The Soul of a Leader: Character, Conviction, and Ten Lessons in Political Greatness

This is a highly literate and erudite book, speaking to questions both urgent and ancient. It lights up the problem of political ambition--that those who are most capable and eager to lead their fellow citizens, the most superlatively qualified, are very often also most possessed of a neediness for recognition and reward that might tempt them to tyranny--by showing its permanence and intractability. As in the work of such public intellectuals as Camille Paglia and Allan Bloom, Newell dispenses with equal felicity insights that are timely and timeless, each presented with considerable verve and energy. Newell draws on the vast riches of our common Western birthright to consider such matters as presidential character, the war in Iraq, global trans-political celebrity, and the overweening hubris of democracies. Newell begins with a survey of recent presidents, providing a series of quick, apt character sketches; proceeds to a meditation on the meaning of the leadership displayed by Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, and Napoleon; and then completes his excavation of the rich soil of our Western heritage with a brief but profound study of the war between the Athenians and the Spartans. The theme repeated through these movements is the recurring lesson that leaders--in particular legitimate, consensual leaders--face the same recurring matrix of quandaries, opportunities, temptations, and aspirations. All of this is presented in a winning, stylish fashion that is as comfortable with "Must See TV" as it is with Plutarch. This reader particularly enjoyed the treatment of the presidencies of Carter and Reagan (a refreshing admiration of the latter that is far from the hagiography typical of conservative intellectuals), the assessment of Robert E. Lee, and the cautionary discussion of the hubris of ancient Athenians (with echoes FDR in the discussion of Pericles). The book appears to be marketed as a "self-help" volume--10 lessons!--but it really should be read by an intelligent, generally educated audience. It, along with the author's volumes on manliness (The Code of Man: Love Courage Pride Family CountryWhat Is a Man?: 3,000 Years of Wisdom on the Art of Manly Virtue), could be read with great profit in conversation with such recent works as Harvey Mansfield's Manliness and Robert Faulkner's book on ambition, The Case for Greatness: Honorable Ambition and Its Critics.