faire," and gambling.

C.S. Forester. The General. A novel about a tough British general's state of mind during the early months of World War I, written by the author of The African Queen and the famous "Hornblower" sea novels.

E.M. Forster: The Longest Journey. Philosophical novel set at the end of the Victorian period, depicting the male’s protagonist’s attempts to find happiness and fulfillment.

E.M. Forster: A Room with a View. Perhaps Forster’s most celebrated novel. From Amazon.com: "Forster explores love among a cast of eccentric characters gathered in an Italian pension and in a corner of Surrey, England. Caught up in a world of social snobbery, Lucy Honeychurch must make a decision that will decide the course of her future: She is forced to choose between convention and passion."

E.M. Forster. A Passage to India. From Amazon.com: "A Passage to India is widely regarded as a masterpiece of the 20th century, highlighting the internal conflicts that would, in time, lead to Indian independence, casting a caustic eye to the irrevocable differences endemic to East/West relationships whenever superstition and racism rear their ugly heads--an all too common occurrence."

Graham Greene. The Power and the Glory. The story of a priest hunted by Communist authorities during religious persecution in Mexico.

Graham Greene. The Quiet American. Great political novel, about a young American sent to Indochina to promote democracy through a mysterious "Third Force."

David H. Hackworth. The Price of Honor. A novel of deceit and corruption ranging from Vietnam to the present. The book's hero is Sandy Craine, a young army captain bent on clearing his father's name. But what begins as Craine's personal journey soon gets political and treacherous as he and his ally at the Washington Chronicle begin uncovering a decades-old conspiracy.

Thomas Heggan. Mr. Roberts. A naval officer struggles to be allowed to fight in World War II, not just observe it from the sidelines.

Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. Classic novel of the First World War. Stylistic tour de force, depicting the suffering of men at war.

Ernest Hemingway. The Old Man and the Sea. A simple man battling the elements in this sublime tragic novel.

Ernest Hemingway. The Sun Also Rises. The "Lost Generation" of Americans in Paris and Spain in the 1920’s. What do men and women do when life seems meaningless to them?

Henrik Ibsen. An Enemy of the People. A play focusing on a doctor who stands up to a majority and does what is right. What do you do when the majority is wrong?

Henrik Ibsen. A Doll's House. The hollowness of a conventional marriage is explored, and a woman finds the courage to leave her husband and family and start her education from scratch.

John Irving. Cider House Rules. Irving’s gripping tale of courage and social responsibility, set in the hospital of the orphanage-the boy's division at St. Cloud's in Maine during WW II.

Joe Jablonski. Three-Star Fix. A novel by a Kings Point Graduate! Midshipman Jake Thomas boards a freighter in New Orleans, entering the exotic world of foreign ports and life on the high seas. Jake plunges hungrily into the adventure of a sea-voyage, finding it a separate existence: authentic, ruthless, unpredictable. The voyage becomes an odyssey where he meets others pursuing love and community, the very things he is running from.

Ken Kesey. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. A terrifying, comic tale of the pressures of conformity and sadistic power-brokering by the Nurse-in-Command, and of moral resistance.

Rudyard Kipling. Captains Courageous. After being washed overboard from an ocean liner, a spoiled millionaire's son is rescued by New England fishermen who put him to work on their boat.

John Le Carre. Smiley’s People. From Amazon.com: "Super-spy George Smiley comes out of a fitful retirement for one last bite at the apple."

John Le Carre. The Spy Who Came In From the Cold. One last mission, of dizzying complexity, with layers of deception for a veteran spy from the cold war.

Jack London. The Sea Wolf. A clash of two opposing views of morality --survival of the fittest vs. civilization--is brought to life in this tale of the sea.

Jack London. Martin Eden. London’s autobiographical novel and, in the view of a trusted source, London’s best work.

Walter Lord. A Night to Remember. A minute-by-minute account of the Titanic's fatal collision with an iceberg and how the resulting tragedy brought out the best and worst in human nature.

Robert Ludlum. The Bourne Identity. A thrilling novel of identity and endurance—a great read. As the cover copy tells us, He has no past. And he may have no future. His memory is blank. He only knows that he was flushed out of the Mediterranean Sea, his body riddled with bullets. (N.B. The book is wildly different from the film.)

