The Myth of the Strong Leader
A comprehensive examination of political leadership across the world from the dawn of parliamentary democracy to the era of Obama, from one of the world's leading political historians.
Leadership is usually reduced to a simple binary: the strong against the weak. However, there are several approaches to good political leadership, as well as numerous approaches to failure. We criticise our leaders for economic downturns and commend them for important social reforms, but we rarely ask why some leaders succeed while others fail. Archie Brown, a renowned Oxford politics professor, challenges the common idea that strong leaders—those who control their colleagues and the policy-making process—are the most effective in this magisterial and wide-ranging review of political leadership over the past hundred years.
In actuality, only a small number of political leaders will have a long-term impact. Though we typically perceive more collegial leadership styles as ineffective, the most cooperative leaders frequently have the most influence. Brown reveals the accomplishments, failings, and follies of a wide range of twentieth-century leaders, drawing on considerable study and decades of political analysis and experience. Brown challenges our commonly held beliefs about political efficacy, whether speaking of redefining leaders like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Margaret Thatcher, who pushed the boundaries of what was politically possible during their time in power, or the even rarer transformational leaders like Charles de Gaulle, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Nelson Mandela.
Brown's views are both creative and enlightening, challenging many of our beliefs about the twentieth century's most influential personalities. The Myth of the Strong Leader forces us to examine how we pick and judge people who will lead us into the future, as well as the leaders who have impacted our society.
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