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Lives of Moral Leadership: Men and Women Who Have Made a Difference
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 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.
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.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
About the author
Robert Coles
251 books78 followersChild psychiatrist, author, Harvard professor.
Robert Coles is a professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at the Harvard Medical School, a research psychiatrist for the Harvard University Health Services, and the James Agee Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard College.
Robert Coles is a professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at the Harvard Medical School, a research psychiatrist for the Harvard University Health Services, and the James Agee Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard College.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
November 13, 2018
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 disappointed. The inspiring parts far outpace the boring and dense pieces.
Coles takes first and second hand looks and people who have always inspired me; Robert F. Kennedy, Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and introduced me the new heroes such as Danilo Dolci, Al Jones and several of the children who braved the hatred of their white peers and their elders to desegregate public schools in the South and in the North. There are also drives through his personal experiences in the military, testifying before congress, themes in literature and on and on.
His first person narratives are much better than his second and third hand interviews. He picks apart what makes these people, who are so much more like you and I than we ever thought, stand out from the crowd. He shows the humanity of these legends, the side that we rarely get to see. We see people like RFK and Dorothy Day deferring to others, questioning their own abilities, and wanting to hang it all up.
It is indeed the humanity of his subjects which makes the read so compelling, and pertinent to our own times. Though written as a different kind of response to the Kenneth Star investigation into then President Bill Clinton, that aspect takes up very little space. What space it does take up is not what you would expect in a “moral leadership” review of the Clinton administration.
An unexpectedly good companion read turned out to be Church of Spies by Mark Riebling. I just happened to be reading them at the same time and discovered the specific overlap of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the unanticipated overlap of the all to human aspects and moral leadership of numerous everyday Germans, high ranking military and members of the clergy exhibited in resistance to the NAZI regime.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is feeling like they are just one person or that they cannot make a difference in the world. You don’t have to be born to greatness to do great things. Many people who inspire and do great things go unsung, such as Al Jones. You can and should go for it.
Coles takes first and second hand looks and people who have always inspired me; Robert F. Kennedy, Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer and introduced me the new heroes such as Danilo Dolci, Al Jones and several of the children who braved the hatred of their white peers and their elders to desegregate public schools in the South and in the North. There are also drives through his personal experiences in the military, testifying before congress, themes in literature and on and on.
His first person narratives are much better than his second and third hand interviews. He picks apart what makes these people, who are so much more like you and I than we ever thought, stand out from the crowd. He shows the humanity of these legends, the side that we rarely get to see. We see people like RFK and Dorothy Day deferring to others, questioning their own abilities, and wanting to hang it all up.
It is indeed the humanity of his subjects which makes the read so compelling, and pertinent to our own times. Though written as a different kind of response to the Kenneth Star investigation into then President Bill Clinton, that aspect takes up very little space. What space it does take up is not what you would expect in a “moral leadership” review of the Clinton administration.
An unexpectedly good companion read turned out to be Church of Spies by Mark Riebling. I just happened to be reading them at the same time and discovered the specific overlap of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the unanticipated overlap of the all to human aspects and moral leadership of numerous everyday Germans, high ranking military and members of the clergy exhibited in resistance to the NAZI regime.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is feeling like they are just one person or that they cannot make a difference in the world. You don’t have to be born to greatness to do great things. Many people who inspire and do great things go unsung, such as Al Jones. You can and should go for it.
April 23, 2025
When Robert Coles was a young psychiatrist, he and other doctors and medical researchers traveled to the South and to Appalachia and witnessed widespread malnutrition in kids. Scurvy. Stuff that should have been gone from America.
Their report was destined to be forgotten, a footnote, under a US senator stepped in.
Robert F. Kennedy Sr.’s work on this project, in what would be his final years, is a part of this book. So are the efforts of Dorothy Day, Danilo Dolci, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and a Boston bus driver named Albert Jones.
Change is threatening to the old guard, RFK warned Coles. “You’re stepping on toes—people will move, and they’ll move to protect themselves.”
What does moral leadership mean—and who exhibits it? This book, written a quarter century ago, is so relevant today, i. thinking about repairing and rebuilding America after the blitzkreig attacks on its democracy. As the pendulum swings back, what tools work in helping people?
