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The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism
Doris Kearns Goodwin
One of the Best Books of the Year as chosen by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, Time, USA TODAY, Christian Science Monitor, and more. “A tale so gripping that one questions the need for fiction when real life is so plump with drama and intrigue” (Associated Press).

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s The Bully Pulpit is a dynamic history of the first decade of the Progressive era, that tumultuous time when the nation was coming unseamed and reform was in the air.

The story is told through the intense friendship of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft—a close relationship that strengthens both men before it ruptures in 1912, when they engage in a brutal fight for the presidential nomination that divides their wives, their children, and their closest friends, while crippling the progressive wing of the Republican Party, causing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to be elected, and changing the country’s history.

The Bully Pulpit is also the story of the muckraking press, which arouses the spirit of reform that helps Roosevelt push the government to shed its laissez-faire attitude toward robber barons, corrupt politicians, and corporate exploiters of our natural resources. The muckrakers are portrayed through the greatest group of journalists ever assembled at one magazine—Ida Tarbell, Ray Stannard Baker, Lincoln Steffens, and William Allen White—teamed under the mercurial genius of publisher S.S. McClure.

Goodwin’s narrative is founded upon a wealth of primary materials. The correspondence of more than four hundred letters between Roosevelt and Taft begins in their early thirties and ends only months before Roosevelt’s death. Edith Roosevelt and Nellie Taft kept diaries. The muckrakers wrote hundreds of letters to one another, kept journals, and wrote their memoirs. The letters of Captain Archie Butt, who served as a personal aide to both Roosevelt and Taft, provide an intimate view of both men.

The Bully Pulpit, like Goodwin’s brilliant chronicles of the Civil War and World War II, exquisitely demonstrates her distinctive ability to combine scholarly rigor with accessibility. It is a major work of history—an examination of leadership in a rare moment of activism and reform that brought the country closer to its founding ideals.
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Winner of the Lincoln Prize

Acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin illuminates Abraham Lincoln's political genius in this highly original work, as the one-term congressman and prairie lawyer rises from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals of national reputation to become president.

On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the Republican National Convention in Chicago. When Lincoln emerged as the victor, his rivals were dismayed and angry.

Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each had energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and civil war. That Lincoln succeeded, Goodwin demonstrates, was the result of a character that had been forged by experiences that raised him above his more privileged and accomplished rivals. He won because he possessed an extraordinary ability to put himself in the place of other men, to experience what they were feeling, to understand their motives and desires.

It was this capacity that enabled Lincoln as president to bring his disgruntled opponents together, create the most unusual cabinet in history, and marshal their talents to the task of preserving the Union and winning the war.

We view the long, horrifying struggle from the vantage of the White House as Lincoln copes with incompetent generals, hostile congressmen, and his raucous cabinet. He overcomes these obstacles by winning the respect of his former competitors, and in the case of Seward, finds a loyal and crucial friend to see him through.

This brilliant multiple biography is centered on Lincoln's mastery of men and how it shaped the most significant presidency in the nation's history.
One Million Steps: A Marine Platoon at War
Bing West
Battalion 3/5 suffered the highest number of casualties in the war in Afghanistan. This is the story of one platoon in that distinguished battalion.
 
Aware of U.S. plans to withdraw from the country, knowing their efforts were only a footprint in the sand, the fifty Marines of 3rd Platoon fought in Sangin, the most dangerous district in all of Afghanistan. So heavy were the casualties that the Secretary of Defense offered to pull the Marines out. Instead, they pushed forward. Each Marine in 3rd Platoon patrolled two and a half miles a day for six months—a total of one million steps—in search of a ghostlike enemy that struck without warning. Why did the Marines attack and attack, day after day?  
 
Every day brought a new skirmish. Each footfall might trigger an IED. Half the Marines in 3rd Platoon didn’t make it intact to the end of the tour. One Million Steps is the story of the fifty brave men who faced these grim odds and refused to back down. Based on Bing West’s embeds with 3rd Platoon, as well as on their handwritten log, this is a gripping grunt’s-eye view of life on the front lines of America’s longest war. Writing with a combat veteran’s compassion for the fallen, West also offers a damning critique of the higher-ups who expected our warriors to act as nation-builders—and whose failed strategy put American lives at unnecessary risk.
 
Each time a leader was struck down, another rose up to take his place. How does one man instill courage in another? What welded these men together as firmly as steel plates?
 
This remarkable book is the story of warriors caught between a maddening, unrealistic strategy and their unswerving commitment to the fight. Fearsome, inspiring, and poignant in its telling, One Million Steps is sure to become a classic, a unique and enduring testament to the American warrior spirit.
 
Praise for One Million Steps
 
“West shows the reality of modern warfare in a way that is utterly gripping.”—Max Boot, author of Invisible Armies
 
“A gripping, boot-level account of Marines in Afghanistan during the bloody struggle with Taliban fighters.”—Los Angeles Times
 
“One Million Steps transcends combat narrative: It is an epic of contemporary small-unit combat.”—Eliot A. Cohen, author of Supreme Command
 
“A blistering assault on America’s senior military leadership.”—The Wall Street Journal
 
“A heart-pounding portrayal . . . a compelling account of what these men endured.”—The Washington Post
 
“Stunning, sobering, and brilliantly written.”—Newt Gingrich
 
“One of the most intrepid military journalists, Bing West, delivers a heart-wrenching account of one platoon’s fight.”—Bill Bennett, host of Morning in America
 
“Bing West has reconfirmed his standing as one of the most intrepid and insightful observers of America’s wars. . . . One Million Steps reveals the essence of small-unit combat, the very soul of war.”—The Weekly Standard
 
“A searing read, but it is one that all Americans should undertake. We send our sons into battle, and few know what our warriors experience.”—The Washington Times
Move Your Bus: An Extraordinary New Approach to Accelerating Success in Work and Life
Ron Clark
New York Times bestselling author and award-winning educator Ron Clark applies his successful leadership principles to the business world in this effective and accessible guidebook, perfect for any manager looking to inspire and motivate his or her team. Includes a foreword by bestselling author and FranklinCovey executive Sean Covey.

Teamwork is crucial to the success of any business, and as acclaimed author and speaker Ron Clark illustrates, the members of any team are the key to unlocking success. Imagine a company as a bus filled with people who either help or hinder a team’s ability to move it forward: drivers (who steer the organization), runners (who consistently go above and beyond for the good of the organization), joggers (who do their jobs without pushing themselves), walkers (who are just getting pulled along), and riders (who hinder success and drag the team down). It’s the team leader’s job to recognize how members fall into these categories, encourage them to keep the “bus” moving by working together, and know when it’s time to kick the riders off.

In the tradition of Who Moved My Cheese? and Fish!, Move Your Bus is an accessible and uplifting business parable that illustrates Clark’s expert strategies to maximize the performance of each member of a team. These easy to implement techniques will inspire employees and team leaders alike to work harder and smarter and drive the organization to succeed.
The Obamas
Jodi Kantor
Award-winning reporter Jodi Kantor takes readers deep inside the White House in an "insightful and evocative" portrait of Barack and Michelle Obama (Chicago Tribune) that will surprise even readers who thought they knew the two icons. 

When Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election, he also won a long-running debate with his wife Michelle. Contrary to her fears, politics now seemed like a worthwhile, even noble pursuit. Together they planned a White House life that would be as normal and sane as possible.

Then they moved in.

