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A Nonfiction Column
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MILITARY HISTORY
A
Pilgrim for Freedom
by Michael B Novakovic & James
Humes
How
did an eleven-year old boy from the ancient city
of Split, on the Adriatic coast, who with his
family left almost everything when Nazis and Fascists
invaded their homeland at the beginning of World
War II, grow up to be a United States soldier
and a highly successful American businessman?
The answer to that question is the story that
Michael Novakovic tells in this poignant and charming
memoir, A Pilgrim for Freedom. |
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Tribe
On Homecoming and Belonging
by
Sebastian Junger
Decades before the American Revolution,
Benjamin Franklin lamented that English settlers
were constantly fleeing over to the Indians-but
Indians almost never did the same. Tribal society
has been exerting an almost gravitational pull
on Westerners for hundreds of years, and the reason
lies deep in our revolutionary past as a communal
species. The most recent example of that attraction
is combat veterans who come home to find themselves
missing the incredibly intimate bonds of platoon
life. The loss of closeness that comes at the
end of deployment may explain the high rates of
post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by military
veterans today.
Combining
history, psychology, and anthropology, Tribe
explores what we can learn from tribal societies
about loyalty, belonging, and the eternal human
quest for meaning. It explains the irony that-for
many veterans as well as civilians-war feels better
than peace, adversity can turn out to be a blessing,
and disasters are sometimes remembered more fondly
than weddings or tropical vacations. Tribe
explains why we are stronger when we come together,
and how that can be achieved even in today's divided
world.
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Weird
Civil War
Your Travel Guide to the
Ghostly Legends and Best-Kept Secrets of the American
Civil War
by Mark Sceurman & Mark Moran
Weird
Civil War delves into
the peculiar history and ghastly legacy of the
bloodiest period in American history, featuring
the era's most gripping tragic tales, fascinating
facts, spooky scenarios, and eccentric characters.
This brand-new volume—which compiles the
most compelling Civil War stories from the bestselling
Weird series—will excite precocious history
students, Civil War buffs, and the multitude of
Americans-young and old-with historical ties to
the Confederate and Union armies.
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Turn the
Ship Around!
A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders
by L. David Marquet and Stephen R. Covey
Since Turn the Ship Around!
was published in 2013, hundreds of thousands
of readers have been inspired by former Navy captain
David Marquet’s true story. Many have applied
his insights to their own organizations, creating
workplaces where everyone takes responsibility
for his or her actions, where followers grow to
become leaders, and where happier teams drive
dramatically better results.
Marquet was a Naval Academy graduate
and an experienced officer when selected for submarine
command. Trained to give orders in the traditional
model of “know all–tell all”
leadership, he faced a new wrinkle when he was
shifted to the Santa Fe, a nuclear-powered submarine.
Facing the high-stress environment of a sub where
there’s little margin for error, he was
determined to reverse the trends he found on the
Santa Fe: poor morale, poor performance, and the
worst retention rate in the fleet.
Almost immediately, Marquet ran
into trouble when he unknowingly gave an impossible
order, and his crew tried to follow it anyway.
When he asked why, the answer was: “Because
you told me to.” Marquet realized that while
he had been trained for a different submarine,
his crew had been trained to do what they were
told—a deadly combination.
That’s when Marquet flipped
the leadership model on its head and pushed for
leadership at every level. Turn the Ship Around!
reveals how the Santa Fe skyrocketed from
worst to first in the fleet by challenging the
U.S. Navy’s traditional leader-follower
approach. Struggling against his own instincts
to take control, he instead achieved the vastly
more powerful model of giving control to his subordinates,
and creating leaders.
Before long, each member of Marquet’s
crew became a leader and assumed responsibility
for everything he did, from clerical tasks to
crucial combat decisions. The crew became completely
engaged, contributing their full intellectual
capacity every day. The Santa Fe set records for
performance, morale, and retention. And over the
next decade, a highly disproportionate number
of the officers of the Santa Fe were selected
to become submarine commanders.
Whether
you need a major change of course or just a tweak
of the rudder, you can apply Marquet’s methods
to turn your own ship around. |
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