The final part of this book takes an in-depth look at Ronald Reagan. His advanced age is not unusual in a political leader. Other heads of government in the post-war world have been as old as, or even older than, he when they held office; for example, Churchill, Inšn, Chiang Kai-shek, Nehru, Salazar, De Gualle, Kenyatta, Tito, Mao Zedong, Adenauer, and Ulbricht. The large number of names gives the impression that contemporary leadership is gerontocracy.
The book is divided into three sections. The fist two examine middle age and old age, with each section offering numerous case studies from a variety of countries.
“This is an interesting, at times fascinating, book for readers who may have an interest in psychoanalysis and politics, but may not have looked seriously at the effects of aging leaders. To my knowledge, this is the first book to deal with these issues as rigorously and comprehensively as this.”-- James Walter
Angus McIntyre is Senior Lecturer in Politics at La Trobe University.
|
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: the psychology of later life and the politics of aging leaders
Angus McIntyre
I. Early Adulthood and Middle Age
1. Mentoring in political life: the case of Willy Brandt
Barbara Kellerman
2. The aging narcissistic leader: the case of Sir Oswald Mosley at mid-life
Angus McIntyre
3. Age, ambitions, and political careers: the middle-age crisis
Paul L. Hain
4. A case of mistaken identity: Djugashvili-Stalin
Robert C. Tucker
II. Old Age
5. Age and leadership: cross-cultural observations
David Gutmann
6. Menachem Begin: the aging leader and his boys
David Gutmann
7. Precipitate politics in the face of death: the case of Henry Parkes
Angus McIntyre
8. Mao Zedong and the dilemma of revolutionary gerontocracy
Angus McIntyre
9. Visions of rebirth: the spiritualist facet of Peru's Haya de la Torre
Frederick B. Pike
10. The Daedalus experience: a developmental vicissitude of the grandiose fantasy
Marian Toplin
III. A contemporary case: Ronald Reagan
11. The L-shaped mind of Ronald Reagan
Norman N. Holland
12. Ronald Reagan's Dorian Gray complex
Graham Little
Conclusion
Angus McIntyre
List of Contributors
Index
|
