University Press of Kentucky has published a new and refreshing look into the art of military leadership. It examines nine successful military leaders and makes the compelling case that leadership is something cultivated and learned over time.

It is not merely reading books on leadership or management, but by observing leaders in action, seeking out opportunities to learn and sometimes fail as a leader, and developing skills that come together to produce some of our most important leaders in American military history. The editors bring together a myriad of contributors from academia, and from those who led in active duty combat, to bring to life the biographies of George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, George Marshal and Harold ‘‘Hal” Moore to name a few. Each had their own type of leadership potential from charismatic and adaptive, to cross-cultural and institutional leadership.

Despite the mythology surrounding George Washington, behind the marble busts and his immortal image on American currency, we find a man who cultivated the entire concept of integrity and channeled that into leadership. Caroline Cox discusses how Washington learned to be a leader and his distinctive style in which his integrity and character would overwhelm other Revolutionary War generals who schemed with Congress to have him removed. It would also lead to Washington suppressing a military revolt of officers in Newburgh, N. Y. not by force of arms but by reading prepared remarks and taking out his spectacles.

Harry Laver takes readers into the Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant, who battled alcoholism, poverty and numerous failures using the American Civil War to channel his experiences into indispensible military leadership. It is easy to mistake Grant’s determination for stubbornness, but he was determined and adaptable. He would have mentors at West Point, and would demonstrate a determination that would shake the Union Army’s fear of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

In the Vicksburg campaign of 1863, Grant would battle the weather, criticism and uncooperative superiors to fight two Confederate armies, preventing them from joining forces and trapping Confederate General Joseph Pemberton in Vicksburg. Grant took the strategic city on the Mississippi River on July 4, 1863, the same day as the victory in Gettysburg. Grant would learn from every experience fighting the Confederate forces. His main aim was to strike hard and keep moving searching for an envelopment opportunity. If things went wrong Grant did not panic, but simply developed a new plan, always determined to win in the end.

General George Marshal’s leadership lay in his firm grasp of learning, using and improving upon bureaucratic institutions. Larry Bland introduces us to a man who did not shy away from bureaucracy and administration but elevated what many of his contemporaries saw as a chore to the fine art of keeping the alliance between the United States, Britain and France together. World War II saw the first joint and combined operations between a multitude of nations to fight the Axis forces of Italy, Germany and Japan. He looked for efficiency, flexibility and simplicity in administration and sought to mentor many who would go on to become icons of World War II like General Dwight Eisenhower. Marshal detested the yes-man mentality and encouraged constructive critical thinking among subordinates and was willing to forgo Army tradition and entrenched ideas from getting in the way of accomplishing a mission, such as allowing the Army Air Force’s collaboration with civilian engineers and corporations to develop better weapon systems.

The chapter on Eisenhower shows a talent for cross-cultural leadership, compromising and standing firm when necessary to achieve the greatest coalition ever assembled for the invasion of Normandy.

Jon Hoffman’s chapter on Marine Corp’s Lewis ‘‘Chesty” Puller analyzes what made him an icon of the Corps. His initial career saw him enlist, re-enlist, join an American military advisory force in the Philippines and Nicaragua and barely achieve a commission. Yet his love for his troops, the profession of arms and determination, would provide him such charisma it would redefine Marine Corps culture. Puller would share everything with his Marines. Once when someone brought him hot coffee into a battle zone as a favor, he shared it with his troops and then ordered logistics bring hot food to the forward combat area, reasoning of they can bring hot coffee, then they can bring hot food for all his troops.

Despite his outward disdain for book learning, and priding himself at never attending a service college, Puller devoured books on the military and on history; he cultivated learning at his own disciplined pace.

Colonel H.R. McMaster, writes about Army General Harold ‘‘Hal” Moore, better known today for the book and subsequent movie ‘‘We Were Soldiers Once and Young,” about the battle of the Ia Drang Valley in 1965. Moore’s combination of discipline, care for his soldiers, training and willingness to speak out and improve the Army’s fighting methods, would lead to the tactical victory against a North Vietnamese Army force ten times the size of Moore’s unit. One of the many elements that made Moore a successful battlefield leader that spoke to me personally was his self interest in learning about the enemy, reading every book he could about Vietnam and more importantly holding lectures, discussions and seminars with his soldiers and officers. Moore would not underestimate the North Vietnamese and actually visited the battle sites with his senior NCO, where a French mobile infantry column was ambushed a decade earlier.

Those who have a lifelong passion for the profession of arms will enjoy reading this new book. It demonstrates the complexities and the many external and internal variables that go into developing a leader.

Editor’s Note: Aboul-Enein writes a regular column in the Naval District Washington Waterline and Bolling Air Force Base Aviator. He currently serves as a Defense Department Counter-Terrorism Advisor. Aboul-Enein wishes to thank the U.S. Army 75th Ranger Special Troop Battalion (STB) for providing the atmosphere to read and write this review while visiting and lecturing at Fort Benning, Ga. He wrote this review on the grounds of the old National Infantry Museum overlooking the memorials of Sacrifice Field and surrounded by captured artillery and armor of America’s past wars at Fort Benning.