Daniel Mason. The Piano Tuner. A rethinking and 180 degree opposite of Heart of Darkness, with Carroll (anti-Kurtz) at the heart of Burma

Herman Melville. Billy Budd. This great study of the stresses of command and authority explores the story of Billy, a true innocence caught in the inflexible tribunals of justice and his captain, who must choose between his oath as a naval officer and his personal feelings.

Herman Melville. Moby Dick. Arguably the greatest nineteenth century novel of this sea, Moby Dick gives us-- in all its epic grandeur-- the story of Captain Ahab locked in personal combat with the great white whale.

Nicholas Monserrat. The Cruel Sea. British sailors struggle against German U-boats during the Battle of the Atlantic.

Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. Mutiny on the Bounty. What causes officers and men to lose confidence in their captain during a voyage across the Pacific? A stirring sea adventure that tells the story of the H.M.S. Bounty and Fletcher Christian's mutiny against Captain Bligh.

Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. Men Against the Sea. A sequel to Mutiny on the Bounty in which Captain Bligh and his loyal mariners successfully sail an open boat over 3,000 miles to safety.

Patrick O'Brian. Master and Commander. The first three books of the Aubrey and Maturin novels. A Royal Navy ship's captain and an Irish doctor working for British intelligence meet and begin a friendship that takes them through many adventures during the Napoleonic Wars.

Patrick O'Brian. H.M.S. Surprise. This adventure takes Jack Aubrey to the Indian subcontinent. If Aubrey and Maturin can intercept a flotilla of French ships sent to attack the China Fleet, their fortunes will be made.

Patrick O'Brian. Post Captain. The year is 1803 and Napoleon Bonaparte has gone to war again. For Captain Jack Aubrey, who has fled to France to escape his creditors, this is doubly alarming news. In short order the captain is interned, makes his escape across the French countryside, and leads a ship into battle.

Joseph O’Connor. Star of the Sea. This one comes highly recommended from a friend whose literary taste is infallible. It’s also a gripping mystery. Below is a blurb from Amazon: 

Phillip Roth. Any one of the following three novels from Roth’s American Trilogy, including American Pastoral, I Married a Communist, and The Human Stain Roth is arguably the greatest living American novelist and observer of American life and culture. A good early Roth that may be an easier read is Portnoy’s Complaint. These novels are ambitious but gripping and penetrating glimpses of how different kinds of Americans try to come to terms with the oppressive/ incomprehensible social reality around them. These are essentially philosophical novels, in that they deal with the meaning of contemporary American life. They are also smashingly written.

S.J. Rozan. Absent Friends. According to Publisher’s Weekly, the book "powerfully articulates the mix of heartbreak, anger, helplessness and resolve of New Yorkers after 9/11." In addition, it’s a gripping mystery.

William Shakespeare. Henry IV, Part 1. A leader must choose between his great imaginative, wonderful life of cakes and ales or the responsibilities of steering his country through war. A great read, with the memorable Sir John Falstaff.

William Shakespeare. Henry V. A small army overcomes great odds, thanks to their "inspired" leader.

William Shakespeare. King Lear. The play explores how family dysfunctions and sibling rivalry issues in political disasters of immense and catastrophic proportion.

William Shakespeare. Richard III. What are the connections between strength of will, great intellect, and morality in a leader? Rebellion, riot, rulership, the corrupting nature of political power, the proper education and the nature of man—all are questioned examined and explored.

Michael Shaara. The Killer Angels. According to the jacket cover, this is "A superb recreation of the Battle of Gettysburg, but its real importance is its insight into what the war was about."

George Bernard Shaw. Arms and the Man. Shaw’s classic play satirically exploring the conflict between love and war.

Natsume Soseki. Kokoro. By exploring the friendship a university student and his enigmatic mentor, Soseki unforgettably taps into the undercurrent of disquietude at the "heart" (kokoro) modern Japanese experience. Twentieth century Japan’s greatest novel.

John Steinbeck. The Grapes of Wrath. Depression and dust storms force the Joad family from their farm; lured to California in search of work, they find disillusionment, exploitation, and hunger.

Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace. Like Melville’s, Tolstoy’s novel is a grand, amazing 19^th century masterpiece exploring the Napoleonic wars and the effects on emperors, soldiers, aristocrats, families, in short, on all aspects of life caught up in the fates of large-scale warfare. Provides an unparalleled account of how events on the massive scale affect private lives.

