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Rickover: The Struggle for Excellence | 
 enlarge | Author: Francis Duncan
Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
Category: Book
List Price: $37.50
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Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 229551
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 364
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 1557501777
Dewey Decimal Number: 359.0092
EAN: 9781557501776
ASIN: 1557501777
Publication Date: November 2001
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Product Description
As the father of the nuclear powered Navy, Adm. Hyman G. Rickover was a pivotal figure in twentieth-century American history. While many books have been written about various aspects of his career, this is the first biography to have access to private papers, family and close friends. It not only deals with the admiral's controversial naval career but with phases of his personal life that made him what he was, including his youth as a Jewish immigrant who embraced America and the opportunities it offered. The author, Francis Duncan, worked with Rickover from 1969, when he was assigned to write a history of the nuclear propulsion program, until the admiral's death in 1986. Shortly before he died, Rickover turned over his files to Duncan, including letters to his first wife that give a vivid picture of the Navy from 1929 to 1945. Rickover's second wife allowed Duncan access to letters covering important events later in his career. The author was also granted interviews with the admiral's son and sister and with individuals from the Naval Reactors, an organization headed by Rickover whose members mostly had refused to talk to other biographers. A witness to the admiral's daily activities and the programs he directed, Duncan also drew on his own considerable knowledge to present a portrait of the man that gives new insights into Rickover's genius and short-comings. The book does not go into technical detail but focuses on the admiral's fights to build and extend the nuclear fleet and the often-difficult relationships that developed in the pursuit of the goal. He shows that Rickover's efforts had a profound effect on the postwar world, that the excellence and responsibility he demanded are qualities that reach beyond the Navy, and that his influence continues to be felt today.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Why is this guy not on the biography channel? January 16, 2003
A. A Slezak (Chicago, IL USA)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I was quite surprised after reading this book. It is an excellent history of Rickover and US Navy Nuclear propulsion. I had always wondered why nuclear power was always so safe for the Navy but the public utilities had so much trouble with it. This is an interesting history of moving up the ranks in the Navy and how you can advance. I was surprised at all the people who seemed to hate Rickover because he wanted to have his way and never to go below his specifications. This is why Rickover was never on the biography channel was because he was contriversial. The story really makes you want to know more and more about Nuclear submarines especially the times at Oak Ridge and when they were building the Nautilus. It's hard to think of a time when all the subs before that ran on the surface most of the time. I was glad that Rickover just took over and got the job done. The only part I did not like was that they were not specific enough about the design of the subs. I do not mean engineering drawings or national secrets but at least some general layouts of the submarines and the propulsion system in a layman's terms to have a better understanding of this. Richard Rhodes did a good job of this in his book "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" explaining the first nuclear reactor that went critical in Chicago. I would like to also know more about that light water breeder reactor that ran on thorium instead of uranium at Shippingport. Why haven't we made more of those instead of depending on fossil fuels? Rickover was in on the most exciting technology of the 20th century, how exciting must that have been.
 An Overdue Account of Rickover, the Man. January 30, 2002
Patrick W. O'Hara (Salt Point, NY United States)
23 out of 24 found this review helpful
Many biographies have been written over the past 40 years about the impact that the life of Admiral H.G. Rickover has had on the United States Navy y one in which redefined the role of the Navy in the post World II era. All of these works have focused on his many accomplishments and the controversies that surrounded him, which often conflicted with the executive branch of the Federal government, naval shipbuilders, and the U.S. Navy itself. Few, if any, clearly demonstrate who Rickover was, and how his principles evolved. No doubt, the author of yRickover: The Struggle for Excellence,y Francis Duncan, is the only biographer afforded enough access to the Rickover as an outsider to the Navy and its Naval Reactors program, to know him well enough to accomplish a detailed account of what shaped the man. This book, the third in a series by Duncan, tells the stories from birth till his death, remarking on events that shaped his priorities and principles, and addresses many of the unanswered questions or mysteries that readers of other biographers may have found in the story of Rickoverys career. Some of the misconceptions about Rickover that Duncanys work clears up are concerns such that Rickover had lied about his age or that Rickover had been for the most part unsuccessful and out of place in the Navy prior to his work with Naval Reactors. Unlike the Polmar and Allen yRickovery biography, which often appears lengthy and intimidating as an all encompassing view of Rickoverys life, Duncanys work is very readable and pleasant. I assume that Duncan knew that the larger than life Rickover story could never be captured in single volume, and separated his works, which describes his evolution; yNuclear Navy, 1946-1962y which deals with the influence of Atomic Energy on the modern U.S. Navy,y and the yRickover and the Nuclear Navy: The Discipline of Technology,y describing the founding and management of Rickoverys technical program.
Although the emphasis of most Rickover biographies has been his impact on the Navy, his story serves two other main purposes. First, from a management and organizational behavior perspective Rickover seems to break all the rules and still maintain a highly committed program that integrated safety, reliability and high-performance He embedded principles and expectations that continue to exist today, and are the core of the Naval Nuclear program. This is the ultimate measure of a founderys success, for an organization to remain relatively static around what principles and values drive its core mission. The second of course, is Rickoverys influence on the operation of civilian nuclear power plants, an accomplishment that Rickover thought he was unlikely to achieve when he was forced to withdraw from Shippingport. However, his influence and principles have filtered down through the personnel he trained through yNR,y and have subsequently redefined nuclear power operations in the Post-TMI era of nuclear power, and forced a paradigm shift in nuclear power operations and realigned the thinking about the discipline required to operate high-risk technologies.My only criticism of Duncan is perhaps his fondness of Rickover, which comes through in his writing. Considering all of the negative stories of Rickover, I would expect more negatives in his depiction of Rickover as well. However, biographies are written about the life and accomplishments of great men, and gossip and scandals best left for supermarket tabloids.
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