In the time of England’s struggle against Napoleon, Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State in President John Adams’s cabinet, offered a toast to “the world’s last hope—Britain’s fast-anchored isle.” ...

The world is running low on hope. You can read it in the headlines, see it in the media, and hear it in the growing despondency of everyday conversations. Division is deepening. Despair is rising.

While the characteristics and qualities that define great leaders have been extensively studied, one critical aspect remains underexplored: the reasons why followers choose to follow certain leaders.

IMAGE OF AMERICA (277 pp.)—R. L. Bruckberger—Viking ($4.50). America, you’re better off Than this old continent of ours . . . Thus Johann Wolfgang von Goethe saluted the new nation across the seas. In ...