Rating: 
Summary: Unique account
Review: A unique account of the leadership styles of the immediate past US presidents. Well written, concise, to the point, it makes pertinent reading and a useful text in historical terms, but also as a prescription for future US presidents
Rating:
Summary: Great book to help understand what makes a leader.
Review: After giving a first hand account of four U.S. Presidents (Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton), David Gergen provides qualities which make a good leader. This, however, though it is the conclusion of the book, isn't the most beneficial part of the book. By giving in depth accounts of four different presidencies you see how one President runs the country so much different form another. Also it gives the analysis of events from a point of view that is very uncommon. It really makes it so you can begin to know the real men who served in the oval office, not the man that the media portrayed. Sure, Gergen has his biases, but if you can look through them, you can get an amazing picture of the some of the more recent Presidents.
Rating:
Summary: Great book to help understand what makes a leader.
Review: After giving a first hand account of four U.S. Presidents (Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton), David Gergen provides qualities which make a good leader. This, however, though it is the conclusion of the book, isn't the most beneficial part of the book. By giving in depth accounts of four different presidencies you see how one President runs the country so much different form another. Also it gives the analysis of events from a point of view that is very uncommon. It really makes it so you can begin to know the real men who served in the oval office, not the man that the media portrayed. Sure, Gergen has his biases, but if you can look through them, you can get an amazing picture of the some of the more recent Presidents.
Rating: 
Summary: Leadership Secrets from the Inside
Review: Being a cultural conservative, I sometimes find myself at odds with David Gergen. I was particularly dismayed when he decided to join the Clinton White House. That being said, Gergen has penned a classic book on leadership. If your looking for dirt and sleeze in the White House, this is not the book for you. However, for those of us interested in learning what makes successful men successful, this is great read. Gergen writes from a balanced viewpoint and clearly has no political axe to grind. He treats each man fairly, carefully examining the good and bad in each leader, from Nixon to Clinton. With Nixon, he portrays a man he hoped would use his leadership for good, but who fell woefully short because of his dark side. With Clinton, he portrays a man who could have done the country much good, but never controls his self-indulging urges for sex, money, and power. I can't say I agree with every point of his assessments of our modern leaders, but I'd be hard-pressed to find a better analysis of them. Kudos to Gergen for sharing the inside secrets of powerful men without shovefuls of unnecessary dirt. He's also to be commended for his likeable style. After reading "Eyewitness to Power", I find a man who desires every one to succeed and a man with very few enemies.
Rating: 
Summary: Eyewitness to Power
Review: David Gergen exhibits his keen intuitive grasp of the obvious with his superficial observations of presidential politics. He claims to reveal lesssons on leadership, but instead delivers an old fuddy-duddy's point of view on the machinations of the Washington DC establishment. There are no real lessons here--just a boring set of shallow, self-important observations by a person who was near power, but weilded none. Don't waste your time or money.
Rating:
Summary: Eyewitness to Power
Review: David Gergen exhibits his keen intuitive grasp of the obvious with his superficial observations of presidential politics. He claims to reveal lesssons on leadership, but instead delivers an old fuddy-duddy's point of view on the machinations of the Washington DC establishment. There are no real lessons here--just a boring set of shallow, self-important observations by a person who was near power, but weilded none. Don't waste your time or money.
Rating:
Summary: Eyewitness
Review: David Gergen has never played a huge part in the administration of a president, but he has been involved in several, and has emerged from his experiences as the consummate Washington insider. He first came on board with Nixon, where he worked in the speechwriting department, eventually running it during the 'Final Days' of the Nixon White House. He then worked for Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. He has numerous insights into the men he worked for, particularly Nixon. His analysis of Ford is also good, giving insight to man few care for. Not completely free of bias, he hero worships Reagan and gives faint praise to Clinton. This book is hardly the definitive work on the Nixon to Clinton era, but it has great insight and great stories from a man who has definitely been around some leaders in his time.
Rating:
Summary: A Bird's Eye View of the Presidency
Review: David Gergen has written a very worthwhile book even if his conclusions are not very original (in the introduction, Gergen admits this himself). The New Republic has called Gergen the guardian of Washington's conventional wisdom (and they meant it as a compliment). Eyewitness to Power is in keeping with this fine tradition, and doesn't stray much beyond it. Essentially, Gergen offers his inside assessment of the four Presidents he has served -- Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton. His account of the Nixon years is very balanced, but the most distant of all: as a mid-level staffer in an Administration that limited access to the Oval Office, Gergen could only get so close. Nonetheless, his informed speculation about both the grandiose aspirations and the dark side of Richard Nixon is enlightening and poignant. How could a man who accomplished so much feel so insecure as to pursue that catastrophic a course of action against his political opponents? We will never know, but Gergen lays out the evidence nicely. The Reagan section is really the only place where Gergen can be faulted for not including more reflections on his day-to-day experiences. As a former top aide in the Reagan White House, one would expect more in the way of such recollections. For the most part, though, Gergen spends his time synthesizing others' accounts of Reagan, and fortunately, he does an excellent job of it. Though perhaps not his primary purpose in this book, Gergen proves his worth as an historian. Only during the Clinton years do we get any sort of "kiss-and-tell" accounts. Beyond the titilating forebodings of Monica, Gergen does give the serious reader useful revelations on the early Clinton White House: how Clinton's flawed transition hobbled his ability to govern, how the youthful Arkansas Governor viewed the '92 campaign as a practice run for 1996, how Clinton had never expected to win early on, and how this hurt him when he got to the White House. Because the Clinton section is so short on the historical inquiry that dominate the book's earlier sections, Eyewitness to Power is a somewhat skizophrenic -- but still valuable -- work.
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Summary: Both a humane and critical perspective of our leaders
Review: David Gergen has written an excellent, interesting, amusing (at times) and informative text on the leadership styles of several of America's most recent Presidents.
This is not an assemblage of quotes or elements of the views of others. This is his direct, personal and integrated discussions with Nixon, Ford, Regan and Clinton. His content and style demonstrate an wonderful blend of analytical insight and the humane strengths/weaknesses of those he witnessed.
This is a great 'personal read' but should also be on every CEO's desk and those who are students of history and leadership.
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Summary: A Yellow Dog Salutes a Republican
Review: David Gergen is a Democrat's kind of Republican. Fair, generous, and wonderfully interesting. He has a lifetime of experiences that any political junkie would envy. The book (as I told him last night after a speech at Vanderbilt)has softened me on Ronald Reagan and given me a more balanced view of Bill Clinton. The book has much insight into the four Presidents, their weaknesses and strengths. Gergen is the voice of reason in the insane world of politics. Democrat or Republican - don't miss reading this book!
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