What do you think?
Rate this book
Certain Trumpets: The Nature of Leadership
What makes a leader? How do we identify effective leadership, and how should—and shouldn’t—that power be used? In Certain Trumpets , Garry Wills presents portraits of eminent leaders including FDR to Ross Perot, King David, Martha Graham, and many others, offering an illuminating lens for studying society and ourselves. Dividing these portraits into sixteen leadership categories ranging from military to charismatic, intellectual, rhetorical, and elected, Wills highlights what makes each of his subjects unique, crafting along the way a distinct and incisive definition of leadership as a reciprocal engagement between two contrasting wills that serves to mobilize us toward a common good, and explaining why leadership is so often a contentious and emotionally charged subject. “A stunningly literate and thoughtful examination of what makes a leader…[and] a welcome antidote to some of the more egregious ‘management style’ drivel,” ( Kirkus Reviews ), Certain Trumpets is an inspiring and edifying tour through the history of an indispensable social art.
336 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1994
13 people are currently reading
226 people want to read
About the author
Garry Wills
153 books251 followersGarry Wills is an American author, journalist, political philosopher, and historian, specializing in American history, politics, and religion, especially the history of the Catholic Church. He won a Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1993.
Wills has written over fifty books and, since 1973, has been a frequent reviewer for The New York Review of Books. He became a faculty member of the history department at Northwestern University in 1980, where he is an Emeritus Professor of History.
Wills has written over fifty books and, since 1973, has been a frequent reviewer for The New York Review of Books. He became a faculty member of the history department at Northwestern University in 1980, where he is an Emeritus Professor of History.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
December 17, 2024
Gary Wills has an impressive range when it comes to the topics he can write about; he describes the military strategy of Napoleon as effectively as the rhetorical skills of MLK or the dance style of Martha Graham. Rather than describe how to become a leader, Wills looks at the qualities exhibited by several leaders and how they used them to seize their particular moments and succeed as certain types of leaders.
He also describes anti types, people who failed to exhibit these qualities. Here the format falls apart a bit for me; too often the antitype describes someone who simply did not try to become a leader, rather than someone who failed to be one. This doesn't tell me much about the skills used to become a leader. Similarly, at times the leader types can feel forced or pointless.
Still, an incredibly enjoyable read for anyone interested in leaders and would enjoy the format of 16 mini biographies.
He also describes anti types, people who failed to exhibit these qualities. Here the format falls apart a bit for me; too often the antitype describes someone who simply did not try to become a leader, rather than someone who failed to be one. This doesn't tell me much about the skills used to become a leader. Similarly, at times the leader types can feel forced or pointless.
Still, an incredibly enjoyable read for anyone interested in leaders and would enjoy the format of 16 mini biographies.
January 3, 2022
I received (or bought? not sure) this book during the McCormick Tribune Leadership class at UChicago as a gift (or recommendation?) from one of my favorite professors, Dr. Michael. I may have read it then, but I didn't rate it, and as I unpacked my books this year I was pleased to find it again. This book is a history lesson and a reflection on leadership all in one, although I did frequently take breaks between leaders because the author is clearly an academic first. I enjoyed thinking about the different types of leadership one can embody, since it is often distilled to business/political sphere in pop culture. I especially enjoyed the comments in the Conclusion about the need for followers for you to be a great leader. A good (re?)visit.
July 18, 2018
How can you not like something with phases like this "WC Fields, the bumpkin a con man and professional antiadult..."?
It turns out to be easy. While Wills collects a fun array of profiles, it's inconceivable how he makes any case whatsoever for making any of these people leaders especially categorizing them as different kinds of leaders.
It turns out to be easy. While Wills collects a fun array of profiles, it's inconceivable how he makes any case whatsoever for making any of these people leaders especially categorizing them as different kinds of leaders.
January 31, 2025
I love a book that opens your eyes to something obvious, even though it didn't seem obvious until it was articulated. The big DUH moment for me comes in the first few pages - it's the assertion that no one is a leader unless they succeed in attracting followers toward a shared goal. It's not just someone who is forceful, or charismatic, or compelling in some other way. There's a symbiosis of desire at work, and it's the secret sauce that confirms leadership. Once you wrap your head around that (OMG, so obvious) fact, it's easier to think clearly about what makes a good or bad leader, and about different arenas of leadership, and how one arena may suit one person, but not another. What follows are analyses of 16 different styles of leadership, with striking examples of those who rocked it (Type) and those who cocked it (Antitype). Each chapter is a history lesson I never knew I needed, and I gobbled it up. The format loses a little steam for me at the end, but this is a book I'm sure to revisit.
