Book Description:
What makes a leader truly great? Is it simply a matter of management style or personality? Or does character matter and, if so, how much? Most Americans believe a president's private activities bear little relation to his public policy decisions, yet we also believe that moral vision plays a role in strong leadership. Where does the truth lie?<P>In the first modern systematic examination of the bond between morals and politics, Marvin Olasky examines the lives and careers of thirteen noted American leaders, including the great, the good, and the deeply flawed, from George Washington, Henry Clay, and Booker T. Washington to Woodrow Wilson, John F. Kennedy, and Bill Clinton. Olasky looks closely at the connections between religion, sexual practices, and political decisions, examining the repeated connections between private character and public action. He explains how so called 'compartmentalization' proved to be as impossible for Lincoln as for Woodrow Wilson. A man's character shows its stamp repeatedly during a career.<P>In <I>The American Leadership Tradition</I> Olasky has many lessons to offer. For the cynical, he reminds us that it is not true that 'they all do it,' as the lives of Andrew Jackson and Grover Cleveland can attest. For the nostalgic, he reminds us that there have been principled men, like George Washington, alongside unprincipled ones, like Henry Clay, from the beginning.<P>After reading this book it will be impossible to argue that John Kennedy's womanizing reflected a side of him that had absolutely nothing to do with his presidency, or that Abraham Lincoln's rectitude was unconnected with his greatness. Olasky shows that faithfulness in marriage may be no guarantee of faithfulness to the country, but faithlessness is a leading indicator of trouble. Leaders who break a large vow to one person find it easy to break relatively small vows to millions. He finishes with a chapter on Bill Clinton and what his recent controversies mean for 21st century America, a question that may haunt American politics for a long time to come. /Content /EditorialReview EditorialReview Source Amazon.com Review /Source Content In <I>The American Leadership Tradition</I>, Marvin Olasky sets out to prove the link between private morality and success in political leadership, sketching moral portraits of 10 presidents, with Henry Clay, Booker T. Washington, and John D. Rockefeller thrown in for good measure. George Washington provides Olasky's perfect model to which future presidents should aspire, depicted as loyal to his wife, Martha, and possessing a strong faith in God. Jefferson, in contrast, is portrayed as suspicious of religion and then, of course, there are his affairs with Sally Hemings and Maria Cosway (a married woman he knew in Paris while serving there as ambassador). 'Jefferson's career,' Olasky writes, 'provides an important example of how even a leader who scorned any Scripture he could not control, and implemented policies contrary to biblical teaching, did not quite wreck a country with a decentralized government and a citizenry committed to preserving both liberty and virtue.'<p> Despite receiving Congressional censure, Andrew Jackson is praised, largely because he was a religious man who read three chapters of the Bible a day, remained faithful to his wife his entire life, and supported smaller central government and term limits for federal officials. Grover Cleveland a youthful carouser who fathered a child out of wedlock also benefits from Olasky's political formulation of morality, having fought government growth and attacked a bill aimed at providing pension benefits to Civil War veterans and their families because he felt charity was best left to churches and local organizations, not the federal government. <p> Olasky's sharpest criticism is given to Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and unsurprisingly, perhaps Bill Clinton. All of them were unfaithful to their spouses, and each was self absorbed, but how thoroughly did their personal qualities damage their presidencies? Olasky is not fully convincing here. His strongest points, ultimately, concern how a president's personal behavior sets the standard for future presidents and affects the public trust: 'When shepherds take the wrong path, sheep follow,' Olasky concludes. 'The United States desperately needs honest and discerning shepherds to lead it into the next century.' <I> Linda Killian</I>
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