Book Description
What would legendary Boston Celtics coach and 16-time NBA champion Red Auerbach say is the most critical quality for a person to be successful? Would his advice differ from 10-time NCAA championship coach John Wooden's? What would each say to a young person just starting out in pursuit of their dreams? What is the best advice they were ever given?
It took author Christian Klemash more than two years of research, persistence, and original interviews, but now he's ready to pass on the best advice you'll ever get. Only the rare individual has had the opportunity to pick the brain of just one legendary sports coach—let alone thirty-four of the best sports coaches of all time. Klemash gives sports fans a once-in-a-lifetime chance to learn valuable life lessons from the most famous, intelligent, and victorious coaches ever. The legends span the sports world, from gold medal-winning gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi and three-time college football championship coach Tom Osborne to four-time World Series-winning baseball manager Joe Torre and hall-of-fame boxing trainer Angelo Dundee.
These coaches know how to teach top athletes about character and winning, how to manage pressure at crunch time, and how to bring out the best in their players when it matters most. How to Succeed in the Game of Life shares their insights into sports, life, and the most vital keys to sustain success.Featuring Exclusive Interviews with:
Red Auerbach, 16-time NBA World Champion
Bobby Bowden, College Football's All-Time Winningest Coach, 2-time National Champion
Scotty Bowman, 9-time Stanley Cup Champion
Bill Cowher, Super Bowl Champion
Tony Dungy, Super Bowl Champion
Dan Gable, 15-time NCCA Champion
April Heinrichs, Gold Medal Winning Coach of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team
Bela Karolyi, The World’s Greatest Gymnastics Coach
Bill Parcells, 2-time Super Bowl Champion
Emanuel Steward, Boxing Trainer of 30 World Champions
Joe Torre, 4-time World Series Champion
Bill Walsh, 3-time Super Bowl Champion
Lenny Wilkens, NBA’s All-Time Winningest Coach, NBA Champion
John Wooden, 10-time NCAA Champion
And More!
Customer Reviews:
A Great Read.......2007-08-26
Wow!Could not put it down.An extraordinay self help book.Gave it to my kids they loved it.Don't miss this one
What a great read!.......2007-07-25
I took it on vacation with me and I couldn't put it down. A great book for aspiring athletes and coaches as well as your average Joe who works 9-5. The coaches discuss a variety of topics from their childhood to how they motivate their players. Any easy read for all ages.
Game of life.......2007-07-24
I've read through Game of Life and I enjoyed it very much. There are so many things to take from this book, not just into sports, but also some reflections on life. I would recommend this book to everybody.
Coaching advise from athletic coaches.......2007-06-27
A fun read, especially if yoiu're a sports fan. I read it in search of things that would help my own ability as a coach in my company. Much of it is light stuff but the easy read makes it fun nonetheless and there are few golden nuggets laced throughout the book.
Overcome Adversity.......2007-04-12
Anyone looking for inspiration, either for their own life or to share with others, will find a gold mine of quotes here. This book isn't just for sports fans.
Book Description
In The Leadership Engine, Noel Tichy showed how great companies strive to create leaders at all levels of the organization, and how those leaders actively develop future generations of leaders.
In this new book, he takes the theme further, showing how great companies and their leaders develop their business knowledge into ⳥achable points of view,⟳pend a great portion of their time giving their learnings to others, sharing best practices, and how they in turn learn and receive business ideas/knowledge from the employees they are teaching.
Calling this exchange a virtuous teaching cycle, Professor Tichy shows how business builders from Jack Welch at GE to Joe Liemandt at Trilogy create organizations that foster this knowledge exchange and how their efforts result in smarter, more agile companies, and winning results. Some of these ideas were showcased in Tichy's recent Harvard Business Review article entitled, ⍯ Ordinary Boot Camp."
