Forged in Crisis
The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times
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- 3,99 €
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- 3,99 €
Publisher Description
From a brilliant historian at the Harvard Business School, here is a masterful, in-depth portrait of five extraordinary figures-Ernest Shackleton, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Rachel Carson-that illuminates how great leaders are made in times of adversity and the diverse skills they summon in order to prevail.
Ten years in the writing, Forged in Crisis, by renowned Harvard Business School historian and Davos and Aspen Institute speaker Nancy Koehn, presents five remarkable life journeys-those of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton; President Abraham Lincoln; legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass; Nazi-resisting clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer; and environmental crusader Rachel Carson. What do such disparate figures have in common? Why do their stories speak to us so powerfully today?
Koehn begins each of the book's five sections by showing her protagonist on the precipice of a great crisis: Shackleton marooned on an Antarctic ice floe with no hope of rescue; Lincoln on the verge of the collapse of the Union; Douglass threatened with a return to enslavement; Bonhoeffer agonizing on what a man of faith should do when faced with absolute evil; Carson racing against the clock-and the cancer ravaging her-in a bid to save the planet. Koehn then reaches back to each person's early years to show the individual blooming into the force he or she would ultimately become. Through their confronting of obstacles, we begin to glean an essential truth: leaders are not born but made, and the power to lead resides in each of us.
In a time when the highest offices in the land are occupied by the inexperienced and untested, the great question pressing on all of us is: What set of skills is required to lead in crisis, and can history give us answers? Whether it's read as a repository of great insight or as exceptionally rendered human drama, the riveting Forged in Crisis stands out as a towering achievement.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Harvard Business School historian Koehn has compiled an enthralling, if too loosely organized, look at five people who changed the world through sacrifice, courage, and conviction. Her first work of popular nonfiction gathers together stories about her subjects as illustrations of "courageous leadership." She details Ernest Shackleton's 1914 expedition to the South Pole, Abraham Lincoln's tumultuous presidency, Frederick Douglass's activism in the burgeoning abolitionist movement, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's resistance against the Nazi party, and Rachel Carson's groundbreaking ecological polemic, Silent Spring. She follows their lives, work, and difficult decisions; their challenges and their triumphs. Koehn shows that one important quality that set these leaders apart was their ability to guide others toward doing good. However, the premise for linking them together is slim: the main thematic thread Koehn finds, besides do-gooding and modeling virtue, is a stern commitment to self-improvement. Nonetheless, the individual stories add up to a fascinating look at a varied group of heroes, and Koehn's call for her audience to emulate them strikes a pleasingly hopeful note for an era of partisan discord and lack of faith in leaders.