Lucian K. Truscott IV. Dress Gray. A fictionalized account of life at West Point.

Lucian K. Truscott IV. Army Blue. A novel about the Vietnam War and the problems of an officer who fought in it, written by a West Point graduate.

Scott Turow. Presumed Innocent. A page-turner—though challenging reading. Turow raises all the important questions about our current justice system. According to the above website’s blurb from Wallace Stegner, the book "is an achievement of a high order -- with marvelous control and touch, an awesome capacity to assemble and dispense (and sometimes withhold) evidence, and a cast of characters who are dismayingly credible. Nobody who picks it up is going to lay it down lightly."

Mark Twain. Huck Finn. The classic, unmatched tale of moral coming of age.

Gore Vidal. Burr, A Novel About Politics, Journalism, and Manners in America, or Vidal’s novel Lincoln.

Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse Five. Vonnegut’s biting WW II novel, still as powerful as ever.

Robert Penn Warren. All the King's Men. Set in the 1930s, this Pulitzer Prize- winning novel traces the rise and fall of demagogue Willie Stark, a fictional character who resembles the real-life Huey Long of Louisiana.

James H. Webb. Fields of Fire. A novel about a Marine Corps rifle platoon in Vietnam, written by a man who served as platoon leader there; it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. This savage and poignant story is a classic Vietnam War novel in the tradition of All Quiet on the Western Front.

James H. Webb. A Sense of Honor: A Novel. A novel dealing with a brief but typical period of conflicts between "tough warriors" and "geeks" at Annapolis during the late sixties.

Herman Wouk. The Caine Mutiny. This World War II novel asks, "What do you do when the ship's captain is mentally unbalanced? and "When should a captain be regarded as incompetent and relieved of command?"

Virginia Woolf. Mrs. Dalloway. A remarkable post WWI novel of heroism and struggle in Woolf’s smashing stream-of-consciousness prose, a dual tale of a shell-shocked soldier and Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway, planning a party on an ordinary day in a London trying to learn to deal with its losses and defeats. Challenging and wondrous.

Jane Addams. Twenty Years at Hull House. The autobiography of the great Jane Addams, who pioneered the settlement house movement at Hull-House in Chicago and was a pioneering founder of United States social work .

Stephen Ambrose. Lewis & Clark: Voyage of Discovery. Describes the epic trek of Lewis and Clark, one of the greatest triumphs in the history of exploration.

Stephen Ambrose. Band of Brothers. The unforgettable story of Easy Company traces the fortunes of the 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest.

Sherman Baldwin. Ironclaw. A rookie Navy Pilot’s first carrier and war experiences.

James Bradley. Flags of our Fathers. On the cover copy, Stephen Ambrose says that this is "the best battle book I have ever read. These stories, from the time the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima enlisted, their training and the subsequent landing and struggle fill me with awe."

James Bradley. Flyboys. "Flyboys is not just a 'true story of courage' but a frightening reminder of the savagery human beings are capable of and of the terrible moral choices nations at war must make." James D. Fairbanks, Houston Chronicle.

Taylor Branch. Pillar of Fire. The classic work on the civil rights movement in the ‘60’s.

Malcolm Brown. Lawrence of Arabia, The Life, The Legend. A fine recent biography of the legendary British adventurer and war hero, T. E. Lawrence. (See also below, Lawrence’s autobiographical Seven Pillars of Wisdom).

James MacGregor Burns. Leadership. One of America's leading historians discusses the role of leadership in American history.

James M. McPherson. Abraham Lincoln and the Second Revolution. James McPherson, a preeminent Civil War author and scholar, attempts to demonstrate that the Civil War, in the changes it effected, was indeed the Second American Revolution.

Robert Caro. The Power Broker. A long but amazing biography of Robert Moses, the man who built Jones Beach and most of the bridges, tunnels, and highways in and around New York City.

Jung Chang. Wild Swans. A moving biography of three generations of women that vividly speaks to the historical experience of 20th century China. The story begins with Jung’s grandmother, who was the concubine to a warlord in late imperial China, continues with her mother, who participated in the Chinese Revolution and became a communist official, and concludes with her own experiences as a Red Guard who grows disillusioned with the regime and leaves the country after seeing her parents persecuted during the Cultural Revolution.