Using examples from GE, Ford, Dell, Southwest Airlines and many others, Tichy presents and analyzes these principles in action and shows how managers can begin to transform their own businesses into teaching organizations and, consequently, better–performing companies
Customer Reviews:
Misses the mark.......2006-08-02
Tichy described the "interactive teaching/learning process" as a form of "synergy" whereby "1+1=3" (10). Synergy is defined as the "process of mutual exploration and exchange during which both the teacher and the learner become smarter" (10). Though he uses this term to illustrate the teaching and learning process, he esteemed the four "E's" when choosing potential leaders. The criteria included the following: "Energy" (coping ability for change), "Energize" (ability to excite/inspire), "Edge" (making tough calls), and "Execute" (always delivering, never disappointing) (129). To better support his argument for interactive synergy, Tichy should have included another "E" category-- Educate (the ability to teach, mentor, and guide). Tichy, himself, framed teaching as "opening people's eyes and minds...teaching new ways to see the world and pointing them to new goals...teaching them to teach their own knowledge and teach others" (74). His statement was void of an element in interactive/circulatory teaching.
Tichy referred to Roger Enrico's process of teaching ten "rising leaders" for a consecutive number of long hour days (11)." After a period of teaching, Enrico would send his students home to "work on projects" and brought them back for "follow-up sessions" (11). This illustration was a poor choice on Tichy's part because it has nothing to do with "synergy" and does not appear to align with his definition of a "teaching organization." Not only does Tichy use irrelevant examples and definitions, but he also seemed unclear about the process of the "Virtuous Teaching Cycle." In his introductory statement, Tichy said, "Virtuous Teaching Cycles are dynamic, interactive processes in which everyone teaches, everyone learns and everyone gets smarter, everyday" (xxiv). Yet his next statement about the leadership process does not incorporate this philosophy: "No institution can be great unless it has a great leader at the top who develops leaders at all levels of the organization" (xxiv).
People who described themselves as "always paranoid" or "never let anyone best him" would seem to be less likely to participate in an interactive process of teaching as depicted by Tichy. The book falls short in conveying a true "interactive teaching process." Not only were there no tangible examples of companies using this approach, but also the main ideas of "greatness" and "winning" represent selfish gain and have nothing to do with having a "teachable point of view." The truth is that without Christ as the teacher leading by example, no one can possibly participate in a process that separates one's pride and power for the humbling experience of learning in an interactive process with a subordinate. Jesus said it clearly: "You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him" (John 13:13-16 NKJV).
Sensible advice, but repetitive, repetitive, repetitive.......2004-10-16
While I will never dispute the premise that great leaders teach, mentor and learn, it doesn't have to be repeated over and over until I get it. The hero of this book, and that is really the only way to describe it, is Jack Welch, former head of GE. There is a lot of ink used to laud Welch and what he did at GE. While I don't dispute that Welch deserves to be acknowledged as a great leader, Tichy comes very close to crossing the line between praising and deifying him.
The basic theme of the book is the dynamics of teaching and learning within a business environment. This includes all levels, from the lowliest greeters to the CEO and board members. It starts with the leader's Teachable Point Of View or TPOV. This is basically the leader's view of the company direction and how well it is communicated to the people underneath. Without question, this is a valuable point in the success of any organization, assuming that the TPOV is reasonable and the leader is capable of accepting feedback. Or, to put it another way, is the leader capable of learning from underlings? While good leaders must teach and do it well, they must also learn even better. For even the best teachers can be rendered ineffectual if the material they are trying to impart is valueless. In the modern business world, if you don't learn and adapt, you die.
Another focus is on the Virtuous Teaching Cycle or VTC, which is about leaders teaching leaders. This is of course sensible; any leader should constantly be training several potential replacements. The problem with this is twofold. The first is that there can be only one leader, so if more than one potential leader is being groomed, it is necessary to have an unambiguous selection mechanism in place. Succession struggles have doomed many countries and organizations. Secondly, this can lead to the successor suffering from the same weaknesses that the leader does, which is why some of the most successful leaders were outsiders, brought in to provide a necessary fresh perspective.
There are two points of criticism. The first is the repetition. Some of the stories are told several times, even to the point of distraction. The other is that education is a complex task and recent revelations in the corporate world demonstrate that there are leaders that are not only incompetent, but are even criminal. I would have preferred reading more about how learning is done in these dysfunctional situations.
With the pace of life and business changing so fast, companies must learn faster than they produce. While I agree with most of the points in this book, there is a tendency of the author to ramble and repeat, which I found distracting.
Robert Knowling?.......2003-03-26
I just read the intro to this book by Robert Knowling. As far as I can tell Robert Knowling was booted out of Covad having delivered dismal results. He is listed as CEO of Simbion, which according to Hoovers has 1-5 employees and $50-$100K in revenues. He is even featured on the cover. Am I missing something?
