An eye-opening look at how bad leaders—one in particular—rely on bad followers.
A pointed, dispiriting examination of the rings of supporters who surrounded Donald Trump and abetted his countless misdeeds.
The Germans of the Third Reich are the textbook case of those who “were only following orders,” writes Kellerman, who was the founding executive director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. Hitler could not have carried out his horrific campaigns without layers of willing enablers—“followers who allow or even encourage their leaders to engage in, and then to persist in behaviors that are destructive.” Though the author notes that Trump was no Hitler, he was undoubtedly a destructive, feckless, and ultimately failed leader. Kellerman examines the circles of powerful men and women who surrounded Trump by virtue of professing loyalty to him, a requirement for access—along with physical attractiveness, Kellerman adds, in the case of inner-inner circle members such as Ivanka Trump and Hope Hicks. With that loyalty came the fervent suspension of disbelief and surrender to the lies and fear by which Trump wielded power. Kellerman goes on to examine Trump’s base, made up of segments of the electorate who shared in common Whiteness and fear of losing what can only be described as White privilege—even though so many of its members are far from privileged. Most provocatively, the author delivers a scathing critical exam of the people who assisted Trump as he blundered his way through the pandemic. One who receives praise is Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who realized he was being played at the famous Bible-in-front-of-the-church episode and who “made as loud and clear as he could without crossing the line into insubordination that he viewed Trump’s leadership as deeply if not fatally flawed.” And one who comes in for close questioning is Anthony Fauci, who, Kellerman suggests, did harm by not “being more direct, less circumspect, less political.”
An eye-opening look at how bad leaders—one in particular—rely on bad followers.Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-108-83832-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Cambridge Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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