A wide-ranging survey of political leadership over the past hundred years, that challenges the widespread belief that strong leaders - those who dominate their colleagues and the policy-making process - are the most successful and admirable.

Archie Brown is a British political scientist and historian. He is Emeritus Professor of Politics at Oxford University and Emeritus Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford. A Fellow of the British Academy since 1991, Professor Brown was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003. He has written widely on Soviet and Communist politics, the Cold War, and political leadership.