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Title: Duty First by Ed Ruggero ISBN: 0-06-093133-7 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 19 February, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.8 (5 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: More than just another "leadership" book
Comment: Books about leadership are a publishing fad these days, from the "leadership secrets" of some historical figure to the experiences and opinions of industry bigwigs. In most cases, these books seem to have the common approach of taking questionable insights and reducing them to trite slogans.
This book isn't like that. As an in-depth view of "America's premier leadership school" (if it does say so itself), this book not only contains valuable lessons on leadership, but was also about the best and most comprehensive book I've ever read on any of the federal service academies ... at least until I read David Lipsky's remarkable "Absolutely American" (2003). But "Duty First" is still head and shoulders above most of the rest.
When the Army prepared to write a report on how leaders are developed at the US Military Academy (aka West Point), they discovered that, in fact, there wasn't any formal training doctrine at all. The lessons of leadership, and the means of transmitting them, had developed informally over time.
As a result, West Point cadets are not spoon-fed maxims and "principles." Instead, they're put in positions where they can draw conclusions and learn lessons via their own experiences. Ed Ruggero follows the same course: In telling us the stories of a handful of cadets during their journey through the Academy, he doesn't bludgeon us with "The point of that was..." We learn as the cadets do -- and if we, or they, don't pick up some insights about leadership from this, maybe we, like they, aren't paying close enough attention.
As I said, this book isn't just about leadership. It's also an extremely good guide to the life of a cadet at the USMA.
Having not long before read Catherine Manegold's "In Glory's Shadow" about The Citadel, I was struck by the vast difference between that school's "adversarial" approach to cadet training, and West Point's team-based, but still rigorous, method. Of course, West Point used to be "adversarial" too. But, as Ruggero explains, that approach has been abandoned, in part because it was judged a failure in preparing cadets for the "real world" of commanding soldiers in the field. This book doesn't settle the Old Way Versus New Way debate by any means, but is a strong argument in favor of a training regime based on a desire to succeed, instead of fear of failure and (what some would call) abuse.
I would strongly encourage any young person interested in attending a service academy, or any parent of a current or prospective cadet, to buy this book and read it closely. MBA students and business leaders looking for leadership lessons from a school that has been training leaders for two centuries will find a lot to profit from too.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Great Book
Comment: This book takes the reader on a tour of West Point over the course of one year. It starts on Reception day and ends at Graduation. The author introduces you to a handfull of cadets and follows them through their expieriences of the year. A great book, I reccommend it to any one interested in the United States Military Academy of today.
Rating: 3
Summary: Doesn't give you the whole picture
Comment: Ruggero's book is an entertaining read and probably manages to catch some of the essence of a service academy. BUT. And it is a BIG but. He doesn't show you the whole picture.
It seems that cadets are mostly on O-courses, leading other cadets, and generally undertaking physical activities. I suspect that somewhere in those grey buildings at West Point there are class rooms. And they are probably used for teaching cadets!!! But none of that in Ruggero's book. Strange.
Therefore, Ruggero does not manage to portray the entire academy experience. Which, by my experience having attended another military college, is spent in huge amounts hunkered over books!
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Title: Absolutely American : Four Years at West Point by David Lipsky ISBN: 061809542X Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 04 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Long Gray Line : The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966 by Rick Atkinson ISBN: 0805062912 Publisher: Owl Books Pub. Date: 15 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The West Point Candidate Book by William L. Smallwood ISBN: 0929311027 Publisher: Beacon Books Pub. Date: 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Duty, Honor, Country: A History of West Point by Stephen E. Ambrose, Andrew J. Goodpaster, Dwight D. Eisenhower ISBN: 0801862930 Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Combat Jump : The Young Men Who Led the Assault into Fortress Europe, July 1943 by Ed Ruggero ISBN: 0060088753 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 21 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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