Nothing new.......2002-12-25
I was somewhat disappointed in this book despite its endorsement by one of my business school classmates. Professor Tichy discusses already well known principles of leadership within the context of what is promoted as a "new" approach. Only a few individuals and companies are profiled and are used repeatedly throughout the book. The examples cited fit awkwardly into the message that is being presented. The title of the book attributes greatness to the individuals profiled based on only one attribute--a belief in teaching and learning. This seems such a narrow focus on which to base such accolades.
A New "Business Classic".......2002-11-27
Those who are familiar with my reviews of other business books already know that on several dozen occasions, I have strongly recommended The Leadership Engine (1997) which Tichy wrote with Eli Cohen and Nancy Cardwell. He teams up with her again in this book, expanding and enriching his concept of leadership development at all levels throughout any organization, regardless of its size or nature. Hence the importance of what Tichy calls a "Virtuous Teaching Cycle": Everybody teaches and everybody learns; all practices, processes, and values promotion teaching; all teaching is interactive to generate the effective exchange of knowledge; thereby, maximum use is made of everyone's skills and talents to ensure all-level alignment for smart and rapid response to needs, problems, opportunities, etc. Tichy asserts (and I agree) that hypertransformation (in established organizations) and hypergrowth (in start-ups) are essential to business success. The challenge in established organizations is to overcome what Jim O'Toole characterizes as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." For start-ups, the challenge is to achieve appropriate scale while ensuring that new employees are brought on line and up to speed ASAP. In ten chapters, and with prevision as well as eloquence, Tichy explains how various organizations (notably GE) have met those and other challenges.
Unlike other authors who address many of the same issues, Tichy also includes a substantial Handbook (pages 285-394) which consists of ten Sections: The Teaching Organization, The Hand You have Been Dealt, Building Your Teachable Point of View, Pulling It All Together, Building a Team Timetable Point of View, Architecting the Leadership Pipeline, Scaling the Teaching Organization, Building Teaching into the DNA, Global Citizenship, and finally, Start the Journey. In the Handbook, Tichy explains provides decision-makers with with just about everything their need to know to design, implement, and then strengthen their own Teaching Organization, one within which the Virtuous Teaching Cycle sustains leadership development at all levels.
In his Introduction to the Handbook, Tichy quotes a brief statement from Thomas Stewart's most recent book, The Wealth of Knowledge:
"The knowledge economy stands on three pillars. The first: Knowledge has become what we buy, sell, and do. It is the most important factor of production. The second pillar is a mate, a corollary to the first: Knowledge assets -- that is, intellectual capital -- have become more important to companies than financial and physical assets. The third pillar is this: To prosper in this new economy and exploit these newly vital assets, we need new vocabularies, new management techniques, and new strategies. On these three pillars rest all the new economy's laws and its profits."
Tichy includes this brief statement because it is directly relevant to his own objectives in The Cycle of Leadership but also because, unless and until an organizations has all three pillars (not one, not two but all three), it cannot survive major challenges which await them, many of which have yet to be revealed. That is to say, the Teaching Organization can only be built on the foundation they provide.
"Winning leaders are teachers, and winning organizations do encourage and reward teaching. But there is more to it than that. Winning organizations are explicitly designed to be Teaching Organizations, with business processes, organizational structures, and day-to-day operating mechanisms all built to promote teaching." However, Tichy doesn't stop there. More importantly, the teaching that takes place is a distinctive kind of teaching. It is interactive, two-way, even multi-way. Throughout the organization, `teachers' and `students' at all levels teach and learn from each other, and their interactions create a Virtuous Teaching Cycle that keeps generating more learning, more teaching, and the creation of new knowledge."
Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Peter M. Senge's The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (1990) and The Dance of Change: The Challenges of Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations (1999), William Isaacs' Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together: A Pioneering Approach to Communicating in Business and in Life (1999), Carla O'Dell's If Only We Knew What We Know: The Transfer of Internal Knowledge and Best Practice (1998), and Thomas H. Davenport and Laurence Prusak's Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know (1997).
Book Description
A step-by-step guide to performing the death-defying stunts you thought were only possible in the movies.
