OFF THE SHELF RECOMMENDED READING LIST
“We can never spend too much time reading and thinking about the Army profession and its inter- action with the world at large. … There is simply no better way to prepare for the future than a disciplined, focused commitment to a personal course of reading, study, thought, and reflection.” On that note, Army AL&T Magazine publishes Off the Shelf as a regular feature to bring you recommen- dations for reading from Army AL&T professionals.
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THAT USED TO BE US: HOW AMERICA FELL BEHIND IN THE WORLD IT INVENTED AND HOW WE CAN COME BACK by Thomas L. Friedman
and Michael Mandelbaum (New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011, 400 pages)
New York Times op-ed columnist Friedman teams up with Mandelbaum,
Johns
Hopkins University’s Christian A. Herter Professor of American Foreign Policy, to make recommendations for meeting four huge challenges America faces today: the information technology revolution, pervasive deficits, unbalanced
energy
and globalization. The book illustrates how America’s history offers answers that will enable us to overcome the difficulties these challenges pose. The authors point out the successes of modernized China in fields such as education, industry, and technology, to remind us of the ways in which “that used to be us.” With a sobering yet ultimately optimistic point of
Mandelbaum believe that
view, Friedman and the recovery of
American greatness is possible, and they walk us down the path to get there.
WIRED FOR WAR: THE ROBOTICS REVOLUTION AND CONFLICT IN THE 21ST CENTURY by P.W. Singer (New York, NY: Penguin Press HC, 2009, 512 pages)
Singer shows the reader all the various players in this strange new world of robotic warfare. More than 7,000 robotic systems were used in the conflict in Iraq. Remote-control pilots are killing ter-
rorists in Afghanistan from inside an air-conditioned office in Nevada. Singer, Director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution, weaves historical facts with field interviews, illustrating the startling effects of robotics in the war zone as well as in the political arena at home. Moving humans off the battlefield makes wars easier to start but more complicated to fight. Replacing men with machines may save lives, but will it lower morale and the psychological barriers to killing? The book vividly shows the fascinating and frightening aspects in the future of modern warfare.
consumption,
CLEVER: LEADING YOUR SMARTEST, MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones (Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2009, 208 pages)
Jones and Goffee, both professors at the London Business School, present a manual on identifying and handling your smartest and most creative employees for maximum benefit. The book
shows, especially in bad economic times, how the culture of the company must be structured to engage creative, yet often idiosyncratic, employees for the overall health of the organization. The authors explore success stories from diverse compa- nies, including Cisco Systems Inc., Nestlé, and Google Inc., that have embraced this management model. Pithy and balanced, the book details why and how you should create an environment where your most brilliant people can flourish, and in doing so allow your business to flourish as well.
umerous Army leaders over the years have commended the practice of reading to their Soldiers. Even—especially—in this age of information overload, the pursuit of knowl- edge through books is essential to gain a fuller understanding of acquisition, logistics, and technology. In the words of GEN Raymond T. Odierno, Chief of Staff of the Army,
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