text: Eliot Cohen has an impressive background in policy work (OSD) and academia (Naval War College and Harvard).  I had high hopes for this book because I thought his experience with the military combined with his academic work would produce a focused and well-grounded work.  I was disappointed.  I never really bought his argument that political leaders can lead war better than generals.  He seemed to cherry pick leaders than fit his mold.  I could not believe that someone who works so closely with the military would generalize military leadership in such a stereotypical way.   
  
  The article might have made a good article in a foreign affairs journal, but the author seemed to fill out the book with a lot of interesting but not really relevant historical stories and facts.  The Lincoln chapter providing nothing that has not been stated numerous times in more detailed and focused work.  The Churchill chapter was the best. Cohen obviously has extensively studied Churchill.  His sections on how the historical view of Churchill have ebbed and flowed over the years was well done, thought not rally tied to the focus of the book.  I learned the most from the Ben-Gurion, since I knew the least about him.  
  
  The book may be useful to an undergraduate class studying political leadership or foreign policy, but beyond that the book unfortunately offers little that is new or of great interest.   
  