Duty First: A Year in the Life of West Point and the Making of American Leaders

Duty First is a penetrating account of a year inside one of America's premier schools for leadership -- the United States Military Academy -- as it celebrates the bicentennial of its founding. Ed Ruggero, a former West Point cadet and professor, takes an incisive look at how this elite school builds the "leaders of character" who will command the nation's military.

Writing with deep insight and superb narrative skill, Ruggero follows the cadet's tumultuous lives: the initial grueling trainin...