Thomas E. Cronin

This highly readable and compelling book aids students and would-be leaders in a whole variety of fields to understand leadership and become effective leaders. Leadership Intelligence builds on the authors’ national prize-winning Leadership Matters (2012). Political scientists and leadership scholars Tom Cronin and Michael Genovese provide a guide for navigating the contradictions, ambiguities and nuances of leadership. They clarify the realities and competing definitions of leadership. They examine what we learn about leadership intelligence from the classics, war, business, politics and film. They also examine the problems of toxic and dysfunctional power wielding. Finally, they examine how leadership intelligence differs from IQ and Emotional Intelligence yet combines these with creativity and entrepreneurial skills. Leadership Intelligence is essential reading for students of leadership, especially undergraduate students and young people entering business, the military and politics.

This highly readable and compelling book aids students and would-be leaders in a whole variety of fields to understand leadership and become effective leaders. Leadership Intelligence builds on the authors’ national prize-winning Leadership Matters (2012). Political scientists and leadership scholars Tom Cronin and Michael Genovese provide a guide for navigating the contradictions, ambiguities and nuances of leadership. They clarify the realities and competing definitions of leadership. They examine what we learn about leadership intelligence from the classics, war, business, politics and film. They also examine the problems of toxic and dysfunctional power wielding. Finally, they examine how leadership intelligence differs from IQ and Emotional Intelligence yet combines these with creativity and entrepreneurial skills. Leadership Intelligence is essential reading for students of leadership, especially undergraduate students and young people entering business, the military and politics.

This is an innovative and inspirational examination of films and documentaries that helps us explain the evolution of, struggles of, and aspirations of the American experiment. This book sorts politics into categories and then identifies films, TV shows, and documentaries that illuminate various aspects of that category. For each chapter, the authors list and discuss an impressive variety of films, documentaries, and television shows. This accessible book is designed for course use and general readers interested in how American politics and history has been portrayed in media.

WRITING AS A PERFORMING ART is written to encourage, motivate and inspire non-fiction writers of all ages. It celebrates why we write, why we must write, and reviews the strategies veteran writers employ. One of its aims is to cultivate the Inner Editor--to remind writers of the importance of editing, rewriting and polishing their work.Author Tom Cronin earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University and has been an award- winning teacher at several universities. He is President Emeritus of Whitman College and McHugh Professor of American Institutions and Leadership Emeritus and former Interim President at Colorado College. He is the author of several prize-winning books, including the best-selling Government By The People and books on leadership, elections, state politics, the presidency and political novels. He is a regular columnist for Colorado newspapers and has written hundreds of public affairs articles for journals, magazines and newspapers ranging from TV Guide to Science and The New York Times Magazine.Earlier in his career Cronin worked as an aide in the U.S. Congress, as a White House Fellow on the White House West Wing staff and as a consultant to cabinet members and governors. He was a researcher at the Brookings Institution, the Aspen Institute and the Hoover Institution.The primary goal of WRITING AS A PERFORMING ART is to prepare writers to write compelling and convincing stories. Stories are what makes us human, and writers help us navigate the complexities of life. Writers help reveal our common human bonds. They let us know we not alone, and help us search for better possibilities.Cronin's WRITING AS A PERFORMING ART is both a pep-talk and a rigorous guide for how writers can more effectively connect with their readers. It reviews standard practices yet encourages writers to write bravely, to bend the rules to make their points, and to provide the evidence to convince.Writing matters. And what matters even more is the power of ideas. Just as leaders define, defend and promote important mutually shared values, writers help define and clarify critical choices--and what is true. Writing, Cronin emphasizes, is a grand opportunity to tell your story and our story--to tell the truth, advocate improvements, share creative ideas, and celebrate our capacity for compassion, gallantry, humanity and love. And to "take it to the house."

In the first comprehensive reading of dozens of American literary and social culture classics, Tom Cronin, one of America’s most astute students of the American political tradition, tells the story of the American political experiment through the eyes of forty major novelists, from Harriet Beecher Stowe to Hunter S. Thompson. They have been moral and civic consciousness-raisers as we have navigated the zigs and zags, the successes and setbacks, and the slow awkward evolution of the American political experiment. Constitutional democracy, equal justice for all, the American Dream, and American Exceptionalism are all part of our country’s narrative. But, as Imagining a Great Republic explains, there has never been just a single American narrative—we have competing stories, just as we have competing American Dreams and competing ways of imagining a more perfect political union. Recognizing and understanding these competing values is a key part of being American. Cronin’s book explains how this is possible and why we should all be proud to be American.

