Introductory note

Statesmanship as human excellence

The great and the good: classical political philosophy and honorable ambition

Edmund Burke: noble prudence in the age of ideology

Tocqueville: democracy without demagogy, liberty with a modicum of greatness

Abraham Lincoln: touched by prudence and grace to complete the promise of America

Clear-eyed statesmanship: Winston Churchill, political judgment, and the "courage to see"

"The born protector": De Gaulle as statesman and thinker

Václav Havel: writer, dissident, and philosopher-king

A final word.