For the millions of armchair daredevils who made Worst Case Scenario a mega bestzseller, Hunter Fulghum offers an even more hair-raising handbook. The result of persistent probing, diligent research, and outrageous phone calls to institutions like Fort Knox and the Pentagon, Don't Try This at Home gives thrill seekers everywhere the insider information they crave to show them how to perform feats such as:
*Conduct a SWAT Team hostage
*Rappel off the Eiffel Tower
*Borrow the Mona Lisa
*Form an independent nation
*Break into Buckingham Palace
*Catch a great white shark
*Meet aliens at Area 51
Filled with step-by-step instructions, including lists of necessary tools, timing tips, and helpful illustrations, Don't Try This at Home provides the ultimate guide to doing the impossible.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting and goofy.......2007-02-22
Some are more realistic than others, but all are entertaining. I'll certainly allow this book when I start my own nation off the coast of Africa.
Need Something Amusing to Read?.......2006-03-22
I've found Don't Try This At Home to be lighthearted and fun. It's also impractical and seems to be based largely on complete fantasy. What is it about you ask? Think of it as a 264 page Do-It-Yourself guide for the armchair adventurer.
Megalomaniacs will want to skip right to "Form an Independent Nation". In just 8 short pages, Fulghum describes the steps you'd need to complete. Like most of the items in the book, Forming an Independent Nation does have a large number of prerequisites. For example you will need "hard currency", especially if you choose to acquire your nation through peaceful means. Well no worries, just check out Fulghum's section on stealing gold from Fort Knox.
Thrill seekers, there's plenty of material here for you too. Good starting points are "Fly Through the Eye of a Hurricane" or "Guide and Surface a Nuclear Sub through Ice". My personal favorite is "Drive a Tank through a Tornado". Fulghum says the tank is "available from the US Army, contact the Pentagon to arrange purchase or lease". Does anyone have a phone number?
This stuff might work!.......2005-10-18
So help me, a lot of this stuff might actually work... Of course most of their ideas would take more time, money and resources than i'll ever have, but they're fun to think about!
All you need to know about things you don't need to know.......2004-05-12
Imagine calling Fort Knox and asking the best way to break in and steal the gold. Don't have the guts for it? Don't worry, because Hunter Fulghum has done it for you. He has contacted everyone from the U.S. Dept. of Energy to his local alien experts to find out how you would do everything from Swim the English Channel to Borrow the Mona Lisa to Start an Independant Nation.
Aside from being funny and quite interesting, the book is very well written; I highly recommend it.
Good book.......2004-03-18
Great fun to read, though some of it is a bit obvious... By the way I am starting an independant nation, got this book because I figured I might as well. I was already planning on starting it before I got the book. Getting an island from Nicaragua to make it. Anyways good book. Get it.
Amazon.com
Dick Morris is one of America's sharpest political minds. As a professional consultant, he has helped candidates from both parties understand public opinion and win elections--most notably President Clinton in 1996 (an experience Morris described in the bestselling book Behind the Oval Office). He is also a founding father of "triangulation," a strategy Clinton employed to great effect; according to Morris, George W. Bush also uses it quite well. "The identification of certain problems with certain parties or factions opens up a magnificent strategic opportunity: the chance to solve the other side's problems," writes Morris in Power Plays. In other words, if public concerns about welfare dependency drive voters toward the GOP, then Democrats ought to confront this issue head-on. "Solve the problems that keep the other side in business, and it will go broke. Give them what they want and they will go away." Power Plays, however, is not simply a primer on triangulation; it is an analysis of how various political strategies have helped and hindered candidates. Morris writes at length about determining when standing for principle works and when it doesn't, as well as a number of other approaches, including "divide and conquer" and "reform your own party." This is a first-rate book for readers who enjoy the gamesmanship of politics.
Book Description
Dick Morris is the frankest and most outspoken political analyst in America today. His commentary on the Clinton White House, the 2000 election, and the rise of George W. Bush has been marked by the sharpeyed political savvy only an insider can bring to bear.Now, in Power Plays, Morris provides a revealing context for the machinations of contemporary politics. Casting an eye across the annals of history, Morris investigates 20 of the most dramatic political moves of all time -- from the wildly effective to the disastrous. From Abraham Lincoln splitting the opposition over slavery, to Winston Churchill's emergence from obscurity to lead Britain through WWII; from Ronald Reagan and his conservative doctrine taking over the country, to George W. Bush co-opting Democratic issues under the banner of "compassionate conservatism" -- Morris illuminates these and many other gambits through his uniquely insightful perspective. Equally compelling on successes and failures of the past-including the real reason A] Gore lost in 2000.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting, even if it is a bit simplified (a history teacher's review).......2007-07-03
Dick Morris, Washington insider turned political analyst, knows all about political strategy. He was once an advisor to Bill Clinton and is credited with coming up with Clinton's famed "triangulation" strategy. In this book, Morris identfies six political strategies that can lead to political success. Interestingly, he provides 20 splendid examples of how these strategies have been misplayed and have led to failure.
