Across the world, and throughout time, there have been people who have risen to the challenge of leading others. Sometimes their power is undeserved, sometimes it's ill-used, but always their actions have impact. But do leaders really make history, or does history make leaders? And how might we harness the answers to find and become better leaders today?

For the past decade, Moshik Temkin has been exploring these questions at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and at universities around the world. In this book, he offers a deep dive into the nature of leadership, from the highest ranks to the most hopeless situations.

Drawing on stories from across history and culture, Temkin considers how leaders have made decisions, inspired others and forged a path in challenging circumstances - from the Great Depression to the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, from the Suffragettes to the anticolonial wars of the 20th century to the civil rights struggle - and how, in a world desperate for good leadership, we can evaluate those decisions and draw lessons for ourselves today.