List $25.95

Written by Robert Coles - Audio book narrated by Harry Goz - Abridged Nonfiction - Abridgment approved by Robert Coles - 4 CASSETTES - 6 hours

Publisher, Random House Audiobooks (October 2000)

"Robert Coles should be declared a national treasure." --The Washington Post Book World

"An important, illuminating book." --The New York Times Book Review, about The Moral Intelligence of Children

"Robert Coles....has told us more about the diverse and complex lives of children than any other scholar of his generation." --Alvin P. Sanoff, U.S. News & World Report, about The Spiritual Life of Children

"A timely, perhaps even timeless, summons to examine the question of moral example and rectitude." --Kirkus Reviews, about Lives of Moral Leadership

In this important and insightful audiobook, Robert Coles tells about moral leaders--people who had an impact on American life in the last decades--as a way to illustrate the qualities that will enable each of us to be moral leaders in our homes, communities, and nation. Quoting Walker Percy, who wrote about our need to "hand one another along" in life, and drawing on his personal experiences, Coles shows how moral leaders influence others to achieve important ends. Coles says we need to be inspired by heroes and to be alert to occasions on which we ourselves are called upon to be heroes. He speaks about the position of the American president in affecting how adults and children feel about themselves; he considers the roles of Danilo Dolci and Dietrich Bonhoffer, the religious martyr; and he explores how literature can motivate discussion, action, and growth, including examples from his own life and history; the impact of Shakespeare on Robert Kennedy; of Tolstoy on Coles' mother; and of the continuing moral influence of Emerson, Conrad, and others.

As we begin a new century and elect a new U.S. president, Coles urges us to restore firm moral leadership in our nation.

About the Author: Robert Coles is a professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at the Harvard Medical School and a research psychiatrist for the Harvard University Health Services. his many books include the Pulitzer Prize-winning five-volume Children of Crisis and the bestselling The Moral Intelligence of Children. He is also the James Agee Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard. He lives in Massachusetts.