The Orphan Paradox: Destinies, Autocracies and Democracies in India and the United States
Autor Dinesh Sharmaen Limba Engleză Hardback – 6 noi 2026
In The Orphan Paradox, Sharma offers an original meditation on the hidden wounds that shape political leadership. Building on his earlier works, including Barack Obama in Hawai'i and Indonesia (2012), Sharma fuses psychology, history, and political science to illuminate how leaders transform vulnerability into vision. Through vivid portraits that traverse continents and centuries, he traces how the United States and India - twin experiments in democracy born of colonial rupture - produced leaders who embodied both loss and renewal: Washington, Jefferson, and Madison in America; Gandhi, Nehru, and Ambedkar in India. From these founders emerged patrician families -the Adamses, Kennedys, Bushes, and the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty - whose inheritance of power eventually met the populist insurgencies of figures like Trump and Modi. For psychologists, historians and political scientists alike, The Orphan Paradox provides a new framework on the foundations of democracy, showing how personal loss shapes institutional design and how nations, like individuals, oscillate between trauma and transcendence. The result is a work of scholarship with a moral urgency - a study of how the orphaned souls continue to haunt, and perhaps redeem the democratic experiment.
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9781666976793
ISBN-10: 1666976792
Pagini: 256
Ilustrații: 10 b/w photos
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 25 mm
Greutate: 0.45 kg
Editura: Bloomsbury Publishing
Colecția Bloomsbury Academic
Locul publicării:New York, United States
ISBN-10: 1666976792
Pagini: 256
Ilustrații: 10 b/w photos
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 25 mm
Greutate: 0.45 kg
Editura: Bloomsbury Publishing
Colecția Bloomsbury Academic
Locul publicării:New York, United States
Cuprins
List of Figures and Tables
Note on Author
Foreword
Preface
Ch. 1: Introduction
Ch. 2: The Orphan Paradox
Ch. 3: The Founders of Democracies
Ch. 4: The Inheritors of Autocratic Dynasties
Ch. 5: The Populism of Nationalist Autocrats
Ch. 6: Political Cycles & Trauma Politics
Ch. 7: A Traumagenic Theory of Leadership
Ch. 8: The Orphan, the Strongman and the Oligarch
Ch. 9: Conclusion
References
Appendix
Note on Author
Foreword
Preface
Ch. 1: Introduction
Ch. 2: The Orphan Paradox
Ch. 3: The Founders of Democracies
Ch. 4: The Inheritors of Autocratic Dynasties
Ch. 5: The Populism of Nationalist Autocrats
Ch. 6: Political Cycles & Trauma Politics
Ch. 7: A Traumagenic Theory of Leadership
Ch. 8: The Orphan, the Strongman and the Oligarch
Ch. 9: Conclusion
References
Appendix
Recenzii
Combining psychology, history, and political science, The Orphan Paradox introduces a ground-breaking approach to understanding the development of national leadership. It compares the United States and India - two of the most populist democracies in the world - to present a new and insightful way of looking at political culture. Sharma's exposition of "traumagenic leadership" shaped by psychic wounds and traumas that affect "both nations and the figures who lead them" is particularly compelling.
This bold new volume discovers how a high percentage of American presidents and India's prime ministers have lost one or both parents as children, and how this deeply shaped their later success. Like Sharma's earlier volumes, the Orphan Paradox offers an eye-opening inside look into our political leaders that even these leaders themselves may not realize.
In this ambitious work of synthesis, Dinesh Sharma describes unexpected and intriguing parallels among the personalities, family configurations, and economic policies of pivotal leaders of the United States and India- leading democratic societies in the last half century.
Indian prime ministership has swung back-and-forth between the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and "orphans" with some notable exceptions from the Janata Dal and Janata Party. Dr. Dinesh Sharma, a social scientist with a Doctorate from Harvard University in human development and psychology, took the intellectual effort to pinpoint the early childhood experiences of politicians, despots, and dictators as a psychological explanation for their misuse of power. While not a primary focus, the book's analysis of how social structures and the failure to form healthy bonds can lead to destructiveness would apply to anyone, including children who may have experienced a lack of proper care or emotional bonds.
The Orphan Paradox is a rare work that combines historical scholarship with psychological depth. Drawing on extensive research, Dr. Dinesh Sharma examines the lives of historic leaders across civilizations, revealing how early loss, trauma, and responsibility shape their political character and the destiny of democracy. The book integrates theories from human development, psychology, and trauma studies to illuminate how leadership traits are formed long before leaders enter public life. Moreover, interwoven with historical narratives is a story of youthful responsibility borne at an age far greater than one's own. This fusion of scholarship and lived experience makes The Orphan Paradox not only an important academic contribution but also a profoundly human reflection on leadership, resilience, and the burdens that shape those who are called to serve something larger than themselves.
This bold new volume discovers how a high percentage of American presidents and India's prime ministers have lost one or both parents as children, and how this deeply shaped their later success. Like Sharma's earlier volumes, the Orphan Paradox offers an eye-opening inside look into our political leaders that even these leaders themselves may not realize.
In this ambitious work of synthesis, Dinesh Sharma describes unexpected and intriguing parallels among the personalities, family configurations, and economic policies of pivotal leaders of the United States and India- leading democratic societies in the last half century.
Indian prime ministership has swung back-and-forth between the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and "orphans" with some notable exceptions from the Janata Dal and Janata Party. Dr. Dinesh Sharma, a social scientist with a Doctorate from Harvard University in human development and psychology, took the intellectual effort to pinpoint the early childhood experiences of politicians, despots, and dictators as a psychological explanation for their misuse of power. While not a primary focus, the book's analysis of how social structures and the failure to form healthy bonds can lead to destructiveness would apply to anyone, including children who may have experienced a lack of proper care or emotional bonds.
The Orphan Paradox is a rare work that combines historical scholarship with psychological depth. Drawing on extensive research, Dr. Dinesh Sharma examines the lives of historic leaders across civilizations, revealing how early loss, trauma, and responsibility shape their political character and the destiny of democracy. The book integrates theories from human development, psychology, and trauma studies to illuminate how leadership traits are formed long before leaders enter public life. Moreover, interwoven with historical narratives is a story of youthful responsibility borne at an age far greater than one's own. This fusion of scholarship and lived experience makes The Orphan Paradox not only an important academic contribution but also a profoundly human reflection on leadership, resilience, and the burdens that shape those who are called to serve something larger than themselves.