Bookshelf

Leadership Library

For this issue’s Leadership Library, I would like to recommend listening to a segment on The New Yorker Radio Hour dedicated to a unique book on leadership. Elizabeth Samet edited an anthology of readings on leadership. The anthology has an unusual range of authors (from Zadie Smith to Machiavelli), and that is because Samet is an unusual source of learning on leadership. Samet is not a titan of industry or a politician. For years, she has taught English at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Her interview explains what poetry and literature have to do with the army. She speaks about former students who wrote her to say that they thought of Shakespeare’s Henry V before a combat mission. The interview also touches on the idea that leadership grows out of ordinary moments and peace, not crisis and war. I am adding her anthology to my reading list. I hope to talk with a few of you about it the next time there’s a CALL Mentorship & Leadership Meet Up!