The six strategies are:
1. "Stand on Principle"
2. "Triangulate"
3. "Divide and Conquer"
4. "Reform your own Party"
5. "Use a new technology"
6. "Mobilizing the Nation in Times of Crisis"
Sometimes, Morris oversells his explanations. For example, he places Lincoln in the "Divide and Conquer" category, since the Democrats split themselves into three parties in the election of 1860 and allowed Lincoln to win the Presidential election. That makes sense, since the Democrats divided and the Republicans conquered. However, Morris makes it sound like Lincoln maneuvered the Democrats into their crisis as part of his master plan that began with comments and questions raised during the Lincoln/Douglas debates in 1858, rather then simply taking advantage of the split. Lincoln was a political genius, but Morris oversimplifies here.
I mentioned at the top that I am a history teacher. I am also a Spanish teacher and Morris quotes George W. Bush speaking Spanish in a campaign speech: "Muchos espanos viver en ese estado". That's not Spanish. That's not even Spanglish. I've heard Bush speak Spanish. It is nothing to brag about, but it is definitely serviceable. It threw the rest of Morris' research into doubt since he had obviously not even bothered to talk to any Spanish speaker to see if his attempt to write down Bush's Spanish words were even correct. Double checking research is always important. By the way, it should have been "Muchos hispanos viven en ese estado."
So, I give this one a B+. The grade was not really reduced because of the Spanish thing, although it left some nagging doubts and was a major pet peeve.
Political Strategies.......2007-04-17
Dick Morris Fox television network political analyst and former Clinton advisor identifies six strategies used by politicians throughout history. Morris presents twenty case studies--from Lincoln's Civil War tactics to Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign--assessing successes and failures in each. Includes commentary on the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the U.S. government's response. A must read book for all aspiring politicians.
Insight into Morris's Ability as Political Strategist.......2006-04-30
Morris is a political strategist and pollster of the first order, with the curriculum vitae and results to prove it. For this book he has distilled and collected from great leaders of the past and present some insights into political leadership. They are observations and illuminations brought out for the readers perusal.
I think the book highlights strong, courageous, decisive leadership, something of a rarity these days. By juxtapositioning those pearls against the mundane and self-seeking politicians, Morris is able to drive home the value of the former.
It should be a primer for those who want to lead. Study the best traits of the best leaders. Many, like Lincoln and Churchill faced immense obstacles and were arguably the man for the hour. Morris also plays out those who attempted great things but didn't have greatness in them.
Brilliant............2006-01-31
As George Stephanopolous said of Bill Clinton, "When things are in the dumps and getting worse, Morris is the first person he calls." Morris is a genius. Do people really know just how much of Bill Clinton's political life has been shaped and constructed by Dick Morris?? He is the mastermind. Like Karl Rove is now to George Bush, Morris was Clinton's #1 advisor. This book is a must read.
A political masterpiece.......2005-09-30
No one understands politics like Dick Morris -- he helped start, then rescue, the one President who knew politics was an art -- Bill Clinton. Whatever one may think about Clinton's policies, he was a man who knew how to play the game and play politics, and he got it all from Dick Morris. Morris is the greatest political strategist of the last 50 years (Karl Rove could learn a thing or two from Morris). Morris' principles on how to get ahead in politics can help anyone in any field where competition exists -- business, sports, politics, anywhere in the real world. People should heed Mr. Morris' words if they really want to know what it takes to get ahead at all costs.
