Lives of Moral Leadership, Robert Coles
Lives of Moral Leadership, Robert Coles
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Lives of Moral Leadership
Men and Women Who Have Made a Difference

Author: Robert Coles

Narrator: Harry Goz

Abridged: 5 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/03/2000


Synopsis

In this rich and illuminating book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author Robert Coles creates a portrait of moral leadership--what it is, and how it is achieved--through stories of people who have led and inspired him: Robert Kennedy, Dorothy Day, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Erik Erikson, a Boston bus driver, teachers in college, medical school, and elementary school, among others.

Coles tells how to be a moral leader and shows how the intervention of one person can change the course of history, as well as influence the day-to-day quality of life in our homes, schools, communities, and nation. We need to "hand one another along" in life, says Coles, quoting his friend Walker Percy, and in Lives of Moral Leadership he explores how each of us can be engaged in a continual and mutual life-giving process of personal and national leadership development. Coles discusses how the actions of the American president affect the way people feel about themselves and the country, and-citing the influence of Shakespeare's Henry V on Robert Kennedy, and of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina on his own mother--explains how reading literature can motivate action and growth. The way in which moral leaders emerge today, and for all time, comes vividly to light in this brilliant book by one of America's finest teachers and writers.

About Robert Coles

Robert Coles is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Shane

Lives of Moral Leadership is a difficult book to review. The wide variety of ratings on the title should clue you in to that. It jumps back and forth between being breathtaking in its inspiration and being an impossibly dense read. If you stick with it to the end, though, you will not be disappointe......more

Goodreads review by Laurel

This short book left me with a powerful realization that has changed how I think about my role and career in social justice. A person’s contribution to a movement or to moving society towards (or against) progressive ideas is not necessarily measured by how all-in, absolute or extreme they are. Inst......more

Goodreads review by Dick

Walker Percy "Listen to people, see how they stick to themselves into the world, hand them along, and good and selfish reason. It only remains whether this vocation is best pursued in a service station or-" remember the moments " we do, indeed, no matter who we are, what we do, hand one another along,......more

Didn't actually finish the book, but did cause a little food for thought since I read this right before the election for a book club. The discussion actually influenced who I voted for! This book actually made me want to learn more about JFK and Robert Kennedy. As for Coles' style, it was a little h......more


Quotes

Praise for Robert Coles

"Robert Coles should be declared a national treasure."
-- The Washington Post Book World

"An important, illuminating book."
-- The New York Times Book Review, about The Moral Intelligence of Children

"Robert Coles . . . has told us more about the diverse and complex lives of children than any other scholar of his generation."
-- Alvin P. Sanoff, U.S. News & World Report, about The Spiritual Life of Children


"A timely, perhaps even timeless, summons to examine the question of moral example and rectitude."
-- Kirkus Reviews, about Lives of Moral Leadership