2017 Navy Reading List
Below is the Official CNO’s professional reading list. The list is broken up into six sections and contains 166 books:
- The Cannon
- Core Attributes
- Naval Power
- Navy Team
- High Velocity Learning
- Partnerships
The Canon
- MASTERS OF WAR: CLASSICAL STRATEGIC THOUGHT, by Michael I. Handel
- STRATEGY: The Classic Book on Military Strategy:, by B.H. Liddell Hart
- MILITARY STRATEGY: A General Theory of Power Control, by J. C. Wylie
- THE LANDMARK THUCYDIDES: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War, by Robert B. Strassler
- THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, by James Madison
- THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, by Thomas Jefferson
- ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION
- THE FEDERALIST PAPERS, by Alexander Hamilton
- THE INFLUENCE OF SEAPOWER ON HISTORY: 1660 – 1783, by A.T. Mahan
- MAKERS OF MODERN STRATEGY: From Machiavelli to the Modern Age, Edited by Peter Paret, with Gordon A. Craig and Felix Gilbert
- PRINCIPLES OF MARITIME STRATEGY, by Julian Corbett
- THE ART OF WAR, By Sun Tzu
- ON WAR, by Carl von Claswewitz
- A DESIGN FOR MAINTAINING MARITIME SUPERIORITY
- NAVY CIVILIAN WORKFORCE FRAMEWORK
- NAVY LEADER DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK
Core Values
- WARRIORS AND CITIZENS: American Views of our Millitary, by Kori Schake & Jim Mattis
- MAKE YOUR BED: Little Things That Can Change Your Life And Maybe The World, by Admiral William H. McRaven
- GIVING VOICE TO VALUES: How to Speak Your Mind When You Know What’s Right, by Mary C. Gentile
- TEAMS OF TEAMS: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by Stanley McChrystal
- LEADERS EAT LAST: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t, by Simon Sinek
- THE SEVEN SIGNS OF ETHICAL COLLAPSE: How to Spot Moral Melthdowns in Companies Before It’s Too Late, by Marianne M. Jennings
- THE ANATOMY OF COURAGE: The Classic WWI Study of the Psychological Effects of War, by Lord Moran
- START WITH WHY: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, by Simon Sinek
- THOUGHTS OF A PHILOSOPHICAL FIGHTER PILOT, by James Stockdale
- IN LOVE AND WAR: The Story of a Family’s Ordeal and Sacrifice During the Vietnam Years, by James and Sybil Stockdale
- MEDITATIONS, by Marcus Aurelius
- MANAGING THE UNEXPECTED: Resilient Performance in an Age of Uncertainty, by Karl E. Weick and Kathleen M. Sutcliffe
- NAVIGATING THE SEVEN SEAS: Leadership Lessons of the First African-American Father and Son to Serve at the Top of the U.S. Navy, by Melvin G. Williams, Sr. and Melvin G. Williams, Jr.
- THE RULES OF THE GAME: Jutland and British Naval Command, by Andrew Gordon
- THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, by Peter M. Senge
- THE LAST STAND OF THE TIN CAN SAILORS, by James D. Hornfischer
- THE CONQUERING TIDE: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942 – 1944, by Ian W. Toll
- MATTERHORN: A Novel of the Vietnam War, by Karl Marlantes
- ENCHIRIDION, by Epictetus
- THE ROAD TO CHARACTER, by David Brooks
Naval Power
- ON GRAND STRATEGY, by John Gaddis
- SCALES ON WAR: The Future of America’s Military at Risk, by Maj. Gen Bob Scales
- NEPTUNE’S INFERNO, by James D. Hornfischer
- SEAPOWER: The History and Geopolitics of the World’s Oceans, by Admiral James Stavridis
- TOWARD A NEW MARITIME STRATEGY: American Naval Thinking in the Post-Cold War Era, by Peter D. Haynes
- THE RULES OF THE GAME: Jutland and British Naval Command, by Andrew Gordon
- SEAPOWER: A Guide for the 21st Century, by Geoffrey Till
- RED STAR OVER THE PACIFIC: China’s Rise and the Challenge to U.S. Maritime Superiority,
- by Toshi Yoshihara and James R. Holmes
- PACIFIC CRUCIBLE: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941 – 1942, by Ian W. Toll
- THE CONQUERING TIDE: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942 – 1944, by Ian W. Toll
- SIX FRIGATES: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy, by Ian W. Toll
- CYBERSECURITY AND CYBERWAR: What Everyone Needs to Know, by P.W. Singer and Allan Friedman
- PACIFIC: Silicon Chips and Surf Boards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators Fading Empires and the Coming Collision of the World’s Superpowers, by Simon Winchester
- THE RICKOVER EFFECT: The Inside Story of How Adm. Hyman Rickover Built the Nuclear Navy, by Theodore Rockwell
- RICKOVER AND THE NUCLEAR NAVY: The Discipline of Technology, by Francis Duncan
- THE TWO-OCEAN WAR: A Short History of the United States Navy in the Second World War, by Samuel Eliot Morison
- FLEET TACTICS: And Coastal Combat, 2nd Edition, by Wayne P. Hughes, Jr.
