The 2019 Navy Reading List + 5 options for ordering books for your command

The Navy War College just published their 2019 Navy reading list last month. Coming in at 145 books it is the longest reading of all the four services. If you don’t think you can get through all 145 books before the next list comes out I’m taking suggestions for a shorter top 10 list. Please leave comments below.

The most direct option for ordering the Navy Reading list, ordering from the Naval War College, is no longer available. Previously the War College had funding to send commands a full set of the Navy Reading List; however that funding expired a few years ago. Until the Navy prioritizes this funding, commands remain responsible for acquiring the Navy Reading List on their own

For those interested in ordering the Navy Reading List for their command, Wardroom, Chiefs Mess or MWR below are four options to make your supply officers job just a little bit easier, and your command just a little bit smarter:

1. Operation Paper Back:  While Operations Paper Back does attempt to supply books on the Navy Reading List, they rely on book donations for their distribution. This makes is very hard to “special request” specific books. However, as stated on the Operation Paper Back’s website they will attempt to fulfill an order of books from the Navy’s reading list. The form for requesting books can be found here.
2. DOD Reads:  Our primary customer is the Department of Defense. We make it very easy for your supply officer make a purchase of the Army’s, Navy’s, USMC’s, USCG’s, and or FBI’s official reading list. DOD Reads can process online purchases, quotes, and for larger purchases we accept payments through Contracting/SAM.   We are veteran owned and operated with a percent of our profits going back to the Navy and Marine Corps Relief Society.
3. Amazon: While Amazon holds the largest inventory of books around they only hold ready access to approx 110 books on the Navy’s reading list. The remainder of the books are either out of print or fulfilled by other vendors. If you do choose to purchase from Amazon please consider purchasing through my Navy Reading List page, I have conveniently included links for all the books and will receive a small affiliate commission to help run this website.    
4. Naval War College:  As of this writing the Navy War College no longer has a contract to supply the Navy reading list. But if/when this changes they can be contacted via phone or e-mail here.
5. US Naval Institute: The USNI has a number of Navy specific reading lists to include a Junior Officer reading list, Commanders reading list and publish a monthly professional naval magazine Proceedings.
6. And as a bonus option for Marine Corps Commands, The Marine Corps Association has a Unit Library program which will Marine Corps units with select books from the USMC reading list.

Below is the 2019 Navy Reading List taken from the CNO’s Reading Program  

The Canon

1. The Federalist Papers, by Alexander Hamilton
2. Masters of War: Classical Strategic Thought, by Michael I. Handel
3. Strategy: The Classic Book on Military Strategy, by B. H. Liddell Hart
4. Military Strategy: A General Theory of Power Control, by J. C. Wylie
5. The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War, by Robert B. Strassler
6. The U.S. Constitution, by James Madison
7. The Declaration of Independence, by Thomas Jefferson
8. The Influence of Sea Power on History, by A. T. Mahan
9. Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age, by Peter Paret
10. Principles of Maritime Strategy, by Julian S. Corbett
11. The Art of War, by Sun Tzu
12. On War, by Carl Von Clausewitz

Partner Network

1. Safe Passage, by Kori Schake
2. World In Disarray, by Richard Haass
3. Asia’s Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific, by Robert D. Kaplan
4. The Paradox of American Power, Why the World’s Only Superpower Can’t Go it Alone, by Joseph S. Nye Jr.
5. On China, by Henry Kissinger
6. Partnerships for the Americas, by James G. Stavridis
7. World Order, by Henry Kissinger
8. The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate, by Robert D. Kaplan
9. The Grand Chessboard, by Zbigniew Brzezinski
10. Value: The Four Cornerstones of Corporate Finance, by Tim Koller, Richard Dobbs, Bill Huyett