Captain Dick Couch, USN (Ret.). Warrior Elite. Follows class 228 through BUD/S, highlights the level of leadership required by the class officers and what the training will mean when the trainees become Navy SEALs.

Mary Allen Converse. Captain Mary. According to Alumna Mary Frances Culnane (KP ’80), "Grannie goes to sea" and I mean it." This is a true story. WWII vintage.

Capt. Deborah Dempsey and Joanne Reckler Foster. The Captain's a Woman: Tales of a Merchant Mariner. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1998.A Maine Maritime grad, and the first woman to graduate from a maritime academy. She won a major award for saving her ship. Highly recommended.

Sharon Hanley Disher. First Class: Women Join the Ranks at the Naval Academy. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1998. Disher was a member of the first class at Annapolis to accept women.

Fredrick Douglass. Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass. Douglass’s fascinating and inspiring tale of slavery, oppression, struggle, education, escape from slavery, and of his work on the Underground Railroad.

Joan Druett. Hen Frigates - Passion and Peril, Nineteenth - Century Women at Sea. Copyright 1998 Simon & Schuster ISBN 0-684-83968-7 From the back cover:

Francis Duncan. Rickover: The Struggle for Excellence. According to former USMMA professor Ailan Chubb, "what immediately comes to my mind as a marine engineer are the several biographies of Admiral Hyman Rickover, U.S. Navy. He was the driving force behind getting nuclear powered submarines built and helped establish commercial nuclear power production in this country, too."

Max Egremont. Siegfried Sassoon, A Life. (Just published, Farrar, Straus & Giroux). A fascinating biography about England’s most eccentric war hero/poet, who had to come to terms with his own bloodlust and homosexuality, becoming a major figure of the English anti-war movement. (Sassoon is an important character in the fictional Regeneration, by Pat Barker, above).

Benjamin Franklin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. A fascinating look into the mind, times, inventions, and history of one of our founding fathers.

Robert Frump. Until the Sea Shall Free Them. Life, Death and Survival in the Merchant Marine.

Paul Fussell. The Great War and Modern Memory. Exhaustive, detailed account of the impact of the First World War on the human consciousness.

Thomas L. Friedman. From Beirut to Jerusalem. New York Times reporter Friedman writes about his experience reporting in the Middle East. Full of important insights.

David H. Hackworth. About Face/The Odyssey of an American Warrior. Hackworth joined the army at 15 and today is America’s most decorated living soldier. He describes his experiences in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, where he came to oppose the tactics and goals of the U.S.

Oren Harari. The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell. The book examines the principles that motivate Colin Powell - nobility in purpose, credibility of leadership, integrity in organization, and victory in performance - and shows how they can help to guide you through virtually any situation.

Lt. General Claudia Kennedy. Generally Speaking: A Memoir by the First Woman Promoted to Three-Star General in the United States Army. Kennedy was known within the army as a determined advocate for women soldiers. She gained national recognition for successfully blocking the promotion of another general, on the grounds of his having sexually harassed her. More significant, however, is Kennedy's principled commitment to creating a more domesticated army, a female-friendly force whose male soldiers wish neither to drink to excess, to use bad language, nor to consider women as sexual objects.

William C. Kirby. Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. Tragic, almost unbearable account of the Japanese invasion of China.

T. E. Lawrence. The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Lawrence’s "passionate account of the Arab people and the Arab nation struggling to be born."

Jean Marie Lutz. Changing Course: One Woman's True-Life Adventures as a Merchant Marine. According to the book jacket,

Malcolm X. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. An account of a complex, controversial, and charismatic leader of the 1960s civil rights movement.

Mary Drake McFeeley. A Life of Ulysses S. Grant. A fascinating, Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of a man who was an amazing military leader but a failure in almost every other aspect of his life.

Peter G. MacDonald. Giap: The Victor in Vietnam. A look at the career of Vo Nguyen Giap, based on interviews with the Vietnamese general. It reveals how an army so poor in material resources accomplished so much militarily.

David Maraniss. When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi. The story of the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers and how Lombardi helped to make pro football what it is today.

