Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler never learned John Lewis Gaddis’ lesson: “If you seek ends beyond your means, then sooner or later you’ll have to scale back your ends to fit your means.” Russia proved too vast for them to conquer and dreams of dominion crashed to earth. Yale history professor Gaddis wrote On Grand Strategy in the manner of a lively graduate seminar—smart, lucid, referencing everyone from Herodotus and Sun Tzu to Niccolo Machiavelli and Leo Tolstoy. Less history than philosophy, On Grand Strategy values the ability of flexible leaders to shift course—working sideways if necessary—to reach a morally defensible goal. The apparent prevarications of Abraham Lincoln as he inched toward emancipation serves as an example. And the ability to steer through roiling currents is as useful in personal life and the workplace as it is in politics and war.
Shop for this title on Amazon:
