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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.34
EAN num: 9780684801384
ISBN number: 0684801388
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 336
Printing Date: May 09, 1995
Publishing house: Simon & Schuster
Sale Popularity Level: 79776
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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Product Description:
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lincoln at Gettysburg offers a gallery of portraits that examine the interplay among leaders and followers and identify the essential elements of successful leadership. Reprint. 25,000 very first printing.
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Rated by buyers 
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Certain Trumpets is a great resource for individuals who want to take a fresh look at leadership types. As an introvert I've been puzzled for many years, wondering what kind of magic I exude that makes people want to follow me. Garry Wills affirms that there are many types of leaders, and likens them to historical figures.
Rated by buyers 
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I picked up this book intending to read only a couple of chapters. I ended up reading the entire book with fascination. This is the kind of book that makes one think, reflect, and re-evaluate simplistic cultural paradigms. Those who confuse leaders with super heroes or think leadership has to do with wielding power to combat evil would benefit from reading this book. Wills does an excellent job of recognizing that people with a lot of influence or power are not necessarily leaders. I found this relavant to today's shortage of positive leaders.
Although each chapter cannot delve into the representative leader in great depth, each chapter does an excellent job of distinguishing between different types of leadership. The introduction, the conclusion, the notes, and the many citings of other books on leadership added to my learning. This very readable book provides an excellent sense of history and places leadership within the context of history. This is a pleasant change from the endless books on leadership and business.
My only complaint would be the lack of attention to the influence of media on today's leaders and followers.
Rated by buyers -
Wills has a keen sense of the importance of followers to leadership. In the introduction to the book he states plainly "The leader most needs followers". He goes on to explain that in reality followers "have a say" in what they are led toward! The theme of Certain Trumpets is that a successful leader doesn't just trumpet or sound their own certain message, but instead they sound a specific call to others capable of following. He believes that leaders need to understand their followers more than followers need to understand them! What is Garry Wills basic definition of a leader? "One who mobilizes others toward a goal shared by the leader and followers". In other words, coercion of others is not leadership, it is just power.
With this introduction in mind the rest of the book consists of Wills discusion of individuals who have possessed leadership in various ways. The author believes that different leaders should be considered notable because of their own goals rather than their personalities, which is the most common perspective. As a result of this perspective, Wills does not treat leadership as a single thing, but mentions sixteen various kinds of leadership within the book. He also goes on to discuss various subdivisions within the sixteen kind's. Certain Trumpets attempts to define these distinctive types of leadership by using examples that range from Franklin Roosevelt (Electoral Leadership) to Dorothy Day (Saintly Leadership). To make this exploration interesting, and to provoke thought, he also provides an antitype character in contrast to each distinctive type of leader presented. It is Wills hope to exemplify the individual's characteristics by providing this contrast. Wills doesn't think we lack leaders today, but sufficient followers. He refers to this as the "real problem with leadership". Certain Trumpets is easy to read, stimulating and creative enough to look at leadership from a different lens.
Rated by buyers 
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This book is a mess. The thesis presented in the introduction is a rambling essay on the importance of followers and historical forces in leadership, which might leave the reader less informed about leadership than before he/she read it. What's worse is that the intro has nothing at all to do with the rest of the book (which is marginal in it's own right). The case studies are way too short and are made even less informative by Wills habit of not even mentioning the leader until five or six pages of nonsense. My overall feeling of this book is that it was poorly researched and badly written. I wonder (in all seriousness) whether Wills knows anything at all about some of the people he writes about. Skip this one. I suggest Lincoln on Leadership instead: it provides the rudiments of leadership with clear, well researched examples.
Rated by buyers 
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Good concept to discuss different types of leadership with good and bad examples. However, most of the work seems to be on the positive examples with the anti-types being included as an afterthought. Nearly all chapters are weak developments of leadership style with the notable exception being the one on Harriet Tubman. Additionally, both the types of leadership styles discussed and the people chosen to represent them appear to fit the author's preferences rather than true representations of leadership styles and leaders. This book was an easy read and parts were even enjoyable but the content was not as substantive as I had hoped.
The best recommendation that I can make is to check this one out of a library instead of purchasing it.
(review written by a life-long student of leadership with a library full of leadership texts.)
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