C. Bradford Mitchell. We’ll Deliver. This is the story of the formative years of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. The story focuses especially on the leaders who shaped the Academy during the 1950’s.

Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell. Shackleton's Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer. A gripping account, with acute insight into the psychology of leadership.

Azar Nafisi. Reading Lolita in Tehran. Forced to leave the university and meet with other women in secret, Nafisi redefines her understanding of great classic works of literature like Lolita, The Great Gatsby, and Jane Eyre against the terrifying backdrop of terror created by fundamentalist Islamic morality squads. Her memoirs raise all the important questions about freedom of thought, state censorship, and gender power and politics. Nafisi won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts.

Stephen Oates. Let the Trumpet Sound. A moving life of Dr. Martin Luther King.

George S. Patton, Jr. War As I Knew It. Draws on his vivid memories of battle and his detailed diaries to provide a firsthand chronicle of World War II.

Scott O’Grady. Return with Honor. "An American Fighter pilot’s heroic tale of survival behind enemy lines," according to the book’s cover.

Nathaniel Philbrick: In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. (National Book Ward for non-fiction, 2000). This is the tale of the Whale Ship Essex, the original story behind Moby Dick. According to one reader, it is ‘an enlightening read which becomes a real page-turner."

Nathaniel Philbrick, Sea of Glory: America’s Voyage of Discovery, The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842. According to Booklist, Philbrick’s new book is concerned with "America’s forgotten frontier, the Pacific Ocean. follow[s] the dramatic story of the U.S. Exploring Expedition, which set out in 1838 in six sailing vessels from Norfolk, and would "redraw the map of the world." Recommended for "the author’s fluid prose style," which "cannot fail to absorb readers in all of its detail."

Colin L. Powell. My American Journey: An Autobiography. General Powell recounts the various steps of his career, giving us an unrivaled view of the ins and outs of military bureaucracy and shows how the modern American military, with its consistent emphasis on can-do attitudes and actual results, is a much more congenial place for realizing one’s talents than general society.

Diana Preston. Lusitania. Why did the Captain behave as he did? Well written, really well written, and one could change the dates and it sounds like current times with "worries about what's really on the ship's manifest and will the crew's remain loyal."

Arnold Rampersad. Jackie Robinson: A Biography. The gripping story of the American hero who broke the baseball "color barrier."

Neil Sheehan. A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam. This is the story and expose of John Paul Vann, an American officer who served in Vietnam and returned as a civilian to wage a kind of private war of his own.

Brooks D. Simpson. Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph over Adversity, 1822-1865. The unlikely but true story of a failed businessman who, despite fragile health, became the most successful general of the Civil War; special emphasis is given to Grant's relationships, attitudes, personal character, and drinking problem.

E.B. Sledge. With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa. Perhaps the most powerful and startlingly honest war memoir ever written. Sledge joined the Marines a year after Pearl Harbor and managed to survive nightmarish front-line combat in the Pacific Theater at Peleliu and Okinawa.

Joshua Slocum. The Voyage of the Spray: Sailing Alone Around the World. Written in 1900, Slocum told his story of skill and fortitude as a master navigator.

Joshua Smith. Borderland Smuggling: Patriots, Loyalists, and Illicit Trade in the Northeast, 1783-1829. A fascinating story of smuggling became an important part of our nation’s early history. A few copies are available in our library on a first-come-first-served basis.

Skip Strong and Twain Braden. In Peril: A Daring Decision, A Captain's Resolve, and the Salvage that Made History. Great saga of a daunting leadership challenge

Ross Terrill. Mao: a Biography. Twentieth century China's foremost radical revolutionary leader is profiled here - a man who was one of the key factors in communism's rise to power, but also one who almost single-handedly became the architect of chaos in post-1949 China.

Evan Thomas. John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy. A good case for a renewed appreciation for Jones’s role in the broader revolution, citing his many connections to the Founding Fathers and his contributions to the broader war effort. While it may be that the John Paul Jones who proclaimed "I have not yet begun to fight" never existed, the real man behind the textbook legend is every bit as compelling a figure in Thomas’s hands. This temperate biography situates Jones in what will likely prove durable fashion among portraits of Adams, Franklin, Washington, and Jefferson.

