World Military Leaders: A Collective and Comparative Analysis

by Kay Philips, Mostafa Rejai

Overview

Focusing on 45 military leaders from four continents and 13 countries, spread across four centuries, this study paints, for the first time, a collective, comparative portrait of high-ranking military officers. The authors develop an interactional theory of military leaders, stressing the interplay between sociodemographic variables, psychological dynamics, and situational factors. They examine age and birthplace, socioeconomic status, family life, ethnicity and religion, education and occupation, activities and experiences, and ideologies and attitudes. They find military leaders to be a remarkably coherent and homogeneous group of men propelled toward the military by a combination of nationalism, imperialism, relative deprivation, love deprivation, marginality, and vanity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275953867
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/19/1996
Pages:	188
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	1180L (what's this?)

About the Author

MOSTAFA REJAI is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Miami University, Ohio, where he has .also been the recipient of an Outstanding Teaching Award.

KAY PHILLIPS is Professer of Sociology and Anthropology at Miami University, Ohio. Professors Rejai and Phillips are coauthors of five other books on leaders and leadership. These are: Leaders and Leadership Reappraised (forthcoming),

Demythologizing an Elite: American Presidents in Empirical, Comparative, and Historical Perspective (1993), Loyalists and Revolutionaries: Political Leaders Compared (1988), World Revolutionary Leaders (1983) and Leaders of Revolution (1979).

Table of Contents

Tables
Preface
Introduction
Theory
Military Leaders: An Interactional Theory
Foundations
General Patterns
Seeking Comparative Patterns
Propellants
American Leaders
British Leaders
French Leaders
German Leaders
Other Leaders
Synthesis
Military Leaders in Theoretical Perspective
Appendix: General Code Sheet
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Develops an interactional theory and applies it to 45 major high- ranking military figures from 13 countries scattered across four continents and as many centuries, to investigate who are they are and what propels them toward the profession. Considers sociodemographic traits such as family life, ethnicity, education, religion, and ideology; psychological dynamics such as nationalism, love deprivation, and vanity; and situational variables such as birthplace, family influences, national crises, and luck. Reveals several surprising similarities and variations, but warns that neither the sample nor the method is accurate enough to build a great general from scratch. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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