- THE FACE OF BATTLE: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme, by John Keegan
- MILITARY READINESS: Concepts, Choices, Consequences, by Richard K. Betts
- MILITARY INNOVATION IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD, Edited by Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett
- ALL THE FACTORS OF VICTORY: Admiral Joseph Mason Reeves and Origins of the Carrier Airpower, by Thomas Wildenberg
- EXECUTE AGAINST JAPAN: The U.S. Decision to Conduct Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
- by Joel Ira Holwitt
- JOHN BARRY: An American Hero in the Age of Sail, by Tim McGrath
- EMPIRES OF THE SEA: The Siege of Malta, The Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World, by Roger Crowley
- SHATTERED SWORD: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway, by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully
- MASTER AND COMMANDER, by Patrick O’Brian
- 1812: THE NAVY’S WAR, by George C. Daughan
- TECHNOLOGY AND WAR: From 2000 B.C. to the Present, by Martin Van Creveld
- WIRED FOR WAR: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century, by P.W. Singer
- FREEDOM’S FORGE: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II, by Arthur Herman
- THE MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB, by Richard Rhodes
- JOE ROCHEFORT’S WAR: The Odyssey of the Codebreaker who Outwitted Yamamoto at Midway,
- by Elliot Carlson
- THE PURSUIT OF VICTORY: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson, by Roger Knight
- WASHINGTON’S CROSSING: Pivotal Moments in American History by David Hackett Fischer
- ONE HUNDRED DAYS: The Memoirs of the Falklands Battle Group Commander, by Admiral Sandy Woodward with Patrick Robinson
- FIGHTING TALK: Forty Maxims on War, Peace, and Strategy, by Colin S. Gray
- MATTERHORN: A Novel of the Vietnam War, by Karl Marlantes
- GHOST FLEET: A Novel of the Next World War, by P.W. Singer and August Cole
- HOLD BACK THE NIGHT, by Pat Frank
- UTMOST SAVAGERY: The Three Days of Tarawa, by COL Joseph H. Alexander, USMC (Ret)
- YELLOW SMOKE: The Future of Land Warfare for America’s Military, by Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales, Jr.
- ENGLAND IN THE SEVEN YEARS’ WAR: A Study in Combined Strategy, by Julian S. Corbett
- NAVIGATING THE SEVEN SEAS: Leadership Lessons of the First African-American Father and Son to Serve at the Top in the U.S. Navy, by Melvin G. Williams, Sr. and Melvin G. Williams, Jr.
- THE RULES OF THE GAME: Jutland and British Naval Command, by Andrew Gordon
- THE LAST STAND OF THE TIN CAN SAILORS: The Extrodinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy’s Finest Hour, by James D. Hornfischer
- THE FLEET AT FLOOD TIDE: America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944-1945, by James D. Hornfischer
- SHIP OF GHOSTS: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR’s Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of her Survivors, by James D. Hornfischer
- LEADING CHANGE, by John P. Kotter
- MATTERHORN: A Novel of the Vietnam War, by Karl Marlantes
- FIRST TO FIGHT: An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps, by Victor H. Krulak
- THE MARINES OF MONTFORD POINT: America’s First Black Marines, by Melton Alonza McLaurin
- AMERICAN SPARTANS: The U.S. Marines: A Combat History from Iwo Jima to Iraq by James Warren
- CHESTY: The Story of Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller, USMC, by Colonel Jon T. Hoffman
- FORGOTTEN WARRIORS: The 1ST Provisional Marine Brigade, The Corps Ethos, and the Korean War, by Thomas Hammes
- BRUTE: The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine, by Robert Coram
High Velocity Learning
- MACHINE PLATFORM CROWD: A Military Futurist Explores War in the 21st Century, by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson
- 7 DEADLY SCENARIOS: A Military Futurist Explores War in the 21st Century, by Andrew F. Krepinevich
- VALUE: The Four Cornerstones of Corporate Finance, by Tim Koller, Richard Dobbs, Bill Huyett, McKinsey & Company
- GRAND STRATEGIES IN WAR AND PEACE, by Paul Kennedy
- THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE: The New History of Rome and the Barbarians, by Peter Heather
- THE TIPPING POINT: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell
- OUTLIERS: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell
- DEMOCRACY: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom, by Condoleezza Rice
- ON WRITING WELL: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, by William Zinsser
- THE INNOVATOR’S DILEMMA: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business, by Clayton M. Christensen
- THE HIGH VELOCITY EDGE: How Market Leaders Leverage Operational Excellence to Beat the Competition, by Steven J. Spear
- THE CHECKLIST MANIFESTO: How to Get Things Right, by Atul Gawande
- THE HARD THING ABOUT HARD THINGS
- Building a Business When there are No Easy Answers, by Ben Horowitz
- A WHOLE NEW MIND: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future, by Daniel H. Pink
- SPRINT: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days, by Jake Knapp
- THE SECOND MACHINE AGE: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies, by Erik Brynjolfsson
- THINKING FAST AND SLOW, by Daniel Kahneman
- THINKING IN TIME: The Uses of History for Decision Makers, by Richard E. Neustadt
- THE FIELD GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING ‘HUMAN ERROR’, by Sidney Dekker
- THE KNOWING DOING GAP: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action, by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton
- THE VISUAL DISPLAY OF QUANTITATIVE INFORMATION, by Edward Tufte
- SENSEMAKING IN ORGANIZATIONS, by Karl E. Weick
- THE ART OF THE LONG VIEW: Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World, by Peter Schwartz
- THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE: Everything You Need to Know to Write, by William Strunk, Jr.