Robert Timberg. The Nightingale’s Song. A riveting tale that illuminates the flip side of the fabled Vietnam generation and how the Vietnam War continues to haunt America. Casting Annapolis graduates John McCain, James Webb, Oliver North, Robert McFarlane, and John Poindexter as metaphors, this book examines the differences between those who fought the war and those who used money, wit, and connections to avoid battle.

Barbara Tuchman. Guns of August. Classic account by famous historian of the first month of World War I (August 1914).

Edgar Vincent. Nelson: Love and Fame. Two separate strands—the professional and the emotional—of Horatio Nelson's life in one superlative biography of the man and the hero. While Nelson's military exploits are all well-documented, and his infamous affair with Lady Emma Hamilton common knowledge, the author probes beneath the surface of the obvious, plumbing the depths of a man with an insatiable desire for admiration and attention.

Gregory Vistica. Fall from Glory. This is a hard-hitting analysis of the failure of both the civilian and military leadership in the Navy during the early years of the Reagan administration. It is a strong expose of the underlying dynamics of the Tailhook Scandal.

Scott Waddle and Ken Abraham. The Right Thing. The Commander of the USS Greenville—the U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarine that collided with a Japanese fishing-training vessel in 2001—tells his story.

Warren G. Bennis and Burt Nanus. Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge. Focuses on successful leadership in the corporate environment.

Shelia Murray Bethel. Making a Difference: Twelve Qualities That Make You a Leader. A good basic leadership manual, written with many examples from the military, spiritual, political, and business communities.

David Campbell. If I'm in Charge Here, Why is Everybody Laughing? Short, funny, and creative. Campbell's premise is that leadership is demanding, enriching, and exhilarating.

Stephen L. Carter. Civility. Why do people show poorer manners today than in previous ages? Carter examines generosity and trust, respect for diversity and dissent, and resolution of conflict through dialogue, rather than mandate. Civility involves the discipline of our passions so that we may live a common life.

William A. Cohen. The Art of the Leader. Presents the "how to" rather than the theory and illustrates his approach with examples of great leaders in history.

Steven Covey. Principle Centered Leadership. Presents strategies for successful leadership, a long-term, inside-out approach to developing people and organizations. The key to dealing with the challenges that face us today is the recognition of a principle-centered core within both ourselves and our organizations.

Steven Covey. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Before you can adopt the seven habits, you'll need to accomplish what Covey calls a "paradigm shift"-a change in perception and interpretation of how the world works, which affects how you perceive and act regarding productivity, time management, positive thinking, developing your "proactive muscles"(acting with initiative rather than reacting), and much more.

Larry R. Donnithorne. The West Point Way of Leadership, from Learning Principled Leadership to Practicing It. It is the blueprint of leadership instruction for cadets at the USMA and midshipmen at the USMMA. It explains how to live by your word, do the right thing, and put the needs of the group above personal considerations.

S.L.A. Marshall. The Armed Forces. (A new edition will soon be coming out from West Point.) This is a great introduction for junior officers for principles of officership and leadership.

Miyamoto Musashi. The Book of Five Rings. Since the 1974 publication of its first English translation, this book has become an underground classic in the American business community, where it is studied as a text on Japanese management techniques. Here are timeless principles of craft, skills, timing and spirit from a great samurai warrior

Akito Morita. Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony. The gripping account of a corporate leader and his far-reaching impact on his company and the world.

Aubrey S. Newman. Follow Me: Human Elements in Leadership. General Newman brings a long career to bear in offering lessons of leadership in peacetime and combat incidents. While the text is specifically intended for military leaders, the lessons are universally applicable and will serve all professional endeavors.

Robert Taylor and William Rosenback, eds. Military Leadership in Pursuit of Excellence. Although this book was written with military personnel in mind, the authors draw parallels between business and military leadership skills.

Sun Tzu. The Art of War. Written 2,500 years ago by a leading Chinese philosopher-general, the book advances a perspective with which to negotiate daily conflicts and provides insightful tools with which to succeed in life.

Aubrey S. Newman. Follow Me: Human Elements in Leadership. General Newman brings a long career to bear in offering lessons of leadership in peacetime and combat incidents. While the text is specifically intended for military leaders, the lessons are universally applicable and will serve all professional endeavors.

Roger H. Nye. The Challenge of Command. Directed to U.S. military officers.