Leadership History

"Welcome to "Paradoxical Leadership," a groundbreaking exploration of leadership in its most unorthodox forms. This book is not your typical leadership manifesto. It delves deep into the heart of paradoxes, ironies, and unexpected truths that define leadership in the modern era. With a witty and engaging narrative, "Paradoxical Leadership" invites listeners on a captivating journey through the multifaceted world of leadership, revealing the intricate tapestry of traits and decisions that shape effective leaders.

Laine Griffey brings over 20 years of expertise in quality management, with a strong background in both operations and quality. With a career spanning diverse industries from plastics to automotive, Laine has consulted with numerous companies in developing and enhancing their quality management systems. Having worked at every level from the production line to management, and performing tasks ranging from internal audits to supplier quality assessments, Laine is a recognized authority in the field.

A compelling look at US Navy SEALs through a true-to-life lens focused on the triumphs and challenges of the elite warriors of the Special Forces community. Master Chief (SEAL) Rick Kaiser (Ret.) captures over forty-five years of events in and around the SEAL Teams. It is not a blood-and-guts portrayal of battlefield victories and losses, but an authentic view of how things are done in the Teams. The SEALs truly are silent professionals and the most memorable stories often don't feature combat but are the moments that shape these exceptional warriors.

President Theodore Roosevelt forever transformed America, ushering the country into the arena of world supremacy. His brand of leadership was entirely American: confident, compassionate, energetic, diverse, visionary. But Roosevelt was not a born leader; his ascent to the apex of power was not a foregone conclusion.

Throughout his presidency, Ronald Reagan sought "peace through strength" during an era of historic change. In the decades since, pundits and scholars have argued over the president's legacy: some consider Reagan a charismatic and consummate leader, who renewed American strength and defeated communism. To others he was an ambitious and dangerous warmonger, whose presidency was plagued with mismanagement, misconduct, and foreign policy failures.

From George Washington's decision to buy time for the new nation by signing the less-than-ideal Jay Treaty with Great Britain in 1795 to George W. Bush's order of a military intervention in Iraq in 2003, the matter of who is president of the United States is of the utmost importance.

In a striking reinterpretation of the postwar years, Robert Dallek examines what drove the leaders of the most powerful and populous nations around the globe - Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Mao, de Gaulle, and Truman - to rely on traditional power politics despite the catastrophic violence their nations had endured. The decisions of these men, for better and often for worse, had profound consequences for decades to come.

John R. Deane, Jr. (1919-2013) was born with all the advantages a man needs to succeed in a career in the US Army, and he capitalized on his many opportunities in spectacular fashion. The son of one of George C. Marshall's closest assistants, Deane graduated from West Point with the first class of World War II and served in combat under the dynamic General Terry de la Mesa Allen, Sr.

Long relegated to a secondary position behind Gettysburg, Vicksburg has more recently earned consideration by historians as the truly decisive battle of the Civil War. Indeed, Vicksburg is fascinating on many levels. A focal point of both western armies, the Federal campaign of maneuver that finally isolated the Confederates in the city was masterful. The Navy’s contribution to the Federal victory was significant. The science of the fortifications and siege tactics are rich in detail.

In The Peacemakers, author Bruce Jentleson shows how key figures in the previous century rewrote the zero-sum and transactional scripts they were handed and successfully prevented conflict, advanced human rights, and promoted global sustainability. Covering a broad range of historical examples, from Yitzhak Rabin's efforts for Arab-Israeli peace to Dag Hammarskjöld's effectiveness as secretary-general of the United Nations and Mahatma Gandhi's pioneering use of nonviolence as a political tool, Jentleson argues that individuals can shape policy.

Presidential Leadership in Political Time has greatly expanded our understanding of and debates over the politics of leadership. It clarifies the typical political problems that presidents confront in political time, as well as the likely effects of their working through them, and considers contemporary innovations in our political system that bear on the leadership patterns from the more distant past.

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Leadership: In Turbulent Times (2018) is a comparative consideration of four of the most beloved and effective American presidents: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson. The narrative revisits foundational events in each president’s life in order to trace the origins and crucial ingredients of leadership.... (Disclaimer: This is NOT the original book. If you’re looking for the original book, it is available from Amazon and Audible.)

As the "stunningly successful nonprofit organization, Teach For America" ( New York Times) celebrates its 20th anniversary, its founder Wendy Kopp issues a passionate and inspiring summation of what she and TFA corps members have learned: that educational inequity—the achievement gap—is a solvable problem, and that the key to solving it—in a single classroom, a school, or system-wide—is leadership.

For years, executive Martin Fiore has been advising leaders from a wide range of industries about technological trends that are reshaping the world of business, from artificial intelligence and the rise of autonomous systems to human/machine convergence. Now, in Humanity Reimagined, Fiore explores how these trends are disrupting industries, changing the world of work, transforming the economy, and creating both threats and opportunities for leaders at all levels, from entrepreneurs nurturing start-up businesses to C-suite leaders at the world's biggest corporations.

What happened in the Valley Forge? What was its purpose in historical accounts? In this book, you will learn about the importance of the Valley Forge in the history of the American Revolution. Not only will you see its vantage point, you will also learn about the lives of the soldiers stationed there. By listening to this book, you will also understand how good leadership was instrumental in wars.

For every corporate commander, business strategist, and market planner, Corporate Combat presents an insightful, realistic view of how competitions are won and lost - on both the military and business battlefields. In the often zero-sum contest for market share, it demonstrates how the principles of war are not only valid, but also wisely applied for greater gain.

The Second Declaration opens with a fascinating "Chinese Dream", and turns it into the common dream of all mankind. Absolutely original, with vivid style, verve, imagination and sharp view points, The Second Declaration is a fascinating vision of future economies, the development trends of future cultures, and the development trends of future mankind.

China today is visible everywhere: In the news, in the economic pressures battering America, in the workplace, and in every trip to the store. Provocative, timely, and essential, this dramatic account of China's growing dominance as an industrial super-power by journalist Ted C. Fishman explains how the profound shift in the global economic order has occurred, and why it already affects us all.

How did a small southwest town transform itself into a hotbed of research science, advanced technology, and money? Tracking key figures in Santa Fe's emerging industries, Ed Regis explains how entrepreneurial scientists are using complexity theory and powerful, experimental computer programs to create practical - and profitable - applications. Their efforts to convert vast, diverse data, whether chemical or biological or computational, into useful information is leading to new drugs and medical therapies, ultimately revolutionizing our understanding of effective business strategies.

Saving Schools traces the story of the rise, decline, and potential resurrection of American public schools through the lives and ideas of six mission-driven reformers: Horace Mann, John Dewey, Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Shanker, William Bennett, and James Coleman. Yet schools did not become the efficient, egalitarian, and high-quality educational institutions these reformers envisioned. Indeed, the unintended consequences of their legacies shaped today's flawed educational system.