Survey after survey reveals that many Coloradans believe that the U.S. government is too big, too wasteful, and too intrusive. Yet Colorado is arguably one of the most federally subsidized states in the union, with forests, national parks, military bases, and research laboratories benefiting from the federal government's largesse.A concise history of Colorado's constitution and central political institutions, Colorado Politics and Policy offers a probing analysis of the state's political cultures. It shows how the state, in many ways a template of the deeply contrary politics of the nation, puts political power into the hands of an ever-more-polarized electorate increasingly inclined to put the concerns of government to the test of the citizen-initiative. Colorado Politics and Policy is the result of broad-gauged and sophisticated research which includes author interviews with citizens and officials across the state, three specially commissioned statewide public opinion surveys, and extensive interviews with governors, legislators, judges, lobbyists, interest group leaders, and leading political analysts. This fresh and engaging interpretation is essential reading for those who want to understand Colorado's major election trends, chief public policy and budget challenges, and this distinctively purple state's unique political history.

Some leaders fundamentally alter the status quo whilst others guide quietly. Most leadership books emphasise specific rules, but Tom Cronin and Michael Genovese see leadership as filled with paradox. Leadership Matters offers a different view of leadership - one that builds community and responds creatively to new situations. Cronin and Genovese argue that leadership is about more than just charisma and set leaders on to a different path - to unleash the power of paradox.

Some leaders fundamentally alter the status quo whilst others guide quietly. Most leadership books emphasise specific rules, but Tom Cronin and Michael Genovese see leadership as filled with paradox. Leadership Matters offers a different view of leadership - one that builds community and responds creatively to new situations. Cronin and Genovese argue that leadership is about more than just charisma and set leaders on to a different path - to unleash the power of paradox.

In an election year in which everyone seems to be looking for change, Tom Cronin reminds us that it is important to look back at presidential precedents and pitfalls, carrying forward these lessons as we look ahead in the "search for the perfect president." America has never had a perfect president, nor are we likely to. We yearn for qualities of mind, character, and experience that are rarely found in one person. Candidates always have the flaws associated with being human. Noted presidential scholar Thomas E. Cronin helps us consider these realities with clarity and empathy, as one who has both written about presidents and run for office himself. Cronin unabashedly issues three cheers for those who run, and for all their helpers and advisers who provide us choices. In this election year, incredible diversity and therefore sharp disagreements of ideology and values prevail. Cronin puts all this in context with the history of the American presidency from George Washington to George W. Bush with a special focus on what he calls the "Act III" presidency of JFK. He takes us from the fiction of "searching for the perfect president" to the facts of the presidency in the post-9/11 world. Whether the next president is soldier, shaman, or somewhere in-between, Cronin gives us a glimpse of presidents future through the lens of presidents past.

In an election year in which everyone seems to be looking for change, Tom Cronin reminds us that it is important to look back at presidential precedents and pitfalls, carrying forward these lessons as we look ahead in the "search for the perfect president." America has never had a perfect president, nor are we likely to. We yearn for qualities of mind, character, and experience that are rarely found in one person. Candidates always have the flaws associated with being human. Noted presidential scholar Thomas E. Cronin helps us consider these realities with clarity and empathy, as one who has both written about presidents and run for office himself. Cronin unabashedly issues three cheers for those who run, and for all their helpers and advisers who provide us choices. In this election year, incredible diversity and therefore sharp disagreements of ideology and values prevail. Cronin puts all this in context with the history of the American presidency from George Washington to George W. Bush with a special focus on what he calls the "Act III" presidency of JFK. He takes us from the fiction of "searching for the perfect president" to the facts of the presidency in the post-9/11 world. Whether the next president is soldier, shaman, or somewhere in-between, Cronin gives us a glimpse of presidents future through the lens of presidents past.

Political scandals have always demonstrated the capacity of our executive officials for self-inflicted injuries, and the Clinton administration was no exception. Unilateral war-making, claims of executive privilege and immunity, and last-minute pardons all tested the limits of presidential power, while the excesses of the Special Prosecutor cast doubts on available remedies. For eight years, Republicans and Democrats engaged in guerrilla warfare aimed at destroying the careers and lives of their adversaries, while tests of presidential power were resolved by the courts, resulting in a reshaping of the scope and power of the presidency itself. This book examines the many controversial and important battles that led to the shrinking of the presidency under the law during the Clinton administration. Located at the intersection of law and politics, it helps readers understand the dramatic changes that took place in the relationship of presidential power to the law during the Clinton years and shows how one president's actions - and congressional and legal reactions to them - have altered presidential prerogatives in ways that his successors cannot ignore. The Presidency and the Law assesses changes in our constitutional and legal understanding of the American presidency, exploring such topics as war power, executive privilege, pardon power, impeachment, executive immunity, independent counsel, and campaign finance. In examining these collisions between the president and the law, its distinguished contributors bring the lessons of Watergate and Iran-Contra into the Clinton era and contribute to a Madisonian view that presidents should not operate outside statutory and constitutional constraints. Although quite critical in many respects, a number of these authors have been supportive of Clinton and his policy pursuits, and all seek to examine the potential impact of the Clinton administration without being predictive or legalistic. Still, under Bill Clinton's stewardship, the legal, constitutional, and political terrain changed in significant ways. It remains to be seen what impact these changes will have on the presidency in the twenty-first century. This book points the way to assessing that impact and is essential reading for anyone concerned with the future of our democracy.