Rating: 
Summary: Courage is more than grace under fire
Review: In this short book, John McCain examines the nature of courage. In it, he finds far more than today's usual fare of synthetic Hollywood heroics, peace-at-any-cost idealism, or self-affirming mantras.
Instead, he tells stories about individuals whose courage is or was founded in principles -- particularly the principles of a free and just society. Each story is complex; heroines/heroes have blemishes; consequences are a mixed-bag. Yet all share a common theme: that courage in its simplist form, no matter how inelegant, is about standing up for what is right.
And in doing so, John McCain illustrates that courage and a meaningful life are inextricably intertwined.
Outstanding reading for those who wish to live thier best life.
Rating:
Summary: Why courage still matters -- from a genuine hero
Review: It's unlikely there's a more qualified person in America to write about physical and moral courage, a quality that is part of McCain's life from at least the start of his military career to his present role in politics. This book offers a series of awe-inspiring stories about people with many varieties of courage, from Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma to Chief Manuelito of the Navajo Nation. Yet, it misses the central element of McCain's character -- which I think is the key to courage -- the ability to see what needs to be done, and the willingness to act. The failing may be Salter's fault; I doubt if it's due to McCain's endearing and enduring modesty. Let's start with the premise there are three basic types of personality: those who see what needs to be done, and do it; those who see what needs to be done, and wait for someone else to do it; and those who don't know what needs to be done, and complain when anyone else does it. McCain, like others with courage, are of the first type. During the Vietnam War, McCain flew missions over Hanoi knowing full well the Vietnamese would fire surface-to-air missiles at his aicraft. Pilots often saw those missiles coming towards them; one tactic to avoid being hit was to go into a very sharp turn. The missile, trying to follow a turning aircraft, tumbled out of control if the turn was sharp enough. It takes pure courage to play such odds. One missile finally downed McCain. He was grievously injured. Instead of telling his captors what they wanted to hear, McCain began each day with the quiet determination to defy them. He knew such a decision virtually guaranteed him unrelenting pain. That is pure courage. He knew what his honor required, and he did it. He never expected someone else to pick up the burden he had chosen. When faced with imminent danger, McCain has always known what needs to be done and has shown the willingness to get it done. This is the essence of courage. It applies to everyone McCain cites as an example in courage. It is the type of choice we face almost every day, our courage is measured on whether we take the easy way out or accept the pain of being true to our inner values. It is the essence of conservative values. If read as examples of people who knew what to do when faced with difficult decisions, this book is inspiring and uplifting. It was written in response to the panic induced by the Bush administration after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001; when the president fled from one air force base to another and later urged Americans to seal themselves into their homes with duct tape and plastic sheets. As this book makes clear, you'll never find McCain or any of the people he cites duct-taping the windows of the White House with plastic sheeting or telling people to "go shopping." He isn't a man who shouts "Bring it on!" to his opponents; instead, he gets the job done. It's what makes him one of the most inspiring and trustworthy political leaders of our time. Despite my quibbles, it's a book very worth reading if you think of courage as the ability to accept personal responsibility. It offers an appreciation of the fundamental courage of McCain and those who stand shoulder to shoulder with him.
Rating: 
Summary: A purchase worth it...
Review: John has brought forward a number of real life parables to assist us in getting to the core of a common definition of courage. At times it might have been more useful to have fewer anecdotes and more of the blunt McCain we have come to know (and love). However, he appears to rally these thoughts in a powerful conclusion and makes the book a worthy read.
Rating:
Summary: Examples of Courage to Bring Out the Courage Within You
Review: John McCain brings poignant and gripping accounts of the brave acts of courage each person in this pivotal book displayed in the face of adversity. It is both a noble account and example for all to follow, as you learn how your acts of courage, no matter how large or small, will have a tremendous rippling effect both for you, and humanity. Through this book, you will learn that your fears are catalysts to bring out your hidden inner strengths, to better your life, as well as to be a living example of the people whose lives you tough. A great compelling read. Highly recommended! Barbara Rose, author of, 'Individual Power' and 'If God Was Like Man'
Rating:
Summary: An inspiring book from a humble, courageous man
Review: John McCain courageouly fights for what he believes is right, regardless of criticism and scorn. This book depicts those with similar spirit -- people who move ahead in the face of fear and do what is right. This is a wonderful book that shows us that real courage is born from commitment to a cause greater than ourselves. I suggest two books to provide the "HOW TO!" The first book is Optimal Thinking: How To Be Your Best Self which is a solid resource to show us how to be our best and bring out the best in others regardless of the circumstances. The second book is Feel The Fear and Do It Anyway which shows you how to grit your teeth and push on. These books deserve 5 stars!
Rating: 
Summary: A Fatherly Fireside talk............
Review: Let me begin by saying that I admire Senator McClain and respect his lifetime of giving to this country. To endure what he has and still have such a fine outlook on this life in itself amazing.
I felt while reading this that I was being mentored on the life ahead. His best advice is in the last sentence of the book. Fear is the opportunity for courage, not proof of cowardice. That is so true. He writes about a variety of folks who in their own way found that courage needed to see them through. But, strangely he really doesn't write much about his own courage, either of that in the North Vietnam prison, or the courage to jump from his plane on the USS Enterprise when the ship almost was lost.
