Geronimo: Leadership Strategies of an American Warrior
Leach is an innovative but controversial college football coach with a lifelong interest in Native American history; co-author Levy is a freelance journalist who has written extensively on topics in American history. They present a useful but rather frustratingly inconsistent profile of the legendary Apache warrior. When they stick to the basic historical facts, they provide an interesting and useful introductory guide to the life and exploits of Geronimo. They include the outrage against his family by Mexican authorities, his early military efforts against both the Mexican and the American military, and his remarkable final campaign, in which he and his small band of followers evaded, for a time, thousands of American troops. Unfortunately, in their efforts to inflate Geronimo into an example of great leadership, they gloss over his glaring personal shortcomings and failures, including his inability to imagine an alternative to his consistent life of predatory raiding. While newcomers to the topic will find value here, a more objective and less laudatory study of Geronimo is required. --Jay Freeman