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A Higher Loyalty, by James Comey, has three essential questions on the covers inside the front flap. What is ethical leadership? How do you do what is right instead of what is expedient? How do you maintain loyalty to the values of the institutions you have sworn to protect, the values you have dedicated your entire life to upholding, even if that loyalty comes at your own expense? The answer to these questions is what this book is about.
Of all the many books that have come out after the 2016 election that take positions on the political climate, this one stands unique. Say what you want about James Comey’s motives, and everyone seems to do just that; he can’t win and has found himself with this book on genuinely unusual ground, where all sides can find reasons for concern.
That hard place is the real power of this book. The book is very well written and easy to read, and his life story could have been an excellent book even if he had never mentioned Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. His story is a testimony to a person who sincerely cares about the three questions raised on the inside cover. It would be easy to drift off into comments about the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations. The strengths and weaknesses manifested in the stories Comey presents are invitations to jump into partisanship ranting, even or maybe especially, in a review.
Comey seems to have measured everything in his career against a template of right and wrong, as he understood how it existed at the time. Some reviewers have used this to be critical of his motive. Political books are hard to review because, for many people, the answer is one they are seeking only to prove rather than find. It is assumed that good and evil have picked sides. It is easy to say and unfortunate that many feel a greater good is worth sacrificing a less critical interest because, after all, the other side is pure evil. For them, it isn’t perfect and evil. It is taking sides.
Comey’s book is about what happens when that standard approach of using a political vantage point is ignored, and someone dares to state that good and evil exist on all sides. Sorting out interest from sin requires a higher standard, which the book "A Higher Loyalty" does.
At the very beginning of the book, his Author's Notestartst saying. “WHO AM I TO TELL others what ethical leadership is? Anyone claiming to write a book about ethical leadership can come across as presumptuous, even sanctimonious.” James Comey’s book gave us good answers and his choices show that evil is no respecter of political parties.
Thank You, James Comey. Thank you for showing us authentic leadership and consistent respect for values. Thank you for this extraordinary book.
I am not convinced about your timing, however.
Initially read and reviewed in 2017. Re Reviewed in 2020. As impressed as I was the first time with Comey’s effort to find suitable and wrong in his views, It seems like he could have waited until after the election to dump on Hillary. It was a stiff price for the country to pay, some, not many, would say.