Book Description
If a key to military victory is to "get there first with the most," the true test of the great general is to decide where "there" is—the enemy's Achilles heel. Here is a narrative account of decisive engagements that succeeded by brilliant strategy more than by direct force. The reader accompanies those who fought, from Roman legionaries and Mongol horsemen to Napoleonic soldiery, American Civil War Rebels and Yankees, World War I Tommies, Lawrence of Arabia's bedouins, Chinese revolutionaries, British Desert Rats, Rommel's Afrika Korps, and Douglas MacArthur's Inchon invaders. However varied their weapons, the soldiers of all these eras followed a commander who faced the same obstacles and demonstrated the strategic and tactical genius essential for victory. "All warfare is based on deception," wrote Sun Tzu in The Art of War in 400 BCE. Bevin Alexander shows how great generals have interpreted this advice, and why it still holds true today. Maps, illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating read!.......2007-07-25
This is the first book I read on war strategies. It is really a fascinating read, and in a way reads like a thriller. The battlefield is like a chess game, with opponents trying to outsmart and deceive each other. The book offers the reader a fascinating journey through the minds of some of the most famous generals in history. Readers will be introduced to the strategies of Hannibal, Scipio Africanus, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, William Tecumesh Sherman, T. E. Lawrence, Sir Edmund Allenby, Mao Zedong, Heinz Guderian, Erich von Manstein, Erwin Rommel, and Douglas MacArthur.
The author points out the exceptional as well as the bad choices that generals make. The reader will learn many war strategies which are fascinating to say the very least. For example, when fighting armies with elephants, the Romans shook bells, scarring the elephants and making them useless for battle.
Generals can succeed in one war but utterly fail in another. MacArthur is referred to by the author as the Jekyll and Hyde. In the Pacific theatre, MacArthur gained fame as an invincible general. However, during the Korean War, he made one mistake after another, and exposed his armies to unnecessary danger. Despite his tactical disasters during the Korean War, his fame and legend led the Truman administration to approve his disastrous strategies (as a footnote, many historians note that the United States has not won a single war since World War II!).
Deception is the main key to victory. Hannibal took his army through the formidable swamps of the Arnus River in Tuscany in 217 B.C. rather than face the Roman army directly. Not expecting such a move, the Romans left the route open, permitting Hannibal to emerge behind the Roman army with a clear road to Rome. This forced the Romans to abandon their strong position and rush after the Carthaginians. Hannibal ambushed the dislocated Romans at Lake Trasimene and destroyed nearly their entire army. Almost 70 thousand Romans dies that day!
The Carthaginians in Spain believed Scipio Africanus would strike at their armies and left unguarded their capital and principal port, New Carthage. But Scipio had deceived his enemies. He seized New Carthage in 209 B.C., cut off the main sea connection with Carthage, caused several Spanish tribes to come over to the Romans, and abruptly threw the Carthaginians on the strategic defensive.
Genghis Khan was another master of deception. He focused the attention of the Khwarezmian army by fierce attacks on cities along the Syr Darya in Turkestan in 1220. He then led a Mongol army across the supposedly impassable Kyzyl Kum to seize Bokhara, far in the enemy rear, isolating the Khwarezmian capital of Samarkand and blocking reinforcements from the south. In a single quick campaign, the Mongols captured Samarkand and destroyed the Khwarezmian Empire.
By demonstrating with part of his army at Valenza on the Po River in northern Italy in 1796, Napoleon convinced the Austrian commander this was the sole French target, drawing Austrian defenders to that point. Napoleon then marched the majority of his forces downstream to Piacanza, thereby turning all possible enemy lines of defense, and forcing the Austrians to abandon all of northern Italy except the fortress of Mantua.
When strong German forces attacked Holland and Belgium in 1940, British and French mobile forces rushed northward to block the advance. Erich von Manstein, knowing this would happen, sent his panzers through the supposedly impassable Ardennes to seize Sedan, which was defended only by second-rate troops. When this occurred, the German panzers had a clear path westward to the English Channel, trapping the Allied armies that had rushed into Belgium and ensuring the defeat of France.
The last chapter of this book covers the lessons learned in the war campaigns of the last 2,000 years. The author points out that war remains an art rather than a science, despite the immense amount of invention, industry, and technology lavished on war since the beginning of organized society. He further adds that although the principles of war are simple and can be learned by anyone, the application of each principle requires much care, skill, and caution.
