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Just O.K.His book on the founding fathers was better written Not one of Brookhiser's better books.
His book, What Would the Founder's Do, contained far too much editorializing and commentary with very little factual evidence to support it and much to dispute it. Contemporary American historian Richard Brookhiser established himself as an authority on George Washington a decade ago with his biography, Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington. In GEORGE WASHINGTON ON LEADERSHIP, Brookhiser combines his admiration and in-depth knowledge of Washington with a common sense interpretation of his leadership skills and shortcomings.
Those who know his work know Brookhiser is a huge fan of Washington; however he disallows his admiration from causing omission of some of Washington's shortcomings. Great as he was, Washington wasn't perfect and there is as much to be learned from his failures as from his successes. If you are looking to the book strictly as a way of learning leadership qualities, it falls a little short here as each lesson Brookhiser conveys is a multiple page recounting of events, typically followed by a single paragraph of summation. This volume is a great historical recap on the life of Washington that history buffs will enjoy.
Clearly his passion and expertise is in 18th century American history and should remain there. His writing flows very well and holds the reader throughout. I contend it is one of the best accounts written on the father of our country. That left me somewhat skeptical of future Brookhiser writings, but I must say this book has restored his position with me as an exceptional writer.
Since first reading Brookhiser's work a decade ago, he has been one of my favorite contemporary historians and has only let me down once. I think it is safe to say Brookhiser is not attempting to transition into a business guru. Here, he simply makes observations of one of the great leaders of our history and provides analysis and overview of the lessons leaders should take away from his life.
Despite such small lapses, Brookhiser works many intriguing anecdotes into his narrative and demonstrates vividly just how Washington became such a significant leader. Overall, Brookhiser usefully translates episodes from Washington's life into management lessons for today's executives, though it may strain the use of metaphor to rename his Mount Vernon plantation WashCorp and to classify the presidency as a start-up. Such praise overlooks the fact that the Roman Army routinely dug latrines for its soldiers 2,000 years ago.
Considering his stellar previous work about America's founding fathers, as well as his deep knowledge of George Washington, you would expect his book about the first U.S. Yet, it does falter sometimes. Richard Brookhiser, a National Humanities Medalist, is a popular author, journalist and biographer.
For example, the opening chapter lauds Washington's prescience for installing latrines in his soldiers' encampments. getAbstract welcomes his history-based examination of how to use Washington's leadership lessons. president's leadership traits to be good.
And so it is, interesting and full of well-told stories.
Reducing Jesus' teachings to bulletpointed tactics or applying Napoleon's life lessons to the boardroom seem a bit trivial. As a result, his stories about the founding father are told well. Nonetheless, the genre is not without some benefit. The only problem with this approach is the difficulty of finding some coherence. Among the books on management and leadership, there is a subcategory which looks at the topic from a the perspective of a historical person.
Throughout all his career, he was a great leader. His greatest is derived in part from a self-knowledge which allows him to compensate for those failings. George Washington was a farmer, a soldier, a president and a patriot. Richard Brookhiser's book on leadership through the example of George Washington is one of the best books of its type.The author is not a business writer who tries his hand at history.
Instead, Richard Brookhiser is a biographer first. A quick perusal of the bookshelves suggests that a CEO can learn from Aristotle, Queen Elizabeth or even Attila the Hun. He is willing to show Washington's leadership mistakes. Some events are relayed several times for different reasons, and the reader sometime gets mental whiplash trying to keep the chronology correct. In a more traditional biography, some events would necessarily be edited out. For example, I never knew of Washington's concern for the building of latrines to protect his men from disease.
For example, he writes about the shortcomings of his collaborative leadership style. The depth of his knowledge of the subject makes Washington as contemporary as today's newspaper.Brookhiser creates three broad categories for his reflections: problems, people, and self.
George Washington is shown as a fallible human being with his own personal failings. Brookhiser reminds us why we should continue to study and emulate the man.
Although a collaborative approach might adopt the wisdom of several ideas, it can also promote the weaknesses of each. Often, these books are a little too clever for their own good.
One of the greatest benefits of the book is that Brookhiser doesn't write a hagiography. As he explores each category, specific topics emerge, and then the author explores events from Washington's life and career.
The greatest is that these books create a new audience for biography and history. The usual leap from the pages of history to modern application doesn't appear forced to Brookhiser.
He had to do this with a limited education (nothing beyond what we would call grade school) with additional math he acquired for his surveying, and with an aversion to public speaking. For instance, I did not realize that Washington's older brother, Lawrence, married the cousin of Thomas, Lord Fairfax (head of the Virginia Fairfax clan and perhaps the richest and most influential man in the colony) and that this was instrumental in getting him the job surveying the Fairfax and other land and his becoming an officer in the Virginia militia. I do recommend this book for those interested in history and how Washington handled the problems that he faced. He had to fend for himself (with the help of patrons such as Fairfax).
The chapter then ends with a very brief "lesson learned". The examples are interesting, but are for the most part based on common sense. This book is a Washington biography told in the context of his management and leadership skills. (I think that it is more about management than leadership, but the two are deeply intertwined). Without Fairfax's patronage he probably would not have become what he was to become. As a younger son he was not slated to get a large share of his father's modest wealth.
I would not recommend this book if all you want is a management-training book. He learned to manage his plantation, which he acquired upon Laurence's death (after the remarriage of Laurence's widdow), augmented with the larger wealth brought to him by his wife Martha. Vernon; these holdings extended into the region beyond the Allegheny Mountains and into other colonies/states. He had to learn to be a President, an office for which there was no precedence. The book is divided into 3 major sections: Problems, People and Self, with chapters concerning how Washington dealt with: trouble makers, superiors, subordinates, and his own flaws, among 22 such chapters. He had to learn manage an army, jumping to commanding general without any command experience beyond the little he had as a junior officer during the French and Indian war. It is not chronological, rather each chapter tells of a different aspect of management and leadership, in terms of how Washington handled the problems that confronted him.
He learned to manage large land holdings in addition to his plantation at Mt Vernon Mt. Washington had to learn management and leadership on his own. While not a chronological study; a lot of very interesting biographical information is provided; some of which was new to me. This is not a how to book as much as it is a how Washington did it book.
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