Books : Hard Call: The Art of Great Decisions

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Author name: John McCain, Mark Salter

: Hard Call: The Art of Great Decisions
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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN num: 9780446699112
ISBN number: 044669911X
Label: Twelve
Manufacturer: Twelve
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 480
Printing Date: February 29, 2008
Publishing house: Twelve
Sale Popularity Level: 118748
Studio: Twelve



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Editor's Notes and Comments:

Product Description:
In Hard Call, acclaimed authors John McCain and Mark Salter describe the anatomy of great decisions in history by telling the remarkable stories of men and women who have exemplified composure, wisdom, and intellect in the face of life's toughest decisions. The authors identify six qualities typically represented in the best decisions: Awareness. Timing. Foresight. Confidence. Humility. Inspiration. These qualities are personified by the exceptional individuals in this book, each of whom made a hard call:


Woven into these stories are John McCain's own views on the process and art of decision-making and examples of the hard calls we face in our lives. 'When I assess a decision,' McCain writes, 'I want to know all I can about the character of the decision maker before I examine the properties of the decision, its outcome or how it was arrived at.'

Hard Call is a testament to the people whose choices serve as a beacon for us all.




Customer Reviews
User popularity level: out of 5 stars

Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - This book can help anyone make better decisions
"Hard Call" isn't just a book by a politician to advance his career. It's a powerful work that can help anyone make better decisions in his or her own life. John McCain, with the help of Mark Salter, discusses a number of factors that should be considered when evaluating a decision, and what he thinks are the most important ingredients in making the best choices for ourselves and for others. I was greatly impressed by the degree to which he has considered this question. Whether one agrees with his decisions or not, it is certainly praiseworthy that he has invested this much energy into considering the art of decision-making. His intellect and his analytical powers are extraordinary. I also appreciated the wide variety of people, male and female, whom he uses as examples of fine or not-so-fine decision-makers. There are examples from politics and the military, as we might expect, but also from such areas as the sports world, science, and retail. The book is excellently researched and certainly educational. McCain even discusses decisions he himself has made that he considers flawed, and the lessons he learned from them. In addition, I enjoyed the flow of the writing style. This is a book that will stay with you for a long time.


Rated by buyers 4 out of 5 stars - "Oddball" McCain reveals some very personal quirks!
John McCain is quite an interesting man, and this very first person account was fascinating. I was surprised to read that McCain puts aside 35 minutes each day to tap dance, and follows a diet consisting entirely of tangerines. And who would have thought McCain wears the very same pair of "lucky" underpants every day, except for his "Sunday pants." I was hoping that McCain would have gone into more depth about his year-long relationship with Edith Piaf in the late 1930s, but I guess there's always the subsequent one! Great book!


Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - a must read for everyone
With all of the biased coverage of news these days, it is important to find information to give balance to the whole picture. This book, with its choices of material, is an excellent example of what a person needs to read to help form opinions and delve through all of the "stuff" that bombards us daily. Add it to your list of "must reads" today, and enjoy it all!


Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - The Art of the Hard Call
John McCain's "Hard Call: The Art of Great Decisions" reveals the essential character qualities required to make the "Hard Call" by retelling stories of great decision makers, past and present. I learned many new things about the character of people like Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, Abe Lincoln, and many others. As McCain illuminates the character qualities each of these people displayed in their great decisions, we get a glimpse at the character of the author as well.


Rated by buyers 4 out of 5 stars - Hard Calls and Good History
Certainly the timing of this book's release and its review of tough decision making are not coincidental to John McCain's presidential campaign. This does not detract from its value. As do Barack Obama's books (for example, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance), it tells us what a political leader wants us to know about his view of the world. To McCain and Slater, decision making is characterized by Awareness, Foresight, Timing, Confidence, Humility and Inspiration. These qualities are examined through 20 case studies, including Gerald Ford's decision to pardon Richard Nixon and the efforts of Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat to achieve peace between their countries.

The book's structure presents some choices. First, it can be read as ordered, with a discusion of each aspect of leadership followed by historical examples. It runs a little long this way, though. I listened to it as an audio book and felt like I was trudging though history on foot. Worth the walk, but quite a trek.

Readers with more selective interests might sample just the stories that intrigue or that fill gaps in their historical knowledge. It is worthwhile to learn about the history of Liberia or experience another perspective on Alexander Graham Bell's inventiveness. Each of the 20 decision scenarios is a self-contained story, which facilitates such picking and choosing.

Finally, readers eager to examine John McCain's leadership style can confine themselves to the book's introduction, and to the introductory chapters in each of the six sections. These chapters point to the kind of decisions he admires, what he has learned from them, and how he--and we--can make decisions like them. Whether you agree with him or not, his brand of decision making is made plain to be understood and evaluated.

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