In the Obamas, Jodi Kantor takes us deep inside the White House as they try to grapple with their new roles, change the country, raise children, maintain friendships, and figure out what it means to be the first black President and First Lady. The Obamas is filled with riveting detail and insight into their partnership, emotions and personalities, and written with a keen eye for the ironies of public life. 
Step Up and Lead
Frank Viscuso
In his new book Step Up and Lead, Frank Viscuso--author, speaker, and career deputy chief--shares the secrets of effective fire service leadership, introduces the traits and skills essential for successful fire service leaders, and discusses the importance of customer service. Designed to help you reach the top of your profession, this new book is considered must-read material for anyone who is ready to step up and lead!
Eisenhower: Soldier and President
Stephen E. Ambrose
Stephen E. Ambrose draws upon extensive sources, an unprecedented degree of scholarship, and numerous interviews with Eisenhower himself to offer the fullest, richest, most objective rendering yet of the soldier who became president.

He gives us a masterly account of the European war theater and Eisenhower's magnificent leadership as Allied Supreme Commander. Ambrose's recounting of Eisenhower's presidency, the first of the Cold War, brings to life a man and a country struggling with issues as diverse as civil rights, atomic weapons, communism, and a new global role.

Along the way, Ambrose follows the 34th President's relations with the people closest to him, most of all Mamie, his son John, and Kay Summersby, as well as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Harry Truman, Nixon, Dulles, Khrushchev, Joe McCarthy, and indeed, all the American and world leaders of his time. This superb interpretation of Eisenhower's life confirms Stephen Ambrose's position as one of our finest historians.
The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan
Rick Perlstein
The New York Times bestselling dazzling portrait of America on the verge of a nervous breakdown in the tumultuous political and economic times of the 1970s.

In January of 1973 Richard Nixon announced the end of the Vietnam War and prepared for a triumphant second term—until televised Watergate hearings revealed his White House as little better than a mafia den. The next president declared upon Nixon’s resignation “our long national nightmare is over”—but then congressional investigators exposed the CIA for assassinating foreign leaders. The collapse of the South Vietnamese government rendered moot the sacrifice of some 58,000 American lives. The economy was in tatters. And as Americans began thinking about their nation in a new way—as one more nation among nations, no more providential than any other—the pundits declared that from now on successful politicians would be the ones who honored this chastened new national mood.

Ronald Reagan never got the message. Which was why, when he announced his intention to challenge President Ford for the 1976 Republican nomination, those same pundits dismissed him—until, amazingly, it started to look like he just might win. He was inventing the new conservative political culture we know now, in which a vision of patriotism rooted in a sense of American limits was derailed in America’s Bicentennial year by the rise of the smiling politician from Hollywood. Against a backdrop of melodramas from the Arab oil embargo to Patty Hearst to the near-bankruptcy of America’s greatest city, The Invisible Bridge asks the question: what does it mean to believe in America? To wave a flag—or to reject the glibness of the flag wavers?
The Essential 55: An Award-Winning Educator's Rules for Discovering the Successful Student in Every Child
Ron Clark
When Ron Clark walked into his fifth-grade class in rural North Carolina, he was confronted with a tremendous challenge. The children had little interest in learning, and were sorely lacking in guidance. How would he transform a group of apathetic kids into disciplined, thoughtful, and curious students? He quickly realized that they needed to learn some basic rules. Clark compiled a list of 55 lessons, and soon, his fifth-grade students--who once struggled to read at the third-grade level--were reading at the sixth-grade level . . . and loving it. What's more, they were gaining something crucial-self-respect. Those 55 lessons evolved into what Clark calls The Essential 55 -- guidelines for living and interacting with others.The Essential 55 will prepare parents and educators to teach students the rules for life -- everything from knowing how to say thank you, to acing an interview.
The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House
John F. Harris
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The definitive account of one of the most accomplished, controversial, and polarizing figures in American history

Bill Clinton is the most arresting leader of his generation. He transformed American politics, and his eight years as president spawned arguments that continue to resonate. For all that has been written about this singular personality–including Clinton’s own massive autobiography–there has been no comprehensive, nonpartisan overview of the Clinton presidency.

Few writers are as qualified and equipped to tackle this vast subject as the award-winning veteran Washington Post correspondent John F. Harris, who covered Clinton for six of his eight years in office–as long as any reporter for a major newspaper. In The Survivor, Harris frames the historical debate about President William Jefferson Clinton, by revealing the inner workings of the Clinton White House and providing the first objective analysis of Clinton’s leadership and its consequences.

Harris shows Clinton entering the Oval Office in 1993 primed to make history. But with the Cold War recently concluded and the country coming off a nearly uninterrupted generation of Republican presidents, the new president’s entry into this maelstrom of events was tumultuous. His troubles were exacerbated by the habits, personal contacts, and the management style, he had developed in his years as governor of Arkansas. Clinton’s enthusiasm and temper were legendary, and he and Hillary Rodham Clinton–whose ambitions and ordeals also fill these pages–arrived filled with mistrust about many of the characters who greeted them in the “permanent Washington” that often holds the reins in the nation’s capital.

Showing surprising doggedness and a deep-set desire to govern from the middle, Clinton repeatedly rose to the challenges; eventually winning over (or running over) political adversaries on both sides of the aisle–sometimes facing as much skepticism from fellow Democrats as from his Republican foes. But as Harris shows in his accounts of political debacles such as the attempted overhaul of health care, Clinton’s frustrations in the war against terrorism, and the numerous personal controversies that time and again threatened to consume his presidency, Bill Clinton could never manage to outrun his tendency to favor conciliation over clarity, or his own destructive appetites.

The Survivor is the best kind of history, a book filled with major revelations–the tense dynamic of the Clinton inner circle and Clinton’s professional symbiosis with Al Gore to the imprint of Clinton’s immense personality on domestic and foreign affairs–as well as the minor details that leaven all great political narratives. This long-awaited synthesis of the dominant themes, events, and personalities of the Clinton years will stand as the authoritative and lasting work on the Clinton Presidency.
Five Alarm Leadership: From the Firehouse to the Fireground
Rick Lasky
Rick Lasky and John Salka are two of the most dynamic and inspirational leaders in the fire service. Their book, Five Alarm Leadership, is a compilation of leadership lessons learned, situations handled, decisions made, and problems solved during their combined 60-plus years of fire service experience. Also included is a special introduction by Chief (ret.) Bobby Halton, Editor-in-Chief of Fire Engineering magazine, outlining the nature of transformational leadership and its power to inspire excellence in the fire service.
Chicken Soup for the Teacher's Soul: Stories to Open the Hearts and Rekindle the Spirits of Educators
Jack Canfield
Most people recall a teacher or two who had a significant impact on their future. In fact, outside the family unit, teachers have more influence on our lives than anyone else. Good teachers help students believe in themselves with a glimpse of what they might become. They go the extra mile to make learning fun and meaningful, and they inspire students to dream and broaden their horizons. Teachers have the power to change lives.
McCain's Promise: Aboard the Straight Talk Express with John McCain and a Whole Bunch of Actual Reporters, Thinking About Hope
David Foster Wallace
Is John McCain "For Real?"

That's the question David Foster Wallace set out to explore when he first climbed aboard Senator McCain's campaign caravan in February 2000. It was a moment when Mccain was increasingly perceived as a harbinger of change, the anticandidate whose goal was "to inspire young Americans to devote themselves to causes greater than their own self-interest." And many young Americans were beginning to take notice.

To get at "something riveting and unspinnable and true" about John Mccain, Wallace finds he must pierce the smoke screen of spin doctors and media manipulators. And he succeeds-in a characteristically potent blast of journalistic brio that not only captures the lunatic rough-and-tumble of a presidential campaign but also delivers a compelling inquiry into John McCain himself: the senator, the POW, the campaign finance reformer, the candidate, the man.
Think and Grow Rich
Napoleon Hill
Think and Grow Rich is a motivational personal development and self-help book by Napoleon Hill. The book was heavily inspired by the work of Andrew Carnegie. While the title focuses on how to get rich, the author explains that the philosophy taught in the book can be used to help people succeed in all lines of work and to do or be almost anything they want.
The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement: The Battle for Control of the Law
Steven M. Teles
Starting in the 1970s, conservatives learned that electoral victory did not easily convert into a reversal of important liberal accomplishments, especially in the law. As a result, conservatives' mobilizing efforts increasingly turned to law schools, professional networks, public interest groups, and the judiciary--areas traditionally controlled by liberals. Drawing from internal documents, as well as interviews with key conservative figures, The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement examines this sometimes fitful, and still only partially successful, conservative challenge to liberal domination of the law and American legal institutions.


