100 Valuable Leadership Lessons from 10 U.S. Presidents
Learn the leadership lessons of Kennedy & Nixon
by George Ilian


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BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:

This book ain't literature – and it ain't a book on leadership. It's simplistic analysis, simplistically written, with simplistic conclusions. We read this book to build our portfolio of books on past presidents, and it fulfilled that purpose a little for Ike. But really, this book is appropriate for high schoolers who are learning about past presidents for the first time, or trying out reading some light history for the first time.

But the author, George Ilian, doesn't bill it as high school-level history-light. He bills it as "Leadership Lessons," like applying historical precedents to current politics or business or modern life. For that purpose, this book is way too simplistic. For example, in discussing Nixon's actions during Watergate, Ilian writes, "he used his power quite aggressively in an attempt to combat the Democratic Congress" (p. 124). That's not an introduction – that's the analysis. The basic lesson for high schoolers learning to write persuasively is "Show; don't tell" – Ilian simply TELLS that Nixon was aggressive – he needs to SHOW how Nixon was aggressive with a concrete example or two. And then do that in every section of every chapter.

The entire chapter on Nixon, in fact, contains counterexamples of leadership lessons – i.e. Nixon is the "bad guy" of the book. Ilian does acknowledge Nixon's accomplishments: "He did a lot of great things during his time in office. I feel it important to mention the good because the lessons I'm about to go over mostly stem from the bad" (p. 113). The reader is left to guess what those good things might BE – Ilian only mentions that he would "mention" them, without actually saying them! -- but maybe Ilian is hinting at founding the EPA, opening China, overseeing the first moon landing, floating the dollar – those are just the first few that Ilian MIGHT mention but did not!

We did find some useful excerpts from Nixon, and from the other presidents we cover: JFK, Ike, and Reagan – and the six earlier presidents' chapters (Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, TR, Woodrow Wilson, and FDR) were pleasant history-light reading. So perhaps it's a nice read for pundits, but we can't recommend it for anyone else.

-- Jesse Gordon, jesse@OnTheIssues.org, Jan. 2017

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