It is a very good read, one that is best read a bit at a time to be able to take in the experience that he writes about.
My favorite and simply amazing story is of Mitchell Red Cloud, to give your life so others might live speaks for itself. I can only imagine the hell that fighter endured with Chinese all around him.
A good read and with some very good advice from an American who most certainly has the right to give it.
Rating: 
Summary: This Book is Unreadable!
Review: Love John McCain. Don't love this book. Between wonderful stories of individual courage, this treatise on courage and what causes people to react without respect to fear is totally unreadable jibberish. It makes no sense at all.
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Summary: "Love Makes Courage Necessary"-John McCain
Review: McCain makes me laugh, he makes me cry. In between McCain's explanations of what defines courage and what doesn't, he provides examples of people the world over who have demonstrated extraordinary acts of courage that will move you to tears. He made me laugh when he writes of how most parents usually try to teach their children to be brave as when they fall off a bicycle or horse. "We're teaching them physical skills. We're teaching them to be strong...We're building their confidence and giving them hope...These are elements of courage, but not the whole virtue...They might grow up and climb mountains or become risk-taking entrepreneurs. But is that all we think courage is? Without other instruction, they could turn out to be Enron executives.(!) They had daring, but they lacked ethics. They lacked a sense of honor, and they lacked courage."
I brought this book with me on a recent trip to bear country where I intended to read it in between hikes in the Sierras. I thought it would come in handy, for he writes, "Face the experience with quiet assurance or with a look that reflects stark terror", good advice when faced with a 300 pound bear! I spent my time reading mountaineering 101 books instead and this one got shelved for the time being (no bears in sight).
In the closing chapter, he offers advice to those who witnessed events in NYC who are still traumatized, suffering from anxieties. "Build your courage...We have something worth being brave for: liberty and justice. Feel yourself part of that grand enterprise, empowered by it, and dread the emptiness of a life that is unattached to noble purpose." "We're all afraid of something...Don't let the sensation of fear convince you that you're too weak to have courage. Fear is the opportunity for courage, not proof of cowardice."
Great practical advice, better stuff than that found in medicine bottles.
Rating:
Summary: 10 stars Hope he write a second book....
Review: Ok, I admit that when I bought the book I assumed that it would be about military types since Senator McCain is a courageous military man, but I was pleasantly surprised. Before you ask why if I assumed it would be full of military people would I still buy the book, let me answer with two words John McCain. I simply admit the man and deep down hope, pray and wish he were the man in the White House. In fact he is a reason I stay a registered Republican. Page 13 we read (and this is what got me hooked on the book) 'My late colleague Pat Moynian coined a phrase defining deviancy down to criticize how American culture in the late twentieth century embraced situation morality in reaction to increasing rates of crime and other social ills rather than insist on the preservation of moral absolutes as the foundation of a functioning liberal society. America, he argued, evaded the hard choices such absolutes require and had, disastrously, learned to tolerate 'much conduct previously stigmatized." He then continues: 'Similarly, American culture over the last thirty years or so has defined courage down. We have attributed courage to all manner of actions that may indeed be admirable but hardly compare to the conscious self-sacrifice on behalf of something greater than self-interest that once defined courage. We have come to identify one or more of the elements of courage -- fortitude, discipline, daring, or righteous, for example -- as the entire virtue. Today, in our excessively psychoanalyzed society, sharing ones secret fears with others takes courage. So does escaping a failing marriage. So does 'having it all,' a career, children, and leisure. Refusing to help enable a loved one to indulge a ruinous vice is an act of courage. We say it takes courage to be different from the main stream in our preferences in fashion, music, the length and color of our hair'. 'These are, of course, absurd examples of our profligate misidentification of the virtue of courage.' While there are some courageous military examples given there are also a lot of others. Like John Lewis one of McCains congressional colleague, or Hannah Senesh the young Hungarian girl who would immigrate to what would become Israel but who would return to Europe to aid those the Nazi's sought to harm and kill, only to be caught and executed. And Aung San Suu Kyi the wonderful woman from Burma who is the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. Her story still gives me goose bumps. Page 205 'If you do the things you think you cannot do, you'll feel your resistance, your hope, your dignity, and your courage grow stronger every time you prove it. You will someday face harder choices that very well might require more courage. You're getting ready for them. You're getting ready to have courage. And when those moments come, unbidden but certain, and you choose well, your courage will be recognized by those who matter most to you. When your children see you choose, without hesitating, without remark, to value virtue more than security, to love more than you fear, they will learn what courage looks like and what love it serves, and they will dread its absence. We're all afraid of something. .... No one is born a coward........' Now I have two hopes. One is that a lot of Americans read the book and the other is that John McCain write Why Courage Matters II and try and find some younger adults who have the courage you speak of because I think young people need to know that one need not be 'old' in the twenty-first century to have courage. I am also reminded of the well know (paraphrasing) quote of Neitzsches. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book by a Great Person .
Review: Reading this book makes you wonder, how good this country would have been if John McCain had been the President of this country today. This is a really great book. It tells us stories about courage displayed by ordinary people in extra-ordinary circumstances. It is a book that will help one become a better individual in life. Hope everyone reads it.
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