Leadership: In Turbulent Times

Are great leaders born or made? What qualities make a great leader? Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Goodwin (Team of Rivals) sets out to answer these questions by examining the lives of the four presidents she has studied most thoroughly: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson. This book is divided into three sections: "Ambition and the Recognition of Leadership," "Adversity and Growth," and "The Leader and the Times: How They Led." In each, biographical chapters detail a time when each man's leadership skills and abilities were formed, tested, and at their peak. In the final chapter, Goodwin lists the various traits each president displayed and analyzes these through a case study. Although none of these men displayed the exact same qualities to the same degree, their leadership styles fit the needs of the nation at that particular moment. The author concludes that learned leadership skills in conjunction with the right timing in history led these men to success.