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Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life | 
 enlarge | Authors: John Mccain, Marshall Salter
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $17.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  42 reviews
Sales Rank: 100085
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 1400060303
Dewey Decimal Number: 179.6
EAN: 9781400060306
ASIN: 1400060303
Publication Date: April 13, 2004
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Product Description
“Courage,” Winston Churchill explained, is “the first of human qualities . . . because it guarantees all the others.” As a naval officer, P.O.W., and one of America’s most admired political leaders, John McCain has seen countless acts of bravery and self-sacrifice. Now, in this inspiring meditation on courage, he shares his most cherished stories of ordinary individuals who have risked everything to defend the people and principles they hold most dear.
“We are taught to understand, correctly, that courage is not the absence of fear but the capacity for action despite our fears,” McCain reminds us, as a way of introducing the stories of figures both famous and obscure that he finds most compelling—from the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to Sgt. Roy Benavidez, who ignored his own well-being to rescue eight of his men from an ambush in the Vietnam jungle; from 1960s civil rights leader John Lewis, who wrote, “When I care about something, I’m prepared to take the long, hard road,” to Hannah Senesh, who, in protecting her comrades in the Hungarian resistance against Hitler’s SS, chose a martyr’s death over a despot’s mercy.
These are some of the examples McCain turns to for inspiration and offers to others to help them summon the resolve to be both good and great. He explains the value of courage in both everyday actions and extraordinary feats. We learn why moral principles and physical courage are often not distinct quantities but two sides of the same coin. Most of all, readers discover how sometimes simply setting the right example can be the ultimate act of courage.
Written by one of our most respected public figures, Why Courage Matters is that rare book with a message both timely and timeless. This is a work for anyone seeking to understand how the mystery and gift of courage can empower us and change our lives.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 37 more reviews...
 An Uplifting Read from an American Hero September 1, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This country owes John McCain a great deal of debt. Not only for his military service or his Senate work but also for the great and couragous books he writes.
"Why Courage Matters" is an example of his passion for helping others through tough times and instilling a greater understanding of the world in them. He tells a number of couragous stories of people throughout time who deserve respect and honor and even goes on to explain some of the situations he himself went through during his imprisoment in the Vietnam War and how he got through them. John McCain is a great writer and an American Hero and this book serves as a testament to that.
 Disjointed... August 25, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is an interesting collection of stories of courageous acts. In between the stories McCain rambles about the meaning of courage. The ramblings sort of meander and are not well-structured. This would have been a better book if it were marketed solely as a collection of courageous stories, possibly including McCain's own story, and possibly with a BRIEF, cogent essay at the end on his thoughts on courage.
I am an avid reader and a McCain fan, but this book was difficult, and boring to read, and brought him down a notch in my estimation. (My parents, both avid readers of fiction, non-fiction and biographies, passed the book on to me, and later confessed that they passed it on for the same reason).
 McCain August 23, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
The conservative Arizona Republic has written of "less flattering" sides of John McCain that are "worthy of voter attention and consideration....Many Arizonans active in policymaking have been the victim of McCain's volcanic temper...McCain often insults people and flies off the handle." The editorial concluded that there are reasons, "to seriously question whether McCain has the temperament, and the political approach and skills, we want in the next president of the United States."
Well, that was McCain's home state's largest daily newspaper in 1999. McCain has since gone from the mainstream media's "maverick" to a man that stands for little more than getting himself into the White House. What I see in John McCain is desperation, not courage. If the Democrats and Obama cannot beat this truly weak candidate they will, once again, have nobody to blame but themselves.
Abysmal August 11, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
A Co-worker of mine bought each candidate's book and passed them around the office after she finished reading them. Being a philosophy minor, I jumped at the chance to read a book on virtue and why it should matter.
Now I've read stuff that would make the average man go into coma, such as the Socratic philosopher's debates on what courage is and I found it very fascinating (despite being very dry). But this book was dryer than 2000+ year old manuscripts, if you can believe that.
John McCain's book on courage attempts to say that the only type of true courage is that which occurs on a battlefield. He seems to claim that other things that we call courageous (such as saying a sick child is courageous or that standing up to your boss, etc) cheapen the "real" courageous acts.
But here's where the kicker comes in:
All the stories and acts of courage that he talks about have nothing to do with him. He talks about Medal of Honor recipients, his friends, cell mates, and many others - none of which said anything about his courage with the exception of a single paragraph talking about how, while in captivity, he would quietly rap on the wall of his cell - a sort of act of rebellion against his captors. But even this story turned into a story about some one else's courage.
Ironically enough, McCain admits that he has little courage many times in the book, but also admits that since he's been around so many courageous people, he could probably tell you how to be as courageous as them, if it was teachable.
Now, about the set up of the book itself - it's incomprehensible. It's a collection of short stories with extremely redundant filler in-between, which seems to be the sound of John McCain gathering his thoughts, during which, each page must use the word courage at least 20 times.
The stories are very good, but the filler in between is so painful, meaningless, and redundant that it nearly destroys all that is good in the book.
To top off the frustration with this filler, his thoughts never have any real conclusions, despite debating with himself what courage is for most of the book. In a philosophical context this would normally be expected, but only if you fully fleshed out strong arguments so your reader can then reach roughly the same conclusions you had come to through your meditations.
No such luck with this book. If you want debates on what virtue and courage is that are actually insightful, try some Socrates (actually written by his students, IIRC), for short stories on courage, there are hundreds of great books.
This book just fails to accomplish anything and left me very disappointed
A GIFT August 3, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
My son is interested in biographies, and this one, by a presidential candidate, a war hero, and a conservative, is sure to please him. I would like to read this book, myself.
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