THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 7, 1994 TAG: 9408040547
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY JEREMIAH CRONIN
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
CERTAIN TRUMPETS
The Call of Leaders
GARRY WILLS
Simon & Schuster. 336 pp. $23.
GARRY WILLS' latest book, Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders, is a breath of fresh air on a subject that has suffered long at the hands of 12-step, 1-minute-wonder authors. This is a thoughtful examination of types of leadership by an author who has the broad scholarly background necessary to address the topic.
Wills, a professor at Northwestern University and a 1992 Pulitzer Prize winner for Lincoln at Gettysburg, states early on that the ``one-size-fits-all'' school of leadership is not an appropriate model, and that the role of competent followers is by no means secondary. He writes: ``So much for the idea that a leader's skills can be applied to all occasions, that they can be taught outside of a historical context, learned as a secret of control in every situation. A leader whose qualities do not match those of potential followers is simply irrelevant.''
Each of Wills' 16 chapters deals with a different kind of leadership, with such types as ``electoral,'' ``business,'' ``constitutional,'' ``artistic'' and ``opportunistic.'' In each, he includes a leader who exemplifies the type, a person who represents the anti-type and an impressive host of supporting characters chosen from history.
Wills' closing line, ``Tell me who your admired leaders are and you have bared your soul,'' seems an open invitation to ponder his choices. Wills admires leaders who have influenced society in a positive way, although he writes in a chapter on Cesare Borgia that leaders do not necessarily need to be ``good men.''
Included in his exemplars of type are Franklin Roosevelt, Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Andrew Young, Pope John XXIII, George Washington, Martin Luther King and Dorothy Day. He tries to portray U.S. leaders where possible so we can better understand his description of the type. Even so, he does include luminaries such as Socrates and Napoleon Bonaparte.
One of his more interesting choices for anti-type is Nancy Reagan as the opposite of Eleanor Roosevelt, a ``Reform Leader.'' According to Wills, Roosevelt used her position as first lady to get into places and effect change where it was desperately needed. Like Florence Nightingale, Roosevelt, a tough and effective leader, aimed her philanthropy at social causes.
On the other hand, Nancy Reagan's ``Just Say No'' campaign as the solution to all of the country's ills was not something of her own making, Wills contends. It was tailored by White House aide Michael Deaver and was used to justify government inaction on such issues as drugs, illegitimacy and AIDS.
``It was the perfect right-wing campaign,'' Wills writes. ``It identified an evil and blamed the victim in ways that assume perfect rationality of choice in slum-affected young people.'' It was ``. . . a release for righteousness, a way of saying, `Children, behave.' ''
Certain Trumpets is by no means an all-inclusive examination. We are often left with a thirst to learn more about a particular example. But the book is not a biography.
According to Wills, we all play various leading and following roles within the multiple contexts of our lives, and, although he does not write specifically on the subject, he clearly believes that the role of the follower is just as important. He paraphrases Thomas Jefferson in saying that ``the French Revolution had been less successful than the American one, not because the French lacked leaders but because they lacked discerning followers.''
The American Revolution is a continuous process, never complete, and in danger of failing unless we continuously develop ourselves as a nation of ``discerning followers.'' Garry Wills has taken us a step in this direction. MEMO: Jeremiah Cronin is an environmental consultant and occasional speaker on
leadership and management-related topics. He lives in Norfolk. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
JOE SCHUYLER
In ``Certain Trumpets,'' Garry Wills dismisses the
``one-size-fits-all'' school of leadership.
by CNB