Their report was destined to be forgotten, a footnote, under a US senator stepped in.
Robert F. Kennedy Sr.’s work on this project, in what would be his final years, is a part of this book. So are the efforts of Dorothy Day, Danilo Dolci, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and a Boston bus driver named Albert Jones.
Change is threatening to the old guard, RFK warned Coles. “You’re stepping on toes—people will move, and they’ll move to protect themselves.”
What does moral leadership mean—and who exhibits it? This book, written a quarter century ago, is so relevant today, i. thinking about repairing and rebuilding America after the blitzkreig attacks on its democracy. As the pendulum swings back, what tools work in helping people?
January 15, 2019
This was the last book I read before my political liberalism and fundamentalist spirituality collided like Titantanic hitting the mf ice berg. It will always have a place for me because it paints Bobby at his best, and yet because this is him at his best you see the shortcomings of this sort of bourgeois elite who ‘made himself like a man’ and how that figure is in actuality a myth. The portraits of Day, Dolci, Bonhoeffer all show conservatives who were consumed by radicalism due to the material conditions and/or political event they found themselves in. Cole wonderfully traces the progression and simultaneous transformation of duty as it is taken up by each of these individuals, and how they navigate these callings.
April 2, 2025
Some of the chapters, especially towards the end, were incredibly thought-provoking and inspiring. However, I found the writing tough to follow and at times repetitive.
November 12, 2017
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. Instead, if we think of social values (in this case, civil rights) as a bell curve, a movement needs people who are/can engage people at *all parts* of the curve, and pull left. Yes, we need the ACLU and the soapboxers and even people who take values to an over the edge extreme way out at the margin, putting a stake in the ground and holding firm. But we also need people at the middle - who don’t alienate but instead are credible and safe for the majority of other people who are there, to help educate and nudge them left too. And along the whole spectrum, including moderate conservatives connecting with others who share their views and nudging left. It gave me permission to find my place on the curve, find my role and voice, and get to work. Given who I am, my racial and educational privileges, I can do my best good not as an extremist or a moderate but somewhere in the middle.
December 4, 2008
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 hard to follow. Maybe because he's getting older...?! I haven't read any of his other books to test the theory.
As for Coles' style, it was a little hard to follow. Maybe because he's getting older...?! I haven't read any of his other books to test the theory.
May 31, 2012
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, give one another various reasons to be to take a stand, to act."
Robert Coles
I will revisit this one often!
"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, give one another various reasons to be to take a stand, to act."
Robert Coles
I will revisit this one often!
November 4, 2008
I liked this book a lot more than I expected to. I was sorry to miss the meeting on this one, because it got me thinking about how I can try to be a better person - not really kinder or sweeter, but the kind of person who gets good things done. I liked that about the examples Coles talks about in the book -- they were pretty much nice people, but the main thing is that they are doers.
October 7, 2011
Two stand out chapters; Dorothy Day, a leader in providing social services in the 60's; and Albert Jones, a bus driver that was a normal man who by simple actions initiated the desegregation of Bostons schools.
His descriptions of the moral compass of children makes me want to read his book, 'The Moral Intelligence of Children'
His descriptions of the moral compass of children makes me want to read his book, 'The Moral Intelligence of Children'
July 7, 2013
A thoughtful exploration of people who dared; an effort to explore the human cost of their sacrifice, the sources of their commitment, and to illuminate for others the appeal and perils of bypassing the path of least resistance. I liked it - not earth-shattering, but a welcome insight into integrity, empathy, and a life worth living.
January 1, 2012
This book is under consideration for the synergy program. I did not think much of it. It felt like a book a professor would assign and then make you write a 5 page paper on. I stopped after about 45 pages.
February 12, 2009
It had it's moments.
Read
April 21, 2012I have no memory of this book
Read
May 21, 2013This was a hard book to get through, especially at points, but at the end, it was worth it.
August 25, 2013
had a big impact on my life. womderful read
August 12, 2016
Good read with many really quality examples of moral leadership. Coles is a must read for anyone interested in learning more about leadership.
July 23, 2014
I appreciated Robert Coles reflections on what constitutes moral leadership and the examples of many different situations and people in which this kind of leadership was recognized by him.
April 21, 2017
Great subject, but the writing is not as engaging as it could be.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews