Electoral leader : Franklin Roosevelt ; Antitype : Adlai Stevenson -- Radical leader : Harriet Tubman ; Antitype : Stephen A. Douglas -- Reform leader : Eleanor Roosevelt ; Antitype : Nancy Reagan -- Diplomatic leader : Andrew Young ; Antitype : Clark Kerr -- Military leader : Napoleon ; Antitype : George McClellan -- Charismatic leader : King David ; Antitype : Solomon -- Business leader : Ross Perot ; Antitype : Roger Smith -- Traditional leader : John XXIII ; Antitype : Celestine V -- Constitutional leader : George Washington ; Antitype : Oliver Cromwell -- Intellectual leader : Socrates ; Antitype : Ludwig Wittgenstein -- Church leader : Mary Baker Eddy ; Antitype : Phineas Parkhurst Quimby -- Sports leader : Carl Stotz ; Antitype : Kenesaw Mountain Landis -- Artistic leader : Martha Graham ; Antitype : Madonna -- Rhetorical leader : Martin Luther King, Jr. ; Antitype : Robert Parris Moses -- Opportunistic leader : Cesare Borgia ; Antitype : Piero Soderini -- Saintly leader : Dorothy Day ; Antitype : Ammon Hennacy.
Summary:
"In his Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Lincoln at Gettysburg, Garry Wills reframed our understanding of Lincoln the leader. Wills breathed new life into words we thought we knew and revealed much about a President so mythologized but often misunderstood. He showed how Lincoln's personality was less at issue than his followers' values and Lincoln's exquisite ability, in a mere 272 words, to reach them, to give the whole nation "a new birth of freedom," and to weave a spell that has not yet been broken." "Now Wills extends his extraordinary quality of observation and iconoclastic scholarship to examine the nature of leadership itself, perhaps history's most pivotal and emotionally charged topic. Almost the first thing people say about leaders is that we used to have them but now do not. Some blame this on the press, or on television, or on education. Others say we are manipulated, not led. Still others pore over book after book, searching for the perfect exemplar to imitate in order to achieve success." "Wills offers a wide range of portraits drawn largely, but not exclusively, from American history and representing revolutionary, political, religious, business, artistic, sports, and military leaders - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Andrew Young, Napoleon, King David, Ross Perot, George Washington, Socrates, Mary Baker Eddy, Carl Stotz, Martha Graham, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesare Borgia, and Dorothy Day - each shown in the act of leading his or her followers. And after each example, Wills also provides an anti-type to help define the type better.". "He moves beyond the traditional study of elected officials and business giants, past the usual emphasis on glamour, forceful personality, or technique, to look at leaders of different scope and particular talents. Wills shows how leaders are shaped by the very circumstances in which they must shape others' actions. No one, after all, can be a leader without followers. Only the vital interplay of wills between leaders and followers can direct them both toward a goal." "In Certain Trumpets leadership is not a static pose but becomes an exhilarating partnership. Once again Garry Wills has transformed the lens through which we see our leaders, our society, and ourselves."--BOOK JACKET.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.