Navy Team

1. Humility is the New Smart, by Edward Hess
2. Service: A Navy SEAL at War, by Marcus Luttrell and James D. Hornfischer
3. The Accidental Admiral, A Sailor Takes Command at NATO, by James Stavridis
4. Teams of Teams, New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by Stanley McChrystal
5. Navigating the Seven Seas, by Melvin G. Williams
6. Start With Why, How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, by Simon Sinek
7. One Hundred Days: The Memoirs of the Falklands Battle Group Commander, by Sandy Woodward and Patrick Robinson
8. Leaders Eat Last, Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t, by Simon Sinek
9. A Vietnam Experience, Ten Years of Reflection, by James B. Stockdale
10. Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot, by Jim Stockdale
11. The Caine Mutiny, by Herman Wouk
12. In Love and War, by Jim and Sybil Stockdale
13. Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging, by Sebastian Junger
14. At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends, by Dwight D. Eisenhower
15. Enchiridion, by Epictetus
16. Grant: Personal Memoirs and Selected Letters of Ulysses S. Grant, by Ulysses S. Grant
17. His Excellency, George Washington, by Joseph J. Ellis
18. Other Clay: A Remembrance of the World War II Infantry, by Charles R. Cawthon
19. Crusade in Europe: A Personal Account of World War II, by Dwight D. Eisenhower
20. The Last Warrior, by Andrew F. Krepinevich and Barry D. Watts
21. The Wisdom of Crowds, by James Surowiecki

Naval Power

1. Fleet Tactics, by Wayne Hughes and Robert Girrier
2. Neptune’s Inferno, by James D. Hornfischer
3. Scales on War: The Future of America’s Military at Risk, by Maj. Gen Bob Scales
4. On Grand Strategy, by John Gaddis
5. Sea Power, by Admiral James Stavridis
6. 1812: The Navy’s War, by George C. Daughan
7. Toward a New Maritime Strategy, by Peter D. Haynes
8. The Rules of the Game, by Andrew Gordon
9. Seapower, A Guide for the 21st Century, by Geoffrey Till
10. Red Star over the Pacific, by Toshi Yoshihara and James R. Holmes
11. The Conquering Tide, by Ian W. Toll
12. Execute Against Japan, The U.S. Decision to Conduct Unrestricted Submarine Warfare, by Joel Ira Holwitt
13. John Barry, An American Hero in the Age of Sail, by Tim McGrath
14. Pacific Crucible, War at Sea in the Pacific 1941-1942, by Ian W. Toll
15. Six Frigates, by Ian W. Toll
16. Empires of the Sea, by Roger Crowley
17. The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, by James D. Hornfischer
18. Ship of Ghosts, by James D. Hornfischer
19. The Fleet at Flood Tide, by James D. Hornfischer
20. Shattered Sword, The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway, by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully
21. Master and Commander, by Patrick O’Brian
22. The Rickover Effect, The Inside Story of How Adm. Hyman Rickover Built the Nuclear Navy, by Theodore Rockwell
23. Rickover and the Nuclear Navy, The Discipline of Technology, by Francis Duncan
24. The Two-Ocean War, A Short History of the U.S. Navy in the Second World War, by Samuel Eliot Morison
25. Fleet Tactics and Coastal Combat, by Wayne P. Hughes Jr.
26. The Face of Battle, by John Keegan
27. The Price of Admiralty, by John Keegan
28. The Mask of Command, by John Keegan
29. Military Readiness: Concepts, Choices, Consequences, by Richard K. Betts
30. Military Innovation in the Interwar Period, by Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett
31. All the Factors of Victory, by Thomas Wildenberg
32. Matterhorn, A Novel of the Vietnam War, by Karl Marlantes
33. Ghost Fleet, by P.W. Singer and August Cole
34. Hold Back the Night, by Pat Frank
35. Utmost Savagery, The Three Days of Tarawa, by Joseph H. Alexander
36. Fighting Talk: Forty Maxims on War, Peace, and Strategy, by Colin S. Gray
37. The Admirals, by Walter Borneman
38. Yellow Smoke: The Future of Land Warfare for America’s Military, by Robert H. Scales
39. England in the Seven Years’ War: A Study in Combined Strategy, by Julian S. Corbett
40. The Global Seven Years War 1754 – 1763, by Daniel A. Baugh
41. Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in the World War II, by Arthur Herman
42. Joe Rochefort’s War: The Odyssey of the Codebreaker Who Outwitted Yamamoto at Midway, by Elliot Carlson
43. Pursuit of Victory: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson, by Roger Knight
44. Washington’s Crossing, by David Hackett Fischer
45. Technology and War: From 2000 B.C. to the Present, by Martin Van Creveld
46. Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century, by P. W. Singer
47. First to Fight: An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps, by Victor H. Krulak
48. Chesty, by Jon T. Hoffman
49. Marines of Montford Point: America’s First Black Marines, by Melton Alonza McLaurin
50. Forgotten Warriors, by Thomas Hammes
51. American Spartans: A Combat History from Iwo to Iraq, by James Warren
52. Brute: The Life of Victor Krulak, by Robert Coram

