Thoughts on Machiavelli or Black Sailor White Navy

Thoughts on Machiavelli

Author: Leo Strauss

Leo Strauss argued that the most visible fact about Machiavelli's doctrine is also the most useful one: Machiavelli seems to be a teacher of wickedness. Strauss sought to incorporate this idea in his interpretation without permitting it to overwhelm or exhaust his exegesis of The Prince and the Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy. "We are in sympathy," he writes, "with the simple opinion about Machiavelli [namely, the wickedness of his teaching], not only because it is wholesome, but above all because a failure to take that opinion seriously prevents one from doing justice to what is truly admirable in Machiavelli: the intrepidity of his thought, the grandeur of his vision, and the graceful subtlety of his speech." This critique of the founder of modern political philosophy by this prominent twentieth-century scholar is an essential text for students of both authors.

Look this: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team or A Sense of Urgency

Black Sailor, White Navy: Racial Unrest in the Fleet during the Vietnam War Era

Author: John Sherwood

View the Prologue

"This riveting account of racial turmoil in the U.S. Navy will be of immense interest to any student of the Navy, the Vietnam War, the All-Volunteer Force, or race relations in the United States."
—Eugenia C. Kiesling, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY

It is hard to determine what dominated more newspaper headlines in America during the 1960s and early 70s: the Vietnam War or America's turbulent racial climate. Oddly, however, these two pivotal moments are rarely examined in tandem.

John Darrell Sherwood has mined the archives of the U.S. Navy and conducted scores of interviews with Vietnam veterans — both black and white — and other military personnel to reveal the full extent of racial unrest in the Navy during the Vietnam War era, as well as the Navy's attempts to control it. During the second half of the Vietnam War, the Navy witnessed some of the worst incidents of racial strife ever experienced by the American military. Sherwood introduces us to fierce encounters on American warships and bases, ranging from sit-down strikes to major race riots.

The Navy's journey from a state of racial polarization to one of relative harmony was not an easy one, and Black Sailor, White Navy focuses on the most turbulent point in this road: the Vietnam War era.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments     vii
Prologue: Storm Warning     xi
Glossary     xxi
The Black Sailor: Chambermaid to the Braid and Nothing More     1
Racial Unrest Strikes the Army and Marines     16
The Zumwalt Revolution     30
Kitty Hawk: The Pot Begins to Boil     55
Blow Off: The Kitty Hawk Riot     83
More Unrest: The Hassayampa Riot     103
The Sit-down Strike on the Constellation     130
Negotiations with the Protesters: A Comedy of Errors     150
The Hicks Subcommittee Hearings: Questions and Motives     167
Violence on Nearly Every Ship: Race Riots after Constellation     193
The Struggle to Eliminate Bias in the Fleet     227
From Awareness to Affirmation     243
Epilogue     262
Appendix Navy Ranks and Ratings, 1973     271
Notes     275
Bibliography     315
Index     331
About the Author     344