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American Defense Reform: Lessons from Failure and Success in Navy History is an excellent book that should be read by anybody teaching or doing research in the areas of defense reform, civil-military relations, or Department of Defense (DoD) contracting out. This review, while at times critical due to the tremendous scope of the topics covered, is overwhelmingly positive, and seeks to fill in material to supplement the already substantial and extremely well documented (through personal experience of Oliver as well as books, articles, and documents) information in the book.

The book, as stated on page XI, is “… a how-to guide for reshaping the Department of Defense.” Focusing specifically on the Navy, the authors review in chapters 1–4, failures and success in how the Navy was reshaped between WW II and the end of the Cold War. Based on books, articles, documents, and Oliver’s personal interviews with three …