NA Reading List

NA Reading List

The following references are provided, in addition to our detailed subject based bibliographies, for those who are interested in developing a sound understanding of maritime and naval affairs. These cover a wide range of topics from strategy to personnel and leadership in the maritime environment. Many are timeless in that they provide lessons in the past that are relevant in today’s world.  The more recent works provide background on more recent concepts and strategies that have evolved. 

Strategy Focus

  • Masters of War – Michael I. Handel
  • SeaPower – Geoffrey Till
  • Oceans Ventured – John Leman
  • Sea Power – The History and Geopolitics of the World’s Oceans – Admiral James Stavridis
  • Super Highway – Seapower in the 21stCentury – Chris Parry
  • The Revenge of Geography – Robert D. Kaplan
  • England in the Seven Years War – A Study in Combined Strategy-Julian Corbett
  • Inventing Grand Strategy and Teaching Command, The Classic Works of Alfred Thayer Mahan Reconsidered – Jon Sumida
  • Decoding Clausewitz: A New Approach to On War – Jon Sumida
  • The Leverage of Sea Power, The Strategic Advantage of Navies in War – Colin Gray
  • Seapower and Strategy, Navies and National Interest – Norman Friedman
  • Leadmark 2020, The Navy’s Strategy for 2020 – McFadden, Gunn, Gimblett, Kearney, Smith-Windsor
  •  Seapower States – Andrew Lambert
  • Sea Power in the Modern World – Herbert Richmond
  • Maritime Supremacy – Peter Padfield
  • Why The Allies Won – Richard Overy – (grand strategy of Second World War)
  • World War II at Sea – Craig L. Symonds
  • How the Navy Won the War – Jim Ring (First World War)

Challenge Focus

  • The Cost of Seapower – The Influence of Money on Naval Affairs from 1815 to the Present Day-Philip Pugh
  • Betrayed, Scandal, Politics and Canadian Naval Leadership – Richard O. Mayne
  • The Rickover Effect – Theodore Rockwell
  • At What Cost Sovereignty?, Canada-US Military Interoperability in the War on Terror – Dr. Eric Lehre, Commodore (Retired)
  • A Two-Edged Sword: The Navy as an Instrument of Canadian Foreign Policy -Nicholas Tracy
  • This People’s Navy: The making of American Sea Power – Kenneth Hagan

Setting a Standard Focus

  • The Admirals, Canada’s Senior Naval Leadership in the Twentieth Century -Michael Whitby, Richard H. Gimblett and Peter Haydon
  • The Rules of the Game, Jutland and British naval command – Andrew Gordon
  • Admirals, The Naval Commanders who Made Britain Great – Andrew Lambert
  • American Admiralship, The Art of Naval Command – Edgar F. Puryear Jr.
  • Pirate Alley, Commanding TF 151 Off Somalia – RAdm Terry McKnight, USN, and Michael Hirsh
  • The 1962 Cuban Missile  Crisis: Canadian Involvement Reconsidered – Peter Haydon

Ocean Focus

  • Asia’s Cauldron – Robert D. Kaplan
  • The Last Great Sea: Voyage Through the Human and Natural History of the North Pacific Ocean – Terry Glavin
    The Sea & Civilization: A Maritime History of the World – Lincoln Paine,

Transformation Focus

  • The Struggle for Sea Power, A Naval History of American Independence – Sam Willis
  • Safe Passage, The Transition from British to American Hegemony – Kori Schake
  • Red Star Over the Pacific, China’s Rise and the Challenge to U.S. Maritime Strategy – Toshi Yoshihara and James R. Holmes

Personnel Focus

  • Commanding Canadians – A.F.C. Layard
  • Tin Hats, Oilskins and Seaboots, A Naval Journey 1938-1945 – Latham B. Jenson
  • One Hundred Days – Admiral Sandy Woodward and Patrick Robinson

Knowledge/Innovation Exploitation Focus

  • Blackett’s War, The Men Who defeated the Nazi U-Boats and Brought Science to the Art of Warfare – Stephen Budiansky
  • Cybersecurity and Cyberwar – P.W. Singer and Allan Friedman
  • Technology and War (Expanded Edition) – Martin Van Creveld
  • Wired for War, The Robotics Revolution and conflict in the 21st Century – P.W. Singer
  • Machine Platform Crowd, A Military Futurist Explores War in the 21stCentury -Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson
  • The Second Machine Age, Work, Progress and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies – Erik Brynjolfsson
  • The Black Swan, The Impact of the Highly Improbable – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  • An Ocean in Common, American Naval Officers, Scientists and the Ocean Environment – Gary Weir