High Velocity Outcomes

1. Learning War, by Alexander Hamilton
2. The Book of Why, by Judea Pear and Dana Mackenzie
3. Machine Platform Crowd, by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson
4. Democracy, by Condoleezza Rice
5. Simulating War, Studying Conflict Through Simulation Games, by Philip Sabin
6. Strategy, A History, by Lawrence Freedman
7. Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents, by James Reason
8. Managing the Unexpected: Resilient Performance in an Age of Uncertainty, by Karl E. Weick and Kathleen M. Sutcliffe
9. The Heart of Change: Real-life Stories of How People Change their Organizations, by John P. Kotter
10. Leading Change, by John P. Kotter
11. Blackett’s War: The Men Who Defeated the Nazi U-Boats and Brought Science to the Art of Warfare, by Stephen Budiansky
12. The Fall of the Roman Empire, by Peter Heather
13. Grand Strategies in War and Peace, by Paul Kennedy
14. The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economic Bigger, by Marc Levinson
15. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, by William Zinsser
16. The Innovator’s Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business, by Clayton M. Christensen
17. High-Velocity Edge: How Market Leaders Leverage Operational Excellence, by Steven J. Spear
18. The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, by Atul Gawande
19. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There are No Easy Answers, by Ben Horowitz
20. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, by Daniel H. Pink
21. Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days, by Jake Knapp
22. The Making of the Atom Bomb, by Richard Rhodes
23. Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction, by Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner
24. The Knowing Doing Gap, by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton
25. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, by Edward R. Tufte
26. Sensemaking in Organizations, by Karl E. Weick
27. The Art of the Long View: Planning in an Uncertain Future, by Peter Schwartz
28. The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
29. Inviting Disaster: Lessons from the Edge of Technology, by James R. Chiles
30. 7 Deadly Scenarios: A Military Futurist Explores War in the 21st Century, by Andew F. Krepinevich
31. Envisioning Information, by Edward R. Tufte
32. Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
33. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, by Peter M. Senge
34. The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies, by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee
35. Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
36. Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers, by Richard E. Neustadt and Ernest R. May
37. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
38. Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell 
39. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell
40. Drift into Failure: From Hunting Broken Components to Understanding Complex Systems, by Sidney Dekker
41. The Field Guide to Understanding ‘Human Error’, by Sidney Dekker
42. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, by Steven D. Levitt
43. The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, by Ray Kurzweil
44. Red Team: How to Succeed by Thinking Like the Enemy, by Micah Zenko

Core Attributes

1. Warriors and Citizens, by Kori Schake & Jim Mattis
2. Make Your Bed, by Admiral William H. McRaven
3. The Anatomy of Courage, by Lord Moran
4. Giving Voice to Values, by Mary C. Gentile
5. Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius
6. The 7 Signs of Ethical Collapse, by Marianne M. Jennings
   

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