In the spirit of the 25th anniversary edition of The Leadership Quarterly as the world's premier outlet for leadership research we have reviewed qualitative and historiometric research across those 25 years. Qualitative research is a complex and cluttered area of scholarship. This is not because there is an inherent confusion about it. Rather it is because ‘qualitative’ research is a cover-all term for a wide range of research strategies paradigms parent disciplines sources of data and methods of analysis for them. More so than in previous journal review articles we explored variation in qualitative analysis as well as variety in qualitative data. In terms of methodologies our efforts concentrated on case study content analysis grounded theory and historiometrics. We also examined trends toward post-positivism post-modernity and liquid modernity and their resultant benefits for researching leadership. Future directions for leadership research are posited.