February 17, 2017
On Pericles - "a man clearly above corruption, was enabled, by the respect others had for him and his own wise policy, to hold the multitude in a voluntary restraint. He led them, not they him; and since he did not win his power on compromising terms, he could say not only what pleased others but what displeased them, relying on their respect."
Washington linked his honor to that of the Republic - mutually pledged.
Examines Socrates and William F. Buckley as "intellectual" leaders - a severe and lonely quest for the truth.
Washington linked his honor to that of the Republic - mutually pledged.
Examines Socrates and William F. Buckley as "intellectual" leaders - a severe and lonely quest for the truth.
September 7, 2019
I have had this book a long time and re-read certain people depending on what else I am reading at the time. I just re-read Harriet Tubman, Andrew Young, Martin Luther King and Eleanor Roosevelt again. My recent focus seems to be on civil rights from after the Civil War to current. What I particularly like is that he talks about different kinds of leadership, not the whole history of an individual. He then uses a specific person to exemplify that type of leadership. He then offers an anti-type person for each kind of leadership.
August 26, 2024
Found the authors thesis on leadership very profound, a leader needs both followers and history on their side, makes me think of Gulliani, who was a leader for his time almost exclusively. BUT, some of these people are NOT leaders in any conceivable way, and the author chose not to articulate how they are leaders other than giving biographies of them and titling them as such.
December 29, 2018
An interesting book about the different types of leadership and examples of people who were good examples in that type of leadership as well as the antithesis. Not exactly an exciting read but informative.
June 8, 2024
Marvelous - well chosen individuals to exemplify various types of leadership - who they lead and who are followers
Particularly insightful is the charismatic leadership of King David
Quite instructive of our own Time
Particularly insightful is the charismatic leadership of King David
Quite instructive of our own Time
February 25, 2019
Each leader examined in this book is followed by the anti-leadership style. Interesting choices of leaders. Scholarly vocabulary; not for the faint of heart.
July 14, 2018
I'm only a week into the class for which I have to read this and I already hate it. First of all, it picks people I don't think are/were (historically or modern day) leaders at all.
Second, it defaults to the "generic HE". He ISN'T generic; it's chauvinistic. Leaders were, are, and can be women.
Third, he glorifies King David, Solomon and their harems. Don't even get me started on the sexism of THAT ideology...
Fourth, none of these chapters really read as reasons of leadership. Based on this book, I'm not inspired by any of these people.
I'm more than annoyed I'll have to read the entire POS for class...
Second, it defaults to the "generic HE". He ISN'T generic; it's chauvinistic. Leaders were, are, and can be women.
Third, he glorifies King David, Solomon and their harems. Don't even get me started on the sexism of THAT ideology...
Fourth, none of these chapters really read as reasons of leadership. Based on this book, I'm not inspired by any of these people.
I'm more than annoyed I'll have to read the entire POS for class...
March 15, 2016
In the middle of the 2016 presidential campaign to select a new leader for the nation, reading Wills' book is timely. It's a study of different leaders, sixteen of them all in different fields, eleven of them American, and of what made them effective leaders. Wills' rationale for such a diverse group, admittedly a bit arbitrary, is that leadership is always tempered by context, and he wanted "contexts" that were at least generally known to the reader.
This is certainly a good point, but it makes the book seem a little scattered. What it does do, though, is to convincingly demolish the idea of the "great man" theory of leadership. People, in times of doubt, like to think that we could become great again with a great man to lead us. Wills argues that that kind of leadership has never occurred in reality and is a myth. A leader needs followers, and he needs to intuitively grasp what followers want. If the leader is effective, he'll sense those wants and will work out goals that seem to satisfy them. He never works in isolation, though, and only through a specific historical context can that relationship be made clear.
