Young Lincoln, Political Operative

“Leadership is situational” It makes sense, for it is mighty difficult to think of leadership outside of a context, a challenge, a before and an after. But if leadership is contingent, dependent upon the who, where, when and what, how do we understand leaders? What makes them, shapes them, and makes them tick? What is…

Awkward Hero

In 2005, Auburn University Professor W. David Lewis finished Eddie Rickenbacker: An American Hero in the Twentieth Century. A labor of love and personal obsession, the biography took Lewis decades of research. It is a magisterial tome, the definitive work on one of the major celebrities of early twentieth century America. Accomplished in multiple arenas…