This book is a superb guide to anyone who follows American politics, even from a distance. It clearly explains what sitting Presidents can do and can't do as Leaders. As important, it informs readers about what we, as Americans, should want them to do.
For Miller, Greatness is best judged by the degree to which a President permanently transformed the country while attempting to respond to a Major Crisis. Miller identifies only three such crises in American history: the challenge of stabilizing a newly created government; the challenge of winning a civil war that threatened to create two separate governments; the challenge of recreating the country in the face of collapse of the American economy and winning a world war. This accounts for his elevation of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the position of Great Leaders.
Having identified these three, Miller is able to evaluate other crises in American history and in our own time and to indicate why other Presidents have come close, but do not, in his words, get "the cigar." These are men who were Good Presidents, some even Very Good Presidents. His last chapter is titled "Greatness with a small g." In it he provides readers with an assessment of President Obama's Leadership.
But the book offers a caveat. We should not wish for more Great Presidents because that would imply that we are wishing for major Crises, with their dislocations and disasters.
Miller is a retired Middle East specialist in the State Department, spent several decades working within close proximity of sitting Presidents. He is currently a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. The End of Greatness reflects both his personal experiences in Government, and his careful reading of the history of American Presidents.
At a time when our emotions and opinions are being shaped by media hype, it is difficult to find a sober assessment of the qualities of True Greatness that can be used to properly judge the quality of Leadership of Presidents. The End of Greatness is such a book. It is a guide for the politically perplexed, be they know they are perplexed or not. When they discover that they are, the book can have a transformative effect on them.
Miller's writing is fluid and easy to read. He has the ear of a genuine communicator and his "pen" follows his ears' directions. This makes his book accessible to every reader and could encourage some of them to re-read sections that they may have found introduces new thoughts about Greatness.
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