Unlike accounts that depict the conservatives as fiendishly skilled, The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement reveals the formidable challenges that conservatives faced in competing with legal liberalism. Steven Teles explores how conservative mobilization was shaped by the legal profession, the legacy of the liberal movement, and the difficulties in matching strategic opportunities with effective organizational responses. He explains how foundations and groups promoting conservative ideas built a network designed to dislodge legal liberalism from American elite institutions. And he portrays the reality, not of a grand strategy masterfully pursued, but of individuals and political entrepreneurs learning from trial and error.


Using previously unavailable materials from the Olin Foundation, Federalist Society, Center for Individual Rights, Institute for Justice, and Law and Economics Center, The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement provides an unprecedented look at the inner life of the conservative movement. Lawyers, historians, sociologists, political scientists, and activists seeking to learn from the conservative experience in the law will find it compelling reading.
School Culture Rewired: How to Define, Assess, and Transform It
Steve Gruenert
Your school is a lot more than a center of student learning—it also represents a self-contained culture, with traditions and expectations that reflect its unique mission and demographics. In this groundbreaking book, education experts Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker offer tools, strategies, and advice for defining, assessing, and ultimately transforming your school's culture into one that is positive, forward-looking, and actively working to enrich students’ lives. Drawing from decades of research on organizational cultures and school leadership, the authors provide everything you need to optimize both the culture and climate of your school, including
  • "Culture-busting" strategies to help teachers adopt positive attitudes, outlooks, and behaviors;
  • A framework for pinpointing the type of culture you have, the type that you want, and the actions you need to take to bridge the two;
  • Tips for hiring, training, and retaining teachers who will actively work to improve your school's culture; and
  • Instructions on how to create and implement a successful School Culture Rewiring Team.

Though often invisible to the naked eye, a school's culture influences everything that takes place under its roof. Whether your school is urban or rural, prosperous or struggling, School Culture Rewired is the ultimate guide to making sure that the culture in your school is guided first and foremost by what's best for your students.

The Longer I'm Prime Minister: Stephen Harper and Canada, 2006-
Paul Wells
WINNER 2014 – Ottawa Book Award for Non-Fiction

The definitive portrait of Stephen Harper in power by this country’s most trenchant, influential and surprising political commentator.
 
Oh, he won, but he won’t last. Oh, he may win again but he won’t get a majority. Oh, his trick bag is emptying fast, the ads are backfiring, the people are onto him, and soon his own party will turn on him. And let me tell you, it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy . . .

Despite a constant barrage of outrage and disbelief from his detractors, Stephen Harper is on his way to becoming one of Canada’s most significant prime ministers. He has already been in power longer than Lester B. Pearson and John Diefenbaker. By 2015, and the end of this majority term, he’ll have caught up to Brian Mulroney. No matter the ups and downs, the triumphs and the self-inflicted wounds, Harper has been moving to build the Canada he wants—the Canada a significant proportion of Canadian voters want or they wouldn’t have elected him three times. As Wells writes, “He could not win elections without widespread support in the land. . . . Which suggests that Harper has what every successful federal leader has needed to survive over a long stretch of time: a superior understanding of Canada.”

In The Longer I’m Prime Minister, Paul Wells explores just what Harper’s understanding of Canada is, and who he speaks for in the national conversation. He explains Harper not only to Harper supporters but also to readers who can’t believe he is still Canada’s prime minister. In this authoritative, engaging and sometimes deeply critical account of the man, Paul Wells also brings us an illuminating portrait of Canadian democracy: “glorious, a little dented, and free.”
Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?
Michael J. Sandel
A renowned Harvard professor's brilliant, sweeping, inspiring account of the role of justice in our society--and of the moral dilemmas we face as citizens

What are our obligations to others as people in a free society? Should government tax the rich to help the poor? Is the free market fair? Is it sometimes wrong to tell the truth? Is killing sometimes morally required? Is it possible, or desirable, to legislate morality? Do individual rights and the common good conflict?

Michael J. Sandel's "Justice" course is one of the most popular and influential at Harvard. Up to a thousand students pack the campus theater to hear Sandel relate the big questions of political philosophy to the most vexing issues of the day, and this fall, public television will air a series based on the course. Justice offers readers the same exhilarating journey that captivates Harvard students. This book is a searching, lyrical exploration of the meaning of justice, one that invites readers of all political persuasions to consider familiar controversies in fresh and illuminating ways. Affirmative action, same-sex marriage, physician-assisted suicide, abortion, national service, patriotism and dissent, the moral limits of markets—Sandel dramatizes the challenge of thinking through these con?icts, and shows how a surer grasp of philosophy can help us make sense of politics, morality, and our own convictions as well. Justice is lively, thought-provoking, and wise—an essential new addition to the small shelf of books that speak convincingly to the hard questions of our civic life.
Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe
Anthony Summers
New York Times Bestseller: The definitive biography based on over six hundred interviews with people who knew Marilyn Monroe both professionally and intimately.
 
Marilyn Monroe, born in obscurity and deprivation, became an actress and legend of the twentieth century, romantically linked to famous men from Joe DiMaggio to Arthur Miller to John F. Kennedy. But her tragic death at a young age, under suspicious circumstances, left behind a mystery that remains unsolved to this day.
 
Anthony Summers interviewed more than six hundred people, laying bare the truths—sometimes funny, often sad—about this brilliant, troubled woman. The first to gain access to the files of Monroe’s last psychiatrist, Summers uses the documents to explain her tangled psyche and her dangerous addiction to medications. He establishes, after years of mere rumor, that President Kennedy and his brother Robert were both intimately involved with Monroe in life—and in covering up the circumstances of her death.
 
Written by a Pulitzer Prize nominee who has authored works on JFK, J. Edgar Hoover, and the 9/11 attacks, this investigation of an iconic star’s brief life and early death is “remarkable. . . .  The ghost of Marilyn Monroe cries out in these pages” (The New York Times).
   
Designing Groupwork: Strategies for the Heterogeneous Classroom, Third Edition
Elizabeth G. Cohen
As teachers today work in ever more challenging contexts, groupwork remains a particularly effective pedagogical strategy. Based on years of research and teaching experience, the new edition of this popular book features significant updates on the successful use of cooperative learning to build equitable classrooms. Designing Groupwork, Third Edition incorporates current research findings with new material on what makes for a groupworthy task, and shows how groupwork contributes to growth and development in the language of instruction. Responding to new curriculum standards and assessments across all grade levels and subject areas, this edition shows teachers how to organize their classroom so that all students participate actively. This valuable and sensible resource is essential reading for educators at both the elementary and secondary levels, for teachers in training, and for anyone working in the field of education.

