Colin Powell: Imperfect Patriot

Product Description

For the past three decades, Colin Powell has been among America’s most trusted and admired leaders. This biography demonstrates that Powell’s decades-long development as an exemplary subordinate is crucial to understanding his astonishing rise from a working-class immigrant neighborhood to the highest echelons of military and political power.

Once an aimless, ambitionless teenager who barely graduated from college, Powell became an extraordinarily effective and staunchly loyal subordinate to many powerful superiors who, in turn, helped to advance his career. By the time Powell became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he had developed into the consummate follower―motivated, competent, composed, honorable, and independent. 

The quality of Powell’s followership faltered at times, however, while in Vietnam, during the Iran-Contra scandal, and after he became George W. Bush’s secretary of state. Powell proved a fallible patriot, and in the course of a long and distinguished career he made some grave and consequential errors in judgment. While those blunders do not erase the significance of his commendable achievements amid decades of public service, they are failures nonetheless.

Imperfect Patriot is the fascinating story of Powell’s professional life, and of what we can learn from both his good
and bad followership. The book is written for a broad readership, and will be of special interest to readers of military history, political biography, and leadership.

Review

“The consummate general, national security advisor, Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of State and Patriot is profiled and on full display in Matthews’ work. Well-researched and full of rich detail, the book seems to be a balanced, albeit critical, review of the Powell’s 40+ years of service. From the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, to the Iran Contra Affair, to the decision making leading to the ill-fated choice to go to war with Iraq in 2003 in what turned out to be empty justification owing to a lack of finding WMD, Matthews (and many others) believed Powell should have acted more ethically. Many also believe, Matthews among them, that Powell’s loyalty–his own self-described best trait–was a fault in certain circumstances of providing advice when he should have been better guided by his sense of doing the right thing. Matthews makes note of Powell’s followership as an ‘assistant’ and ‘deputy’ in many of his duties throughout his career, contributing to why he was a great leader. Yet ultimately, even the best leaders make mistakes and are fallible, and we can all learn from that.”

–Brigadier General Chad Manske, Commandant, National War College.

“Jeffrey Matthews’s excellent biography rightly praises Colin Powell’s distinguished service over the past half-century, while also delineating how Powell faltered at crucial moments while serving as George W. Bush’s secretary of state. This is a comprehensive and compelling analysis.” –Walter LaFeber, the Andrew and James Tisch University Professor Emeritus, Cornell University

“At its base is a very well-written story about Colin Powell as
fallible everyman. It is an almost
existential portrait of the human condition. We all make choices every day; some are good, but some are grave errors in judgment that can have disastrous consequences for a family or for a nation. In my opinion, this book is the most important of the publications focusing on this turbulent period of American political and military history.”–Howard Ball, author of
Bush,
the Detainees, and the Constitution

“I thoroughly enjoyed reading Jeff Matthews’s book. It is extremely thorough, nicely grounded in appropriate research, and is very well written. I can’t think of a biographical work that focuses on aspects of leadership and followership in such consistent and illuminating detail. It’s a page-turner.”–George R. Goethals, E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professor, Jepson School of Leadership Studies, U