I personally enjoyed the chapters on Hannibal, Scipio Africanus, and Genghis Khan the most. But let us not forget that war is a dirty business, and people die! It would be better to compete at chess games or at the Olympic Games. There are many none aggressive and none destructive ways to show one's talents for strategy. Hitler should have spent his days playing war games on his PlayStation 3 when he was not earning a decent living. I am against glamorizing war. The irony of life is that one is sent to the electric chair for killing another in cold blood in a dark alley while one is glamorized and hailed for bombing an entire city, killing thousands (the allied bombings of German and Japanese cities during World War II).
One minor issue I have is that I did not like the cover of this book. I read the July 1995 Avon Books edition. The cover portrayed the generals in a cartoonish manner. For the scope and seriousness of the book the cover did not do justice to the book.
A solid book on why good generals are good..........2005-05-26
Why do some generals do better than others? Bevin Alexander takes some of the great generals out of history and examines why they did so well. The author tries to point out the common traits and tactics each general shared. The selection of generals is interesting - Jackson and Sherman are picked over Lee and Grant.
But Mr. Alexander is also willing to point out some of the bad choices that these good generals sometimes made. Napoleon, for example, did great in Italy but in latter battles used frontal attacks instead of mobility and misdirection. He let the size of his army get in the way of good generalship.
The final chapter tries to tie it all together, listing simple ideas or rules, that all great generals followed.
The closer in time, the less objective........2004-04-26
Alexander has written a nice overview of some of military history's best generals. His overall thesis was certainly proven well, and he chose those generals who best proved his point. I particularly liked the chapters on Hannibal/Scipio, Genghis Khan, Sherman, and Rommel. This work could have been a five star book; however, his chapter on MacArthur was where the book lost me. Militarily speaking Alexander continued as he had throughout the book, but his political overview of the Communist threat was almost as ridiculous as was Toland's in 'In Mortal Combat', which dealt with Korea. Hence I do concur with one of the other individuals who reviewed this work that his objectivity is lacking in his more modern chapters. Nonetheless, save for the last chapter, this was a good overview for someone starting to learn about miliraty history and strategy, or it is a nice refresher.
Good, but could have easily been better.......2003-11-17
The choice of Generals to review did span much of recorded history, but huge chunks of history were missed. The first third of the book covers only 3 generals in all of recorded history up to 1800. Then the rest of the book (disporportionaly) covers the last 200 years. The review of campaigns was interesting, but some maps showed the flow of battles and others seemed to just be filler. The final two chapters on Rommel and MacArthur were done in too much detail. It became a deluge of unit identifiers and was hard to follow. All the recounts prior to these last two included not just historical review of engagement, but included analysis of what made the generals great -- not the last two recounts. I completely missed why reviewing and repreatedly reminding the reader of MacArthur's grand failure made him a great General? Finally, why were no naval and aviation generals included? Perhaps the book should have been "How Some Great Generals Won Some Ground Wars".
Great redefined.......2001-05-25
Bevin Alexander's book may redefine the meaning of "great" commander for some of its readers. A lot of readers are in the same classroom as I when it comes to military history. I grew up accepting that the generals presented to me in history class were the best because my betters said they were. Especially,when it came to the Civil War. They don't cast bronzes of incompetents, right? Maybe, maybe not, but Mr. Alexander did a convincing job explaining why some of history's spotlights are on the wrong statues. A lack of military history won't prevent anyone from reading and enjoying his book. He will set the stage for each adventure and allow the reader to be swept along by the likes of Hannibal, Lawrence of Arabia and Erwin Rommel without loosing him. These stories are real, first class, adventures and that's how Mr. Alexander's book comes across.
Average customer rating:
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Juegos de poder/ Power Plays: Win or Lose - How history's great political leaders play the game
Dick Morris
Manufacturer: El Ateneo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Spain
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| History
| Subjects
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General
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
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Leadership
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
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El Nuevo Principe
ASIN: 9500263750 |
Average customer rating:
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How to Win an Election: The Art of Political Campaigning
Paul Richards
Manufacturer: Politico's Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1902301579 |
Book Description
From choosing the new parish council to the race for the White House, all elections have elements in common – planning and organisation, formulating the message and communicating it to the electorate and dealing with the opposition. Paul Richards distils years of campaigning experience to offer a lively view of the art of electioneering for all would-be campaigners and candidates.
Paul Richards is a professional political campaigner, Chair of the Fabian Society and author of Be Your Own Spin Doctor.
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