David Gergen (1942–2025)

Gergen's book is great because of the insights he has by virtue of working in high levels of four presidential administrations- Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. He is certainly one of the few to serve in upper levels with both Reagan and Clinton. This work is a little of everything: partly an autobiography, partly a "how to" of government processes, and partly a description of the different management styles and overall cultures of presidential administrations. Gergen uses his experiences show more with the various leaders to describe what it takes to be a good leader.

One would expect Gergen to praise the various presidents he served with, and he certainly does- he praises Nixon's global strategy, Ford's personal merits, Reagan's skills of communication, and Clinton's ability to develop young party leadership. But the most fascinating parts of the book occur when Gergen uses his experiences with these men to teach the reader a lesson in leadership. Nixon was incapable of controlling the fires that burned within or his own dirty secrets. The so-called "Rogue White House" operated on the premise that sins are only sins if one is caught, and unbeknowst to Gergen or others in the office, Nixon and his associates pushed this premise to the limits. From Nixon, according to the author, we can learn that leaders must be able to have an open dialogue with more of the "higher-up" staff and must possess a basic decency and moral compass.

From Reagan, we can learn that one can be a "Great Communicator," but ultimately a hands-off, low-detail style of management can lead to misinformation, poor decision making, and the inability to effectively represent the adminstration to outsiders such as the media. With Clinton, a failure to effectively gauge the importance of past improprities thorough a proper understanding of the constituency led to a damaged presidency characterized by a lack of public trust.

Gergen gives seven important traits for presidential leaders: integrity, a sense of mission, persuasion, the ability to work with other politicians, a strong start, skilled advisers, and the ability to inspire. These traits work for many professions, so this book has influence much greater than just in the political realm. An excellent political history and leadership lesson. show less

This is a fairly balanced book, telling of Gergen working in the White House for four presdients: Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. His comments are tougher on Nixon and Clinton than on the other two, though he says much good about all four. He also calls FDR the 20th century's greatest president--apparently to make Democrats look on him as not overly favorable to the Republicans and this succeeded in making this Democrat feel Gergen was pretty fair in his comments.

All the examples are great, and the emphasis on young people being the answer to saving the world...

Gergen's remininscences of working for several presidential administrations. Not very much "new and exciting," but interesting for what it is.