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.

Dr. Arturo G. Munoz, Senior Political Scientist, RAND Corporation, and former CIA officer.

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.

Harold Takooshian, PhD, Past-President, Division of International Psychology, American Psychological Association, USA