Where Power Stops (Ebook)
The Making and Unmaking of Presidents and Prime Ministers
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David Runciman grapples with how character defines and limits the holders of the highest offices in the UK and America
Lyndon Baines Johnson, Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Theresa May, and Donald Trump: each had different motivations, methods, and paths, but they all sought the highest office. And yet when they reached their goal, they often found that the power they had imagined was illusory. Their sweeping visions of reform faltered. They faced bureaucratic obstructions, but often the biggest obstruction was their own character.
However, their personalities could help them as much as hurt them. Arguably the most successful of them, LBJ showed little indication that he supported what he is best known for - the Civil Rights Act - but his grit, resolve, and brute political skill saw him bend Congress to his will.
David Runciman tackles the limitations of high office and how the personal histories of those who achieved the very pinnacles of power helped to define their successes and failures in office. These portraits show what characters are most effective in these offices. Could this be a blueprint for good and effective leadership in an age lacking good leaders?
Where Power Stops (Audiobook)
The Making and Unmaking of Presidents and Prime Ministers
Buy from
David Runciman grapples with how character defines and limits the holders of the highest offices in the UK and America
Lyndon Baines Johnson, Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Theresa May, and Donald Trump: each had different motivations, methods, and paths, but they all sought the highest office. And yet when they reached their goal, they often found that the power they had imagined was illusory. Their sweeping visions of reform faltered. They faced bureaucratic obstructions, but often the biggest obstruction was their own character.
However, their personalities could help them as much as hurt them. Arguably the most successful of them, LBJ showed little indication that he supported what he is best known for – the Civil Rights Act – but his grit, resolve, and brute political skill saw him bend Congress to his will.
David Runciman tackles the limitations of high office and how the personal histories of those who achieved the very pinnacles of power helped to define their successes and failures in office. These portraits show what characters are most effective in these offices. Could this be a blueprint for good and effective leadership in an age lacking good leaders?
Where Power Stops (Paperback)
The Making and Unmaking of Presidents and Prime Ministers
Buy from
David Runciman grapples with how character defines and limits the holders of the highest offices in the UK and America
Lyndon Baines Johnson, Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Theresa May, and Donald Trump: each had different motivations, methods, and paths, but they all sought the highest office. And yet when they reached their goal, they often found that the power they had imagined was illusory. Their sweeping visions of reform faltered. They faced bureaucratic obstructions, but often the biggest obstruction was their own character.
However, their personalities could help them as much as hurt them. Arguably the most successful of them, LBJ showed little indication that he supported what he is best known for - the Civil Rights Act - but his grit, resolve, and brute political skill saw him bend Congress to his will.
David Runciman tackles the limitations of high office and how the personal histories of those who achieved the very pinnacles of power helped to define their successes and failures in office. These portraits show what characters are most effective in these offices. Could this be a blueprint for good and effective leadership in an age lacking good leaders?
Reviews for Where Power Stops
Praise for How Democracy Ends:
'Presented in pellucid prose free of the jargon of academic political science, How Democracy Ends is a strikingly readable and richly learned contribution to understanding the world today ... surely one of the most luminously intelligent books on politics to have been published for many years.'
'
John Gray New Statesman
Mark Mazower Guardian
Gideon Rachman FT
Katrina Gulliver Spectator
Irish Times
LSE Review of Books
Australian
Andrew Gamble Times Literary Supplement
John Gray New York Review of Books
Mark Mazower Financial Times
Sydney Morning Herald
Publisher's Weekly
Stein Ringen International Affairs
Evening Standard
Bryan Maye Irish Times
David Runciman
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