Wills does something else that is interesting, if not completely successful. For each leader he has an "antitype", an individual who seemed poised to become a leader, but for one reason or another failed. For example, the antitype of Franklin Roosevelt, the four term elected president, there is the twice-failed candidate, Adlai Stevenson. For Napoleon, the great conqueror, there is the American Civil War commander, George McClellan, who seemed poised to bring the war to a quick end, but failed. These two examples work well, but others are not so successful, either because the individuals are not that well known, or that Wills has such different contexts that their accomplishments and failures seem less parallel, as in the case of 20th century Pope John 23rd and a obscure 13th century pope, Celestine 5th.
For the record, Wills' sixteen fields with leaders and antitypes are: Electoral (FDR, Adlai Stevenson), Radical, (Harriet Tubman, Stephen Douglas), Reform (Eleanor Roosevelt, Nancy Reagan), Diplomatic (Andrew Young, Clark Kerr), Military (Napoleon, McClellaln), Charismatic (King David, Solomon), Business (Ross Perot, Roger Smith), Traditional (Pope John, Celestine), Constitutional (George Washington, Oliver Cromwell), Intellectual (Socrates, ,Ludwig Wittgenstein), Church (Mary Baker Eddy ,Phineas Quimby), Sports (Carl Stotz, Kennesaw Mountain Landis),Artistic (Martha Graham, Madonna), Rhetorical (Martin Luther King Jr, Robert Moses.), Opportunistic (Cesare Borgia, Piero Soderini) and Saintly (Dorothy Day,Ammon Hennacy).
His short sketches of these individuals and how they became leaders are interesting reading in themselves, as are his shorter sketches of their opposites, the antitypes. The real virtue of Wills' book I think, , in contrast with many works on leadership, is that he doesn't oversimplify. Leadership, who becomes a leader, and why, is at bottom a mysterious matter, dependent upon a lot of factors. Rather than narrowing them down, Wills suggests a multitude of intriguing possibilities. What the book lacks in biographical depth, it compensates for in width of circumstances.
This is certainly a good point, but it makes the book seem a little scattered. What it does do, though, is to convincingly demolish the idea of the "great man" theory of leadership. People, in times of doubt, like to think that we could become great again with a great man to lead us. Wills argues that that kind of leadership has never occurred in reality and is a myth. A leader needs followers, and he needs to intuitively grasp what followers want. If the leader is effective, he'll sense those wants and will work out goals that seem to satisfy them. He never works in isolation, though, and only through a specific historical context can that relationship be made clear.
Wills does something else that is interesting, if not completely successful. For each leader he has an "antitype", an individual who seemed poised to become a leader, but for one reason or another failed. For example, the antitype of Franklin Roosevelt, the four term elected president, there is the twice-failed candidate, Adlai Stevenson. For Napoleon, the great conqueror, there is the American Civil War commander, George McClellan, who seemed poised to bring the war to a quick end, but failed. These two examples work well, but others are not so successful, either because the individuals are not that well known, or that Wills has such different contexts that their accomplishments and failures seem less parallel, as in the case of 20th century Pope John 23rd and a obscure 13th century pope, Celestine 5th.
For the record, Wills' sixteen fields with leaders and antitypes are: Electoral (FDR, Adlai Stevenson), Radical, (Harriet Tubman, Stephen Douglas), Reform (Eleanor Roosevelt, Nancy Reagan), Diplomatic (Andrew Young, Clark Kerr), Military (Napoleon, McClellaln), Charismatic (King David, Solomon), Business (Ross Perot, Roger Smith), Traditional (Pope John, Celestine), Constitutional (George Washington, Oliver Cromwell), Intellectual (Socrates, ,Ludwig Wittgenstein), Church (Mary Baker Eddy ,Phineas Quimby), Sports (Carl Stotz, Kennesaw Mountain Landis),Artistic (Martha Graham, Madonna), Rhetorical (Martin Luther King Jr, Robert Moses.), Opportunistic (Cesare Borgia, Piero Soderini) and Saintly (Dorothy Day,Ammon Hennacy).
His short sketches of these individuals and how they became leaders are interesting reading in themselves, as are his shorter sketches of their opposites, the antitypes. The real virtue of Wills' book I think, , in contrast with many works on leadership, is that he doesn't oversimplify. Leadership, who becomes a leader, and why, is at bottom a mysterious matter, dependent upon a lot of factors. Rather than narrowing them down, Wills suggests a multitude of intriguing possibilities. What the book lacks in biographical depth, it compensates for in width of circumstances.
July 20, 2013
Provides stories of 16 leaders throughout history and why they were successful leaders in their fields. Also provides antitypes to the successful leaders in order to show how not to act.