“There is nothing as practical as a good theory, experts often say. Complex Instruction is surely one terrific theory, and Designing Groupwork is certainly one terrific book.”
—From the Foreword by Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education, Stanford University

“Hugely respectful, this book doesn’t simply tell educators what to do, but explains why and how their practice of groupwork can be both deeply educative and powerfully equitable.”
—Jeannie Oakes, director, Educational Opportunity and Scholarship, Ford Foundation, and Presidential Professor Emerita, UCLA

“Designing Groupwork has become a well-thumbed mainstay on teachers’ and teacher educators’ book shelves. The new edition updates a classic text for those who want both theory and practice on using this tool for daily lessons in diverse classrooms.”
—Larry Cuban, Professor Emeritus of Education, Stanford University

“One of the most useful and well-researched books on the topic. One of the best resources for teachers seeking to build communities of learners within their classroom walls. Designing Groupwork has earned its place in the library of anyone seeking to create high-achieving, equitable classrooms.”
—Horace (of second edition)

The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style from FDR to Barack Obama - Third Edition, Edition 3
Fred I. Greenstein
Fred I. Greenstein has long been one of our keenest observers of the modern presidency. In The Presidential Difference, he provides a fascinating and instructive account of the presidential qualities that have served well and poorly in the Oval Office, beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt's first hundred days. He surveys each president's political skill, vision, cognitive style, organizational capacity, ability to communicate, and emotional intelligence--and argues that the last is the most important in predicting presidential success. Throughout, Greenstein offers a series of bottom-line judgments on each of his thirteen subjects as well as an overarching theory of why presidents succeed or fail.


In this new edition, Greenstein assesses President George W. Bush in the wake of his two terms. The book also includes a new chapter on the leadership style of President Obama and how we can expect it to affect his presidency and legacy.
Overreach: Leadership in the Obama Presidency
George C. Edwards III
How Obama overestimated the power of rhetoric and persuasion during his presidency

When Barack Obama became president, many Americans embraced him as a transformational leader who would fundamentally change the politics and policy of the country. Yet, two years into his administration, the public resisted his calls for support and Congress was deadlocked over many of his major policy proposals. How could this capable new president have difficulty attaining his goals? Did he lack tactical skills?

In Overreach, respected presidential scholar George Edwards argues that the problem was strategic, not tactical. He finds that in President Obama's first two years in office, Obama governed on the premise that he could create opportunities for change by persuading the public and some congressional Republicans to support his major initiatives. As a result, he proposed a large, expensive, and polarizing agenda in the middle of a severe economic crisis. The president's proposals alienated many Americans and led to a severe electoral defeat for the Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections, undermining his ability to govern in the remainder of his term.

Edwards shows that the president's frustrations were predictable and the inevitable result of misunderstanding the nature of presidential power. The author demonstrates that the essence of successful presidential leadership is recognizing and exploiting existing opportunities, not in creating them through persuasion. When Obama succeeded in passing important policies, it was by mobilizing Democrats who were already predisposed to back him. Thus, to avoid overreaching, presidents should be alert to the limitations of their power to persuade and rigorously assess the possibilities for obtaining public and congressional support in their environments.
Kissinger: A Biography
Walter Isaacson
The definitive biography of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and how his ideas still resonate in the world today from the bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs.

By the time Henry Kissinger was made secretary of state in 1973, he had become, according to the Gallup Poll, the most admired person in America and one of the most unlikely celebrities ever to capture the world's imagination. Yet Kissinger was also reviled by large segments of the American public, ranging from liberal intellectuals to conservative activists. Kissinger explores the relationship between this complex man’s personality and the foreign policy he pursued. Drawing on extensive interviews with Kissinger as well as 150 other sources, including US presidents and his business clients, this first full-length biography makes use of many of Kissinger’s private papers and classified memos to tell his uniquely American story. The result is an intimate narrative, filled with surprising revelations, that takes this grandly colorful statesman from his childhood as a persecuted Jew in Nazi Germany, through his tortured relationship with Richard Nixon, to his later years as a globe-trotting business consultant.
All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings
George H.W. Bush
Former President George H.W. Bush, revealed through his letters and writings from 1941 to 2010, is “worth its weight in gold…a valuable update of the life of an honorable American leader” (The Washington Post).

“Who knew that beneath George Bush’s buttoned-up propriety pulsed the warm heart of a prolific and occasionally poetic writer with a wacky sense of humor?” (People) Though reticent in public, George Bush openly shared his private thoughts in correspondence throughout his life. This collection of letters, diary entries, and memos is the closest we’ll ever get to his autobiography.

Organized chronologically, readers will gain insights into Bush’s career highlights—the oil business, his two terms in Congress, his ambassadorship to the UN, his service as an envoy to China, his tenure with the Central Intelligence Agency, and of course, the vice presidency, the presidency, and the post-presidency. They will also observe a devoted husband, father, and American. Ranging from a love letter to Barbara and a letter to his mother about missing his daughter, Robin, after her death from leukemia to a letter to his children written just before the beginning of Desert Storm, this collection is remarkable for Bush’s candor, humor, and poignancy.

“An unusual glimpse of the private thoughts of a public figure” (Newsweek), this revised edition includes new letters and photographs that highlight the Bush family’s enduring legacy, including letters that cover George W. Bush’s presidency, 9/11, Bush senior’s work with President Clinton to help the victims of natural disasters, and the meaning of friendship and family. All the Best, George Bush “will shed more light on the man’s personal character and public persona than any memoir or biography could” (Publishers Weekly).
Schools That Learn (Updated and Revised): A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education
Peter M. Senge
"A rich, much-needed remedy for the standardized institutions that comprise too much of our school system today… ideal for teachers and parents intent on resurrecting and fostering students' inherent drive to learn…An essential resource."
-Daniel H. Pink, author of DRIVE and A WHOLE NEW MIND

“Schools that Learn is a magnificent, grand book that pays equal attention to the small and the big picture - and what's more integrates them. There is no book on education change that comes close to Senge et al's sweeping and detailed treatment. Classroom, school, community, systems, citizenry---it's all there. The core message is stirring: what if we viewed schools as a means of shifting society for the better!"
-Michael Fullan, author of Change Leader and Learning Places

A new edition of the groundbreaking book that brings organizational learning and systems thinking into classrooms and schools, showing how to keep our nation’s educational system competitive in today’s world.

Revised and updated - with more than 100 pages of new material – for the first time since its initial  publication in 2000 comes a new edition of the seminal work acclaimed as one of the best books ever written about education and schools.

A unique collaboration between the celebrated management thinker and Fifth Discipline author Peter Senge and a team of renowned educators and organizational change leaders, Schools that Learn  describes how schools can adapt, grow, and change in the face of the demands and challenges of our society, and provides tools, techniques and references for bringing those aspirations to life.  

The new revised and updated edition offers practical advice for overcoming the many challenges that face our communities and educational systems today. It shows teachers, administrators, students, parents and community members how to successfully use principles of organizational learning, including systems thinking and shared vision, to address the challenges that face our nation's schools.   In a fast-changing world where school populations are increasingly diverse, children live in ever-more-complex social and media environments, standardized tests are applied as overly simplistic "quick fixes," and advances in science and technology continue to accelerate, the pressures on our educational system are inescapable. Schools That Learn offers a much-needed way to open dialogue about these  problems – and provides pragmatic opportunities to transform school systems into learning organizations.

Drawing on observations and advice from more than 70  writers and experts on schools and education, this book features: 

-Methods for implementing organizational learning and explanations of why they work
-Compelling stories and anecdotes from the “field” -  classrooms, schools, and communities
-Charts, tables and diagrams to illustrate systems thinking and other practices
-Guiding principles for how to apply innovative practices in all types of school systems
-Individual exercises useful for both teachers and students
-Team exercises to foster communication within the classroom, school, or community group
-New essays on topics like educating for sustainability, systems thinking in the classroom, and “the great game of high school.”
-New recommendations for related books, articles, videotapes and web sites
-And more

Schools That Learn is the essential guide for anyone who cares about the future of education and keeping our nation’s schools competitive in our fast-changing world.   
 
