Moral Vision, Marvin Olasky
Moral Vision, Marvin Olasky
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Moral Vision
Leadership from George Washington to Joe Biden

Author: Marvin Olasky

Narrator: Tim H. Dixon

Unabridged: 14 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/28/2024


Synopsis

What makes a leader truly great? Is it simply a matter of management style and personality? Or is it character that matters most? Moral Visions takes an insightful look into America’s leaders of the past to answer these questions and demonstrates that values and moral convictions are critical to the strength of a nation.

Supposedly, we learn about the candidates for the highest office through a series of tests called “debates,” which are instead an exchange of soundbites. We can’t know whether an aspirant to the presidency has the ability to ask good questions or only a suave or belligerent ability to answer them. Moral Vision is a human-interest introduction to American history through studies of nineteen leaders: presidents, almost presidents, a tycoon, a crusading journalist, and even a leading 19th century abortionist. Its lessons can help voters sort through the candidates in 2024 and beyond by measuring them against previous leaders—none of whom was faultless. It shows how the deepest views often grow out of religious belief and influence political goals, racial prejudices, sexual activities, uses of power, and senses of service.

In his 1789 inaugural address, George Washington pledged that “the foundation for national policy will be laid in the sure and immutable principles of private morality.” Marvin Olasky shows how 19th-century leaders like Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Grover Cleveland partly upheld and partly ignored that promise, and 20th-century leaders like Woodrow Wilson, John F. Kennedy, and Bill Clinton tried to “compartmentalize” the private and the public.

An extensively updated version of The American Leadership Tradition, Moral Vision is for anyone tired of today’s textbook tendencies to submerge the role of individuals as big economic and demographic waves roll in. History is more than statistics, economics, and group identities. Human beings are more than paper boats riding the rainfall into gutters.

About Marvin Olasky

Marvin Olasky graduated from Yale University in 1971 and gained a PhD in American Culture from the University of Michigan in 1976. He was a professor at The University of Texas at Austin from 1983 to 2008 and has also had appointments at Patrick Henry College, Princeton, San Diego State, and The King’s College, New York City. He edited World magazine from 1992 to 2021, was a correspondent with The Boston Globe, a columnist with the Austin American-Statesman, and has research affiliations with Discovery Institute and Acton Institute.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Larry on March 05, 2024

Rating Rationale Reconsidered How should a book be rated? By its thoroughness and coherence to its topic, by its objectiveness, by its success in convincing the reader? Yes, often so, but there is another dimension that perhaps might be more important: its spur to critical thinking. I found shortcomi......more

Goodreads review by Sarah on March 02, 2024

Even before I finished the last page of this book I knew it would be a favorite, of this year, and of all the hundreds of books I’ve ever read. It is fascinating to learn where aspects of American policy and culture originated from—that is one part of it. (Fun fact—Haiti’s independence secured the U......more

Goodreads review by Jeff on June 07, 2024

Olasky is the former editor of World magazine. This is his look at the moral character of various leaders in American history. The title leads one to believe that it includes every president, but instead, it's a combination of selected presidents and other famous Americans (Henry Clay, Ida B. Wells,......more

Goodreads review by Joelendil on August 19, 2024

In this book, Marvin Olasky explores the idea that good personal character strongly correlates to good public leadership. His three primary criteria for good moral character seem to be: marital fidelity, personal religious observance, and treatment of minorities. Of these three, he seems to regard m......more