Description
Book Synopsis'An incredibly well-researched and lively read' - Financial Times A deep-dive into the art, science and practice of leadership around the world and across the ages by a Harvard professor and historian - essential reading for our turbulent times. Across the world, and throughout time, there have been people who have risen to the challenge of leading others. Sometimes their power is undeserved, sometimes it's ill-used, but always their actions have impact. But do leaders really make history, or does history make leaders? And how might we harness the answers to find and become better leaders today? For the past decade, Moshik Temkin has been exploring these questions at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and at universities around the world. In this book, he offers a deep dive into the nature of leadership, from the highest ranks to the most hopeless situations. Drawing on stories from across history and culture, Temkin considers how leaders have made decisions, inspired others and forged a path in challenging circumstances - from the Great Depression to the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, from the Suffragettes to the anticolonial wars of the 20th century to the civil rights struggle - and how, in a world desperate for good leadership, we can evaluate those decisions and draw lessons for ourselves today.
Trade ReviewBrings together deep historical knowledge, cultural comparison, and sophisticated analysis of what makes leadership and how individual leaders both reflect their society and shape it in turn. This is a book both empathetic and gripping on a subject of huge importance in our turbulent times. -- Rana Mitter, author * Modern China *
A thoroughly engaging meditation on a compelling array of individuals who shaped the eras in which they lived. The result is a fascinating, illuminating, and cautionary meditation on leadership. -- Ellen Fitzpatrick, author * The Highest Glass Ceiling *
A book chock-full of insights, showing how a careful and unsparing study of past leaders-those who had great power and those who didn't-can help us identify the attributes we need to see in their successors today. -- Fredrik Logevall, Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Harvard University
A plea for the importance of history in the study of leadership. * Kirkus *
This book is that rare thing among 'leadership' titles: a truly original concept. ... A incredibly well-researched and lively read. * Financial Times *