 
The Strategic President: Persuasion and Opportunity in Presidential Leadership
George C. Edwards III
How do presidents lead? If presidential power is the power to persuade, why is there a lack of evidence of presidential persuasion? George Edwards, one of the leading scholars of the American presidency, skillfully uses this contradiction as a springboard to examine--and ultimately challenge--the dominant paradigm of presidential leadership. The Strategic President contends that presidents cannot create opportunities for change by persuading others to support their policies. Instead, successful presidents facilitate change by recognizing opportunities and fashioning strategies and tactics to exploit them.


Edwards considers three extraordinary presidents--Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan--and shows that despite their considerable rhetorical skills, the public was unresponsive to their appeals for support. To achieve change, these leaders capitalized on existing public opinion. Edwards then explores the prospects for other presidents to do the same to advance their policies. Turning to Congress, he focuses first on the productive legislative periods of FDR, Lyndon Johnson, and Reagan, and finds that these presidents recognized especially favorable conditions for passing their agendas and effectively exploited these circumstances while they lasted. Edwards looks at presidents governing in less auspicious circumstances, and reveals that whatever successes these presidents enjoyed also resulted from the interplay of conditions and the presidents' skills at understanding and exploiting them.



The Strategic President revises the common assumptions of presidential scholarship and presents significant lessons for presidents' basic strategies of governance.
The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita
A groundbreaking new theory of the real rules of politics: leaders do whatever keeps them in power, regardless of the national interest.
As featured on the viral video Rules for Rulers, which has been viewed over 3 million times.
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith's canonical book on political science turned conventional wisdom on its head. They started from a single assertion: Leaders do whatever keeps them in power. They don't care about the "national interest"-or even their subjects-unless they have to.
This clever and accessible book shows that democracy is essentially just a convenient fiction. Governments do not differ in kind but only in the number of essential supporters, or backs that need scratching. The size of this group determines almost everything about politics: what leaders can get away with, and the quality of life or misery under them. The picture the authors paint is not pretty. But it just may be the truth, which is a good starting point for anyone seeking to improve human governance.
Caring Enough to Lead: How Reflective Practice Leads to Moral Leadership, Edition 3
Leonard O. Pellicer
"Leonard Pellicer is more believable than many authors because he practices what he preaches. This book represents a gift from someone who shows us that leading and caring go hand in hand. I have skimmed through all too many books on leadership. Most don′t speak to me. This one got my attention. Through a rich collection of anecdotes and stories, rather than pronouncements and recipes, I know it will grab yours."
—From the Foreword by Terrence E. Deal

"Pellicer reminds educators why we entered the education field in the first place. He has hit the proverbial nail on its head, and I highly encourage all graduate schools of education and all teacher leaders to make this book required reading!"
—Candace Bower, Instructor
New York State Teacher Center Leadership Academy

"This book is addictive. It has a very personal feel to it, as if the author is talking to the reader."
—Kathe Stanley, Art Teacher
Richmond Drive Elementary School, Rock Hill, SC

"I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The author′s personal stories were realistic, which made his points easy to envision. I am thankful for the privilege of adding this to my library."
—Douglas Rinaca, Sixth-Grade Teacher
Chester Middle School, Gastonia, NC

Discover the meaning of caring leadership and bring your school to a new level of excellence!

The author examines what it means to be an effective, caring leader who develops meaningful bonds with staff members to establish common core values. This updated edition of a bestseller demonstrates the relationship between caring leadership and moral and ethical choices and expands on the power of caring leadership to transform schools. This revised edition provides veteran and aspiring leaders with:

  • Two new chapters on the art of caring leadership
  • Real-world examples that illustrate what leaders encounter each day
  • Expanded reflective exercises in each chapter
Change Your Questions, Change Your Life: 12 Powerful Tools for Leadership, Coaching, and Life, Edition 3
Marilee G. Adams Ph.D.
What questions lead to our biggest breakthroughs and successes? In this new and revised third edition, Marilee Adams describes how questions shape our thinking and how personal and organizational problems can often be traced to the kinds of questions we ask.

Drawing on decades of research and experience as a coach and consultant, Adams uses a highly instructive and entertaining story that illustrates how to quickly recognize any undermining questions that pop into your mind--or out of your mouth-and reframe them to achieve amazingly positive and practical results. The book's informative Choice Map helps guide you through this Question Thinking process. The result? More effective communication, greater collaboration, and highly effective solutions to problems in any situation.

Change Your Questions, Change Your Life is an international bestseller whose global reputation has spread largely through word of mouth. The extensively revised third edition includes a new introduction and epilogue and two powerful new tools that show how Question Thinking can dramatically improve coaching and leadership. This entertaining, step-by-step book can make a life-transforming difference-it already has for hundreds of thousands of people around the world. Great results really do begin with great questions. Marilee Adams's clear instructions show you how!
The Clinton Charisma: A Legacy of Leadership
Donald T. Phillips
It is often overlooked, but Bill Clinton assumed the presidency in one of the most difficult times in our nation's history. The country was in a deep recession, the end of the Cold War had created new threats to our national security, and our health care system was in shambles.
The country has now come full circle. Leadership has been replaced with self-interest, cronyism, and fear. More than ever, Bill Clinton's candor and success in adversity warrant revisiting during this age of a closed-door administration and governmental incompetence.
The Clinton Charisma is a fascinating, prescriptive guide that reveals the former president's complex leadership techniques, including his attention to public opinion, his ability to take quick corrective action, and his efficient damage control in the face of political and personal difficulty.
From diversity to decisiveness, from consensus to compromise, each chapter explores how Clinton employed important leadership principles and the ways in which they were--or were not--effective.
The author asks in the introduction, "Are there lessons to be learned from his time in office--from his damage control strategies, from his ability to implement diversity, or from his decision-making process?"
The answer, as Donald T. Phillips's The Clinton Charisma makes compellingly clear, is yes.
Vision Mindset Grit: How to Stand Up When Life Paralyzes You
Scott Burrows
Scott Burrows' riveting story of overcoming adversity through sheer determination, will power and goal setting is infectious. Scott played college football at Florida State University under coach Bobby Bowden and was a top ranked kickboxing champion, having his last fight broadcast by ESPN. His future was filled with promise until November 3, 1984 when, at the age of 19, he was critically injured in a disastrous automobile accident and everything changed in the blink of an eye. Scott survived, but was paralyzed and diagnosed a quadriplegic.

Despite this grim prognosis, he refused to be sidelined. He endured years of grueling physical therapy, learned to walk again with the aid of a cane, graduated from college, had a successful career in the insurance and financial industry—even qualifying for Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), a 100% commission-driven award that fewer than 8% of agents worldwide achieve yearly. Later, Scott became a world-class motivational speaker.

Vision, Mindset and Grit—three powerful words that describe Scott Burrows—will also inspire you to achieve your absolute best. This book is more than the story of Scott's determination to overcome enormous obstacles and rebuild his life. It is a testament to his intention to inspire others and help them triumph over adversity as well. He has shared his message of hope and success with audiences throughout the world and motivated them to make positive changes in their own lives.
HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton
Jonathan Allen
The mesmerizing story of Hillary Clinton's political rebirth, based on eyewitness accounts from deep inside her inner circle

Hillary Clinton’s surprising defeat in the 2008 Democratic primary brought her to the nadir of her political career, vanquished by a much younger opponent whose message of change and cutting-edge tech team ran circles around her stodgy campaign. And yet, six years later, she has reemerged as an even more powerful and influential figure, a formidable stateswoman and the presumed front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, marking one of the great political comebacks in history. 
 
