George Washington on Leadership

by Richard Brookhiser Narrated by Patrick Lawlor

Overview

America's first president was also one of its strongest leaders-from the military, to government, to business.



Richard Brookhiser's revolutionary biography Founding Father took George Washington off the dollar bill and made him live. Now, with his trademark wit and precision, Brookhiser expertly examines the details of Washington's life that full-scale biographies sweep over, to instruct us in true leadership. He explains how Washington maximized his strengths and overcame his flaws, and inspires us to do likewise. It shows how one man's struggles and successes 200 years ago can be a model for leaders today.



Washington oversaw two start-ups: the army and the presidency. He chaired the most important meeting in American history, the Constitutional Convention. Washington rose from being a third son who was a major in the militia to one of the most famous men in the world. At every stage in his career, he had to deal with changing circumstances, from tobacco prices to geopolitics, and with wildly different classes of men, from frontiersmen to aristocrats. Washington's example is so crucial because of the many firsts he is responsible for.

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

From a journalist and historian specializing in the lives of the Founders, lessons in leadership drawn from the plantation, military and political career of George Washington. Washington's colorful contemporary, Gouverneur Morris, disparaged books on leadership, dismissing them as merely "utopian," a skepticism National Review senior editor Brookhiser (What Would the Founders Do?: Our Questions, Their Answers, 2006, etc.) appears to share. But the author forges ahead, addressing his theme in topical fashion, distilling a series of maxims from a variety of problems and situations Washington handled. The vignettes are always interesting: Washington insisting on the importance of proper latrines and inoculations to ensure the army's health, diversifying crops at Mount Vernon, finessing the Continental Congress, putting down mutiny within the army and later rebellion within the young country, keeping the peace between Hamilton and Jefferson, dealing with the betrayal of Benedict Arnold. At the same time the "lessons" drawn from these and many other slices of Washington's life are problematic, if only because they are so often contradictory. Washington observed lines of authority (deferring to the advice and consent of the Senate), except when he circumvented them (seeking funding for the army). He was patient (settling on a strategy for the war), except when he was bold (seizing the moment at Yorktown). He was a hands-on manager (of his plantation), unless he was wisely delegating (speeches to Madison, artillery chores to Knox or matters of high finance to Hamilton). He made use of friends (Lafayette) until he broke with them (Knox). By the end of Brookhiser's colloquial, good-humoredanalysis, we're persuaded that, while no leader in American history may be more worthy of emulation, the mature Washington's signal virtue was his consistently sound, often spectacularly wise judgment, a faculty honed throughout a lifetime presiding over highly important matters and one not easily imitated. Apparently Gouverneur Morris was correct. Unexceptional wisdom breezily packaged. Agent: Michael Carlisle/InkWell Management

NOVEMBER 2008 - AudioFile

Starting a new business? Did you ever stop to think that George Washington was a "Founding CEO," who demonstrated his start-up skills as chief of the young nation's army and as its first president? Richard Brookhiser makes the case, using examples from Washington's life to show the leadership skills he exemplified and his outlook on life, a combination of optimism and keen knowledge of human nature. Patrick Lawlor's narration has an energetic booster tone meant to encourage stressed businesspeople. His tone quickly establishes Brookhiser's book as a business volume rather than a standard history. While a lot has changed since Washington's time, Brookhiser ably relates the problems faced by the Father of our Country to the challenges of modern business. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170776009
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	05/26/2008
Edition description:	Unabridged

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