- INVITING DISASTER: Lessons from the Edge of Technology, by James R. Chiles
- ENVISIONING INFORMATION, by Edward R. Tufte
- EXECUTION: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
- THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, by Peter M. Senge
- DRIFT INTO FAILURE: From Hunting Broken Components to Understanding Complex Systems, by Sidney Dekker
- THE BLACK SWAN: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- FREAKONOMICS: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, by Steven D. Levitt
- THE SINGULARITY IS NEAR: When Humans Transcend Biology, by Ray Kurzweil
- SIMULATING WAR: Studying Conflict Through Simulation Games, by Philip Sabin
- STRATEGY: A HISTORY, by Lawrence Freedman
- MANAGING THE RISKS OF ORGANIZATIONAL ACCIDENTS: The Inside Story of How Adm. Hyman Rickover Built the Nuclear Navy, by James Reason
- THE HEART OF CHANGE: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations,
- by John P. Kotter and Dan S. Cohen
- RED TEAM: How to Succeed By Thinking Like the Enemy, by Micah Zenko
- THE BOX: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, by Marc Levinson
- BLACKETT’S WAR: The Men Who Defeated the Nazi U-Boats and Brought Science to the Art of Warfare, by Stephen Budiansky
- BLACKETT’S WAR: The Men Who Defeated the Nazi U-Boats and Brought Science to the Art of Warfare,
- by Stephen Budiansky
- MANAGING THE UNEXPECTED: Resilient Performance in an Age of Uncertainty,
- by Karl E. Weick and Kathleen M. Sutcliffe
The Navy Team
- SERVICE: A Navy SEAL at War, by Marcus Luttrell with James D. Hornfischer
- HUMILITY IS THE NEW SMART, by Edward Hess
- THE LAST WARRIOR: Andrew Marshall and the Shaping of Modern American Defense Strategy, by Andrew F. Krepinevich and Barry Watts
- HIS EXCELLENCY: GEORGE WASHINGTON, by Joseph J. Ellis
- THE ACCIDENTAL ADMIRAL: A Sailor Takes Command at NATO, by James Stavridis
- GRANT: Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant and Selected Letters 1839 – 1865,
- Edited by William S. McFeely and Mary McFeely
- TEAM OF TEAMS: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by Stanley McChrystal
- NAVIGATING THE SEVEN SEAS: Leadership Lessons of the First African-American Father and Son to Serve at the Top of the U.S. Navy, by Melvin G. Williams, Sr. and Melvin G. Williams, Jr.
- A VIETNAM EXPERIENCE: Ten Years of Reflection, by James Stockdale
- OTHER CLAY: A Remembrance of the World War II Infantry, by Charles R. Cawthon
- AT EASE: Stories I Tell to Friends, by Dwight Eisenhower
- CRUSADE IN EUROPE: A Personal Account of World War II, by Dwight D. Eisenhower
- IN LOVE AND WAR: The Story of a Family’s Ordeal and Sacrifice During the Vietnam Years, by James and Sybil Stockdale
- THE WISDOM OF CROWDS, by James Surowiecki
- THE CAINE MUTINY, by Herman Wouk
- TRIBE: On Homecoming and Belonging, by Sebastian Junger
Partnerships
- SAFE PASSAGE, by Kori Schake
- A WORLD IN DISARRAY: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order, by Richard Haass
- PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE AMERICAS: Western Hemisphere Strategy and U.S. Southern Command, by James Stavridis
- ASIA’S CAULDRON: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific, by Robert D. Kaplan
- WORLD ORDER, by Henry Kissinger
- THE REVENGE OF GEOGRAPHY: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate, by Robert D. Kaplan
- THE GRAND CHESSBOARD: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives, by Zbigniew Brzezinski
- THE PARADOX OF AMERICAN POWER: Why the World’s Only Superpower Can’t Go It Alone, by Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
- ON CHINA, by Henry Kissinger