Leaders studied are:
Type of Leader — Leader / Antitype
Electoral — Franklin Roosevelt / Adlai Stevenson
Radical — Harriet Tubman / Stephen A. Douglas
Reform — Eleanor Roosevelt / Nancy Reagan
Diplomatic — Andrew Young / Clark Kerr
Military — Napoleon / George McClellan
Business — Ross Perot / Roger Smith
Traditional — John XXIII / Celestine V
Charismatic — King David / Solomon
Constitutional — George Washington / Oliver Cromwell
Intellectual — Socrates / Ludwig Wittgenstein
Church — Mary Baker Eddy / Phineas Parkhurst Quimby
Sports — Carl Stotz / Kenesaw Mountain Landis
Artistic — Martha Graham / Madonna
Rhetorical — Martin Luther King, Jr. / Robert Parris Moses
Opportunistic — Cesare Borgia / Piero Soderini
Saintly — Dorothy Day / Ammon Hennacy
This book is required reading for the "Leaders in History" course at Thomas Edison State College, and it was a very enjoyable read.
Leaders studied are:
Type of Leader — Leader / Antitype
Electoral — Franklin Roosevelt / Adlai Stevenson
Radical — Harriet Tubman / Stephen A. Douglas
Reform — Eleanor Roosevelt / Nancy Reagan
Diplomatic — Andrew Young / Clark Kerr
Military — Napoleon / George McClellan
Business — Ross Perot / Roger Smith
Traditional — John XXIII / Celestine V
Charismatic — King David / Solomon
Constitutional — George Washington / Oliver Cromwell
Intellectual — Socrates / Ludwig Wittgenstein
Church — Mary Baker Eddy / Phineas Parkhurst Quimby
Sports — Carl Stotz / Kenesaw Mountain Landis
Artistic — Martha Graham / Madonna
Rhetorical — Martin Luther King, Jr. / Robert Parris Moses
Opportunistic — Cesare Borgia / Piero Soderini
Saintly — Dorothy Day / Ammon Hennacy
This book is required reading for the "Leaders in History" course at Thomas Edison State College, and it was a very enjoyable read.
September 28, 2010
Garry Wills is a historian who uses historical people to illustrate his point: there are different kinds of leaders for different kinds of situations; not all leaders have the same characteristics. Because the book had been recommended in several books and by a couple of my mentors, I was very excited about it.
However, I found the book cumbersome and overly historical. It read more like small articles on a person's life rather than a book about leadership insights. I believe Wills would have been better served to articulate the his point at the outset then illustrate it with a historical figure. Instead, he told the story of the person, while I kept thinking, "Get to the point of what this person did." I stopped reading after chapter 5.
The greatest insight I gained from the book came in the introduction where Wills talked about the relationship between the leader and his/her followers. He shared that leaders must spend a great deal of time understanding their followers, but this is not a necessity for followers.
However, I found the book cumbersome and overly historical. It read more like small articles on a person's life rather than a book about leadership insights. I believe Wills would have been better served to articulate the his point at the outset then illustrate it with a historical figure. Instead, he told the story of the person, while I kept thinking, "Get to the point of what this person did." I stopped reading after chapter 5.
The greatest insight I gained from the book came in the introduction where Wills talked about the relationship between the leader and his/her followers. He shared that leaders must spend a great deal of time understanding their followers, but this is not a necessity for followers.
April 18, 2016
What a neat approach to book on leadership. Usually, books written about this subject needs an author who has endured the trials of maintaining and succeeding in the role of a leader. However, Wills is a great historian and true intellect, which he uses to provide great comparisons of successful and unsuccessful leaders without voicing his own opinion. I found this book truly enlightening.
March 4, 2016
I always learn something new from a book by Mr. Wills, or at least a new way of looking at something. This book contains essays about various types of leadership as exemplified by the person analyzed in the essay. I highly recommend spending some time with this book.
July 1, 2007
Gah, for Garry Wills being such a well-reviewed author, you'd think he'd be able to make better cases for his examples of leadership than just setting up a straw-man antitype to make them look good.
Want to read
March 20, 2013I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11776747
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11776747
April 12, 2013
Excellent resource.
October 10, 2013
To read my review, please visit http://theagencyreview.wordpress.com/...
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews