Certain Trumpets: The Nature of Leadership

by Garry Wills

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"In his Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Lincoln at Gettysburg, Garry Wills reframed our understanding of Lincoln the leader. Wills breathed new life into words we thought we knew and revealed much about a President so mythologized but often misunderstood. He showed how Lincoln's personality was less at issue than his followers' values and Lincoln's exquisite ability, in a mere 272 words, to reach them, to give the whole nation "a new birth of freedom," and to show more weave a spell that has not yet been broken." "Now Wills extends his extraordinary quality of observation and iconoclastic scholarship to examine the nature of leadership itself, perhaps history's most pivotal and emotionally charged topic. Almost the first thing people say about leaders is that we used to have them but now do not. Some blame this on the press, or on television, or on education. Others say we are manipulated, not led. Still others pore over book after book, searching for the perfect exemplar to imitate in order to achieve success." "Wills offers a wide range of portraits drawn largely, but not exclusively, from American history and representing revolutionary, political, religious, business, artistic, sports, and military leaders - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Andrew Young, Napoleon, King David, Ross Perot, George Washington, Socrates, Mary Baker Eddy, Carl Stotz, Martha Graham, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesare Borgia, and Dorothy Day - each shown in the act of leading his or her followers. And after each example, Wills also provides an anti-type to help define the type better." "He moves beyond the traditional study of elected officials and business giants, past the usual emphasis on glamour, forceful personality, or technique, to look at leaders of different scope and particular talents. Wills shows how leaders are shaped by the very circumstances in which they must shape others' actions. No one, after all, can be a leader without followers. Only the vital interplay of wills between leaders and followers can direct them both toward a goal." "In Certain Trumpets leadership is not a static pose but becomes an exhilarating partnership. Once again Garry Wills has transformed the lens through which we see our leaders, our society, and ourselves."--Jacket. show less

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68+ Works 13,246 Members
Garry Wills, 1934 - Garry Wills was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1934. Wills received a B.A. from St. Louis University in 1957, an M.A. from Xavier University of Cincinnati in 1958, an M.A. (1959) and a Ph.D. (1961) in classics from Yale. Wills was a junior fellow of the Center for Hellenic Studies from 1961-62, an associate professor of classics show more and adjunct professor of humanities at Johns Hopkins University from 1962-80. Wills was the first Washington Irving Professor of Modern American History and Literature at Union College, and was also a Regents Professor at the University of California in Santa Barbara, Silliman Seminarist at Yale, Christian Gauss Lecturer at Princeton, W.W. Cook Lecturer at the University of Michigan Law School, Hubert Humphrey Seminarist at Macalester College, Welch Professor of American Studies at Notre Dame University and Henry R. Luce Professor of American Culture and Public Policy at Northwestern University (1980-88). Wills is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and his articles appear frequently in The New York Review of Books. Wills is the author of "Lincoln at Gettysburg," which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1993 and the NEH Presidential Medal, "John Wayne's America," "A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government" and "The Kennedy Imprisonment." Other awards received by Wills include the National Book Critics Award, the Merle Curti Award of the organization of American Historians, the Wilbur Cross Medal from Yale Graduate School, the Harold Washington Book Award and the Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting, which was for writing and narrating the 1988 "Frontline" documentary "The Candidates." (Bowker Author Biography) Garry Wills is a Pulitzer-prize winning historian and cultural critic. A former professor of Greek at Yale University, his many books include Lincoln at Gettysburg, Reagan's America, Witches and Jesuits, and a biography of Saint Augustine. He lives in Evanston, Indiana. (Publisher Provided) Garry Wills is a frequent contributor to The New York Times Magazine and The New York Review of Books. He lives in Evanston, Illinois. (Publisher Provided) show less

Common Knowledge

People/Characters
Franklin Delano Roosevelt; Adlai Stevenson; Harriet Tubman; Stephen A. Douglas; Eleanor Roosevelt; Nancy Reagan (show all 32); Andrew Young; Clark Kerr; Napoleon Bonaparte; George B. McClellan; King David; Solomon; Ross Perot; Roger Smith; John XXIII, Pope (Saint, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, 1881-1963); Celestine V, Pope (Saint, Pietro Angelerio, 1215-1296); George Washington; Oliver Cromwell; Socrates; Ludwig Wittgenstein; Mary Baker Eddy; Phineas Parkhurst Quimby; Carl Stotz; Kenesaw Mountain Landis; Martha Graham; Madonna; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Robert Parris Moses; Cesare Borgia; Piero Soderini; Dorothy Day; Ammon Hennacy
Epigraph
For if the trumpet give an
uncertain sound, who shall
prepare himself to the battle?
--I Corinthians 14:8
Dedication
To Natalie
my leader
First words
[Introduction] I had just turned seventeen did not know Los Angeles, had never even driven in a big city.
Some believed, in the past, that leadership was at odds with democracy.
[Conclusion] I fear that some readers may have opened my book, as they do so many others on the subject, with this question: "How am I to become a leader?"
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)[Introduction] Calls are always going down into the vasty deep; but what spirits will respond?
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Dorothy Day was, as Peter Maurin had hoped, undermining it with love.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)[Conclusion] Tell me who your admired leaders are, and you have bared your soul.

Classifications

Genres
Nonfiction, Business, History, General Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, Philosophy
DDC/MDS
303.34Society, Government, and CultureSocial sciences, sociology & anthropologySocial processesCoordination and controlLeadership
LCC
HM141 .W525Social sciencesSociology (General)SociologyThese are obsolete numbers no longer used
BISAC

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English
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Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
ISBNs
4
ASINs
4