The story of Hillary’s phoenixlike rise is at the heart of HRC, a riveting political biography that journeys into the heart of “Hillaryland” to discover a brilliant strategist at work. Masterfully unfolded by Politico’s Jonathan Allen and The Hill’s Amie Parnes from more than two hundred top-access interviews with Hillary’s intimates, colleagues, supporters, and enemies, HRC portrays a seasoned operator who negotiates political and diplomatic worlds with equal savvy. Loathed by the Obama team in the wake of the primary, Hillary worked to become the president’s greatest ally, their fates intertwined in the work of reestablishing America on the world stage. HRC puts readers in the room with Hillary during the most intense and pivotal moments of this era, as she mulls the president-elect’s offer to join the administration, pulls the strings to build a coalition for his war against Libya, and scrambles to deal with the fallout from the terrible events in Benghazi—all while keeping one eye focused on 2016.
 
HRC offers a rare look inside the merciless Clinton political machine, as Bill Clinton handled the messy business of avenging Hillary’s primary loss while she tried to remain above the partisan fray. Exploring her friendships and alliances with Robert Gates, David Petraeus, Leon Panetta, Joe Biden, and the president himself, Allen and Parnes show how Hillary fundamentally transformed the State Department through the force of her celebrity and her unparalleled knowledge of how power works in Washington. Filled with deep reporting and immersive storytelling, this remarkable portrait of the most important female politician in American history is an essential inside look at the woman who may be our next president.
Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply Change the World
Srdja Popovic
An urgent and accessible handbook for peaceful protesters, activists, and community organizers—anyone trying to defend their rights, hold their government accountable, or change the world

Blueprint for Revolution will teach you how to
• make oppression backfire by playing your opponents’ strongest card against them
• identify the “almighty pillars of power” in order to shift the balance of control
• dream big, but start small: learn how to pick battles you can win
• listen to what people actually care about in order to incorporate their needs into your revolutionary vision
• master the art of compromise to bring together even the most disparate groups
• recognize your allies and view your enemies as potential partners
• use humor to make yourself heard, defuse potentially violent situations, and “laugh your way to victory”

Praise for Blueprint for Revolution

“The title is no exaggeration. Otpor’s methods . . . have been adopted by democracy movements around the world. The Egyptian opposition used them to topple Hosni Mubarak. In Lebanon, the Serbs helped the Cedar Revolution extricate the country from Syrian control. In Maldives, their methods were the key to overthrowing a dictator who had held power for thirty years. In many other countries, people have used what Canvas teaches to accomplish other political goals, such as fighting corruption or protecting the environment.”—The New York Times

“A clear, well-constructed, and easily applicable set of principles for any David facing any Goliath (sans slingshot, of course) . . . By the end of Blueprint, the idea that a punch is no match for a punch line feels like anything but a joke.”—The Boston Globe

“An entertaining primer on the theory and practice of peaceful protest.”—The Guardian

“With this wonderful book, Srdja Popovic is inspiring ordinary people facing injustice and oppression to use this tool kit to challenge their oppressors and create something much better. When I was growing up, we dreamed that young people could bring down those who misused their power and create a more just and democratic society. For Srdja Popovic, living in Belgrade in 1998, this same dream was potentially a much more dangerous idea. But with an extraordinarily courageous group of students that formed Otpor!, Srdja used imagination, invention, cunning, and lots of humor to create a movement that not only succeeded in toppling the brutal dictator Slobodan Milošević but has become a blueprint for nonviolent revolution around the world. Srdja rules!”—Peter Gabriel
 
“Blueprint for Revolution is not only a spirited guide to changing the world but a breakthrough in the annals of advice for those who seek justice and democracy. It asks (and not heavy-handedly): As long as you want to change the world, why not do it joyfully? It’s not just funny. It’s seriously funny. No joke.”—Todd Gitlin, author of The Sixties and Occupy Nation
Decision Making for Educational Leaders: Underexamined Dimensions and Issues
Bob L. Johnson Jr.
A guide to decision making for school administrators.

Why another book on decision making? In this increasingly complex world, there are many tensions inherent in the daily practice of school leaders. This book illuminates these tensions, and acknowledges the reality that there are already multiple approaches to decision making in any school. The authors offer a guide to integrate the influences of school and community members as well as data and organizational context into the decision making process. They focus on underexamined dimensions of decision making, including 1) the art of theory-use; 2) organizational context; 3) political dynamics; 4) inferential leaps and causal assumptions; 5) the role of intuition; 6) data-driven decision making; 7) the role of emotions and affect; and 8) making the tough decision. Dispositions that enhance success are highlighted. These ideas will empower school principals, superintendents, and other leaders to approach with confidence the decisions they are called on to make.

Step Up Your Teamwork
Frank Viscuso
Through powerful stories and proven principles, Step Up Your Teamwork teaches how to create momentum, prepare for success, prevent collapse, and turn a group of individuals into a high-functioning team. Frank Viscuso encourages each person to tap into individual talents, skills, and abilities and recognize how to use these skills to improve the team as a whole. The book discusses various proven firefighting team-building methods you can implement immediately.
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
Jonathan Haidt
The bestseller that challenges conventional thinking about morality, politics, and religion in a way that speaks to conservatives and liberals alike—a “landmark contribution to humanity’s understanding of itself” (The New York Times Book Review).

Drawing on his twenty-five years of groundbreaking research on moral psychology, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt shows how moral judgments arise not from reason but from gut feelings. He shows why liberals, conservatives, and libertarians have such different intuitions about right and wrong, and he shows why each side is actually right about many of its central concerns.

In this subtle yet accessible book, Haidt gives you the key to understanding the miracle of human cooperation, as well as the curse of our eternal divisions and conflicts. If you’re ready to trade in anger for understanding, read The Righteous Mind.
 


The Student Leadership Guide: Edition 4
Brendon Burchard
Experts Academy Press is proud to present the first and only leadership book on the market that is (1) intended for students, (2) written from both theoretical and popular viewpoints, and (3) structured with a real-world, service-oriented framework that students can instantly use to make a difference in their classrooms, communities, and early careers. Leadership is conceptualized from the principles that it is a collective and participative process, different from management, and firmly rooted in service. The book's framework--Envision, Enlist, Embody, Empower, Evaluate, and Encourage--reflects six key leadership practices students must learn in order to lead with competence and confidence. The Student Leadership Guide has been praised by educators and students alike for its theory-backed content and its practical, inspiring call to action and service.
The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools
Liz Wiseman
When you become a Multiplier, your whole team succeeds!

Why are some leaders able to double their team’s effectiveness, while others seem to drain the energy right out of the room? Using insights gained from more than 100 interviews with school leaders, The Multiplier Effect pinpoints the five disciplines that define how Multipliers bring out the best across their schools. By practicing these disciplines, you’ll learn how to

  • Attract top teachers to your school
  • Create an intense environment that demands people’s best thinking
  • Drive sound decisions by constructing debate and decision-making forums
  • Give your team a sense of ownership for responsibilities and results

As an educator, you already inspire students to rise to challenges, trust their own smarts, and believe in their own success. As a Multiplier, you’ll do the same for your colleagues—and provide staff and students the opportunity to achieve at unprecedented levels.



"Everyone′s heard about legendary educators who turn struggling schools around. Is it the force of their personality? Sheer genius? Or does the secret of their success lie in their ability to unleash the genius in the people around them? The Multiplier Effect suggests that by changing the way you lead, you can amplify the intelligence, talent, and passion of your fellow teachers and together conquer the challenges today′s school face. This is sure to be an energizing book for teachers and administrators at all levels of education."
—Daniel Pink, Author of Drive and To Sell is Human

"A fascinating book that shows how mindsets shape the way people lead. This book will forever change the way we think about leadership in our schools and the mindsets we need to tackle our biggest educational challenges."
—Carol Dweck, Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology, Stanford University
Author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

View the book trailer!


Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover
Anthony Summers
A New York Times–bestselling author’s revealing, “important” biography of the longtime FBI director (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
 No one exemplified paranoia and secrecy at the heart of American power better than J. Edgar Hoover, the original director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. For this consummate biography, renowned investigative journalist Anthony Summers interviewed more than eight hundred witnesses and pored through thousands of documents to get at the truth about the man who headed the FBI for fifty years, persecuted political enemies, blackmailed politicians, and lived his own surprising secret life. Ultimately, Summers paints a portrait of a fatally flawed individual who should never have held such power, and for so long.
The High Achiever′s Guide to Happiness
Vance Caesar
"The High Achiever′s Guide to Happiness is a very practical book that provides both a strategic framework to understand why high achievers do what they do as well as plenty of real-life examples on how to achieve the right work/life balance in your own life. I found this to be a refreshing reminder of what′s really important in my own life as well as what I need to do to keep it all in perspective. Highly recommended reading."
—Kip Knight, Vice President, Marketing
eBay, Inc.

"A great reference to get people thinking about themselves and their professional happiness. A school leader could use this information with teachers, students, parent groups, and community groups."
—Gwen Gross, Superintendent
Manhattan Beach Unified School District, CA

"This book makes a contribution to the entire world. From educators to professionals in any work organization, all would benefit from using the practices in this book in their lives."
—Kim Boelkes, Principal
Eastview Elementary School, Canton, IL

"The authors got me thinking about my own life purpose, for whom I am living, and my vision. I found the strategies useful and positive!"
—Gail Houghton, Chair/Associate Professor of Educational Leadership
Azusa Pacific University

Do you feel that happiness and fulfillment are still missing even after reaching the high goals you set for yourself?

You′re not alone. According to research by well-known educator and life coach to Fortune 500 leaders Vance Caesar, only 8 percent of high achievers feel happy and fulfilled. This simple, straightforward, easy-to-reference guide explores the profile of a high achiever and provides tools throughout for improving one′s own leadership style and incorporating more happiness along the way. The authors provide leaders and aspiring leaders with seven keys to gain fulfillment in all areas of life, including one′s career:
  • Discovering and articulating your life Purpose
  • Possessing a Vision to set your direction
  • Attitudes and beliefs for finding Meaningful Work
  • Developing Energizing Relationships
  • Creating Peace in your life
  • Reviewing, Renewing, and Recommitting to your purpose
  • Forming the habits of Discipline

Filled with personal anecdotes, thought-provoking examples and questions, reflection exercises, and easy-to-implement models, this inspirational resource is a must for those interested in more deeply connecting personal values, vision, and satisfaction to life and work and in modeling that connection for others. This is a book you will return to again and again as your personal life coach!

This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life
David Foster Wallace
In this rare peak into the personal life of the author of numerous bestselling novels, gain an understanding of David Foster Wallace and how he became the man that he was.
Only once did David Foster Wallace give a public talk on his views on life, during a commencement address given in 2005 at Kenyon College. The speech is reprinted for the first time in book form in This is Water. How does one keep from going through their comfortable, prosperous adult life unconsciously? How do we get ourselves out of the foreground of our thoughts and achieve compassion? The speech captures Wallace's electric intellect as well as his grace in attention to others. After his death, it became a treasured piece of writing reprinted in The Wall Street Journal and the London Times, commented on endlessly in blogs, and emailed from friend to friend.

Writing with his one-of-a-kind blend of causal humor, exacting intellect, and practical philosophy, David Foster Wallace probes the challenges of daily living and offers advice that renews us with every reading.
Servant Leadership: A Journey Into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness
Robert K. Greenleaf
With the publication of Servant Leadership in 1977, a new paradigm of management entered the boardrooms and corporate offices of America. Robert K. Greenleaf, a retired AT & T executive, proposed that service ought to be the distinguishing characteristic of leadership. Not only would it create better, stronger companies, he said, but business leaders themselves "would find greater joy in their lives if they raised the servant aspect of their leadership and built more serving institutions." In the quarter century since these ideas were first articulated, the notion of servant leadership has gained ever more disciples in business schools, among executives, in government and in public and private institutions. Greenleaf was among the first to analyze the qualities of leaders and followers--and the necessity for leaders to be attentive to the needs of others. In this respect the leader becomes a follower. Such a leader, said Greenleaf, constantly inquires whether "other people's highest priority needs are being served. Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?" The true leader is also a seeker--alert to new possibilities, open, listening and ready for whatever develops. True leadership, then, is an inner quality as much as an exercise of authority. The present volume originated as essays and talks treating servant leadership as a general principle and the way it has been lived by particular people. Sections of the book deal with leadership in education, in foundations, in churches, in bureaucracies, and with the role of the United States as a world leader. It closes with a spiritual reflection on Robert Frost's poem "Directive". The reflection, in Greenland's words, is "partly an acknowledgment of [Frost's] influence on me and partly a sharing with those who are the search for what I have now come to see as servant leadership, and who, sooner or later and in their own way, come to grips with who they are and where they are on the journey."
Leading With Data: Pathways to Improve Your School
Ellen Goldring
"Goldring and Berends provide practical and strategic counsel on what data should be collected, how data can be productively analyzed, and who should be involved. Their book positions this advice deftly in research on leadership and organizational change. As school leaders confront the challenges of meeting the needs of all students through continuous school improvement, they will find this book an essential resource."
—Willis D. Hawley, Professor of Education and Public Policy
University of Maryland

A comprehensive, practical guide to using data effectively for school improvement!

For any educator focused on enhancing student outcomes and schoolwide performance results, knowing how to collect appropriate data isn′t necessarily enough. Understanding how to analyze and use data as a pathway to improvement is the key.

This comprehensive, hands-on guidebook discusses the essential statistical and assessment information that principals need to know, what types of data to look at, how to analyze the information, and how to use what they′ve learned to make critical choices for teaching and learning.

Full of examples and recommendations, this book illustrates proactive strategies for collecting data and generating change while focusing on other measures of learning and school organization, including data about professional development, allocation of resources, family involvement, and community standards. Part of the Leadership for Learning series, this resource:

  • Provides leaders with support in developing and sustaining schoolwide capacity for continuous improvement
  • Links data-based decision making with accountability issues and shared mission and goals
  • Includes numerous examples and cases, a glossary, school improvement template, sample forms, and data tools

Leading With Data demonstrates how administrators can apply knowledgeable analysis of meaningful data for continuous, sustainable, and significant school improvement.

The New School Management by Wandering Around
William A. Streshly
Achieve success step by step

The topic of management by wandering around is not new, but the authors′ approach is fresh and timely. This current rendition based on the original work by Frase and Hetzel gives new and seasoned administrators smart, practical advice about how to "wander around" with purpose and develop a more interactive leadership style. This text cites more than 20 well-constructed research studies that show how management by wandering around produces desirable outcomes, including:

  • Higher student achievement
  • Improved school culture
  • Higher teacher efficacy

Management by wandering around is not a rigid, linear process: it is a combination of proven methods and a flexible, organic approach to the whole of leadership. Topics covered include developing meeting agendas, supervising instruction, dealing with marginal teachers, and creating safe campuses. The bottom line? If you want to accomplish more, start by getting out more—and this book shows you how to make it count.

Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin
Fiona Hill
Fiona Hill and other U.S. public servants have been recognized as Guardians of the Year in TIME’s 2019 Person of the Year issue.

From the KGB to the Kremlin: a multidimensional portrait of the man at war with the West.

Where do Vladimir Putin's ideas come from? How does he look at the outside world? What does he want, and how far is he willing to go?

The great lesson of the outbreak of World War I in 1914 was the danger of misreading the statements, actions, and intentions of the adversary. Today, Vladimir Putin has become the greatest challenge to European security and the global world order in decades. Russia's 8,000 nuclear weapons underscore the huge risks of not understanding who Putin is.

Featuring five new chapters, this new edition dispels potentially dangerous misconceptions about Putin and offers a clear-eyed look at his objectives. It presents Putin as a reflection of deeply ingrained Russian ways of thinking as well as his unique personal background and experience.

Praise for the first edition:

“If you want to begin to understand Russia today, read this book.”—Sir John Scarlett, former chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)

“For anyone wishing to understand Russia's evolution since the breakup of the Soviet Union and its trajectory since then, the book you hold in your hand is an essential guide.”—John McLaughlin, former deputy director of U.S. Central Intelligence

“Of the many biographies of Vladimir Putin that have appeared in recent years, this one is the most useful.”—Foreign Affairs

“This is not just another Putin biography. It is a psychological portrait.”—The Financial Times

Q: Do you have time to read books? If so, which ones would you recommend? “My goodness, let's see. There's Mr. Putin, by Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy. Insightful.”—Vice President Joseph Biden in Joe Biden: The Rolling Stone Interview.

The Fourth Way: The Inspiring Future for Educational Change
Andy Hargreaves

"Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley, always one or two steps ahead of the field, have done it again. An extremely balanced and insightful treatment of the first three ways of change, in which the authors clearly display the strengths and limitations of each model. And then they go to town in mapping out the fourth way—a concise and compelling framework for change that integrates teacher professionalism, community engagement, government policy, and accountability. The Fourth Way is itself a powerful ′catalyst for coherence′ in a field that badly needs guidance. Read the book and rethink your approach to educational reform."
—Michael Fullan, Educational Consultant
Author, The Challenge of School Change

A compelling approach to lasting educational change informed by lessons learned and new successes worldwide!

In an expressive and absorbing style, this penetrating volume offers a plan for viable and sustainable educational reform that reflects research on traditional methods and new findings from successful school initiatives around the globe.

Beginning with an incisive analysis of the three major educational change efforts of the past 25 years, Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley offer a plan that integrates government policy, professional involvement, and public engagement to create an environment of greater inclusiveness, security, and humanity. Drawing on "Four Horizons of Hope"—examples of promising implementation and practice—the book demonstrates how districts and schools can achieve dramatic improvement built on:

  • Six Pillars of Purpose that support change
  • Three Principles of Professionalism that drive change
  • Four Catalysts of Coherence that sustain change

Written for educators, consultants, and administrators at the school and district level, The Fourth Way represents an innovative vision of educational change for meeting the dramatic problems and dynamic challenges facing educators in the 21st century.



Read Andy Hargreaves′ cover article, "Leadership Succession and Sustainable Improvement," in the December 2009 issue of The School Administrator magazine.

See the authors′ op-ed piece in The Boston Globe. (September 7, 2009)

Downing Street Diary Volume Two: With James Callaghan in No. 10, Issue 10
Bernard Donoughue
The first volume of Bernard Donoughue's Downing Street Diary was described by Charles Moore in the Daily Telegraph as 'the best account of Harold Wlson's last days'; 'the sheer scale and detail are fascinating' wrote Peter Riddell in the Times Literary Supplement. This second volume covers the three years, 1976-79, when Donoughue was Senior Policy Advisor to James Callaghan.

At first Callaghan quickly established dominance over his cabinet and restored calm after the plots and scandals of the later Wilson years. His incomes policy reduced inflation and, in the teeth of opposition from the left wing, he negotiated the notorious IMF loan at the expense of eliminating some of Labour's most cherished dreams. By 1978, Callaghan, a politician of great patriotism and decency, seemed to have succeeded in steering Britain into calmer waters. But then the storm broke. Trade union militants brushed aside their mediocre leaders and launched a ferocious attack on Callaghan's pay policy, driving up inflation and demonstrating the government's impotence. In the diaries we see the prime minister and the government paralysed as the 'Winter of Discontent' began to bite and politics took to the streets.

As Labour drifted to inevitable defeat in the 1979 election we see Callaghan fighting honourably. From the smoke of battle there emerges a striking new leader: Margaret Thatcher. The diaries describe vividly both the decline and final collapse of 'old' Labour and how Mrs Thatcher took the opportunity to launch her crusade to dismantle trade union power and much of the British public sector.

Besides James Callaghan the chief figures in this volume of Lord Donoughue's diaries are Roy Jenkins, Denis Healey, Tony Crosland, Michael Foot, Shirley Williams, David Owen and Tony Benn.
Father Abraham: Lincoln's Relentless Struggle to End Slavery
Richard Striner
Lincoln is the single most compelling figure in our history, but also one of the most enigmatic. Was he the Great Emancipator, a man of deep convictions who ended slavery in the United States, or simply a reluctant politician compelled by the force of events to free the slaves? In Father Abraham, Richard Striner offers a fresh portrait of Lincoln, one that helps us make sense of his many contradictions. Striner shows first that, if you examine the speeches that Lincoln made in the 1850s, you will have no doubt of his passion to end slavery. These speeches illuminate the anger, vehemence, and sheer brilliance of candidate Lincoln, who worked up crowds with charismatic fervor as he gathered a national following. But if he felt so passionately about abolition, why did he wait so long to release the Emancipation Proclamation? As Striner points out, politics is the art of the possible, and Lincoln was a consummate politician, a shrewd manipulator who cloaked his visionary ethics in the more pragmatic garb of the coalition-builder. He was at bottom a Machiavellian prince for a democratic age. When secession began, Lincoln used the battle cry of saving the Union to build a power base, one that would eventually break the slave-holding states forever. Striner argues that Lincoln was a rare man indeed: a fervent idealist and a crafty politician with a remarkable gift for strategy. It was the harmonious blend of these two qualities, Striner concludes, that made Lincoln's role in ending slavery so fundamental.
Controversies of the George W. Bush Presidency: Pro and Con Documents
Nancy S. Lind

The George W. Bush administration has become one of the most controversial in American history. The president that once enjoyed a post-9/11 astronomical approval rating of 88 percent ranked almost as low in his second term as any president in history. Throughout the social security and stem-cell research debates, the Enron trial, the Patriot Act, the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, No Child Left Behind, and the administration's lackluster response to Hurricane Katrina, George Bush's presidency has been white-hot controversial, Fueling the controversies have been Bush's speeches and public statements (axis of evil, mission accomplished, etc.). This volume is packed with primary-document excerpts from presidental speeches, public statements, and letters, and from opposing congressional arguments--an excellent resource for helping students understand events that will affect the U.S. for years to come.

Introductory sections set the context for each document, and extensive lists of web sites and further reading sources supplement the material. This volume is an excellent resource for helping students understand events that will affect the U.S. for years to come.


  • Over 70 primary documents on 36 issues address the Bush administration's economic, domestic, and foreign policy, as well as its response to terrorism

    • The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness
    Simon Wiesenthal
    A Holocaust survivor's surprising and thought-provoking study of forgiveness, justice, compassion, and human responsibility, featuring contributions from the Dalai Lama, Harry Wu, Cynthia Ozick, Primo Levi, and more.

    While imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, Simon Wiesenthal was taken one day from his work detail to the bedside of a dying member of the SS. Haunted by the crimes in which he had participated, the soldier wanted to confess to--and obtain absolution from--a Jew. Faced with the choice between compassion and justice, silence and truth, Wiesenthal said nothing.  But even years after the way had ended, he wondered: Had he done the right thing? What would you have done in his place?

    In this important book, fifty-three distinguished men and women respond to Wiesenthal's questions. They are theologians, political leaders, writers, jurists, psychiatrists, human rights activists, Holocaust survivors, and victims of attempted genocides in Bosnia, Cambodia, China and Tibet. Their responses, as varied as their experiences of the world, remind us that Wiesenthal's questions are not limited to events of the past.
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