Publisher Description
From Pulitzer Prize–winning author and esteemed presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, an invaluable guide to the development and exercise of leadership from Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The inspiration for the multipart HISTORY Channel series Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
“After five decades of magisterial output, Doris Kearns Goodwin leads the league of presidential historians” (USA TODAY). In her “inspiring” (The Christian Science Monitor) Leadership, Doris Kearns Goodwin draws upon the four presidents she has studied most closely—Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson (in civil rights)—to show how they recognized leadership qualities within themselves and were recognized as leaders by others. By looking back to their first entries into public life, we encounter them at a time when their paths were filled with confusion, fear, and hope.
Leadership tells the story of how they all collided with dramatic reversals that disrupted their lives and threatened to shatter forever their ambitions. Nonetheless, they all emerged fitted to confront the contours and dilemmas of their times. At their best, all four were guided by a sense of moral purpose. At moments of great challenge, they were able to summon their talents to enlarge the opportunities and lives of others. Does the leader make the times or do the times make the leader?
“If ever our nation needed a short course on presidential leadership, it is now” (The Seattle Times). This seminal work provides an accessible and essential road map for aspiring and established leaders in every field. In today’s polarized world, these stories of authentic leadership in times of apprehension and fracture take on a singular urgency. “Goodwin’s volume deserves much praise—it is insightful, readable, compelling: Her book arrives just in time” (The Boston Globe).
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“After five decades of magisterial output, Doris Kearns Goodwin leads the league of presidential historians. Insight is her imprint.”
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USA Today
About Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Kearns Goodwin is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of acclaimed works of nonfiction and winner of numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize in history, the Lincoln Prize, and the Carnegie Medal. She graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Colby College and was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. She earned a PhD in government from Harvard University, where she taught government, including a course on the American presidency, and, at the age of twenty-four became a White House Fellow, working directly with President Lyndon Johnson. She served as an assistant to President Johnson in his last year in the White House and later assisted him in the preparation of his memoirs. She has been awarded many honors and accolades, including book prizes and honorary degrees.
About the Narrators
Beau Bridges is a Grammy and Emmy Awardwinning actor and AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator.
David Morse is best known for his role as the amiable Dr. Jack “Boomer” Morrison on the long-running TV drama St. Elsewhere. The New England native got his start with the Boston Repertory Theatre in 1971. After six years he moved to New York where he appeared in such shows as Threads (1981). Additionally, he was featured in regional productions of various plays, including Of Mice and Men, A Hatful of Rain and A Death in the Family. In 1997, he won rave reviews and numerous stage awards for his powerful performance as a pedophile in Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer-winning How I Learned to Drive. For his starring role, he won the Drama Logue Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Drama Desk Award and the Obie.
Jay O. Sanders began his acting career off-Broadway in Shakespearean roles then went on to appear in numerous films and television series, including Revolutionary Road, The Day after Tomorrow, and Kiss the Girls, based on the novel by James Patterson. He has narrated more than fifty audio books over the years, including the bestselling My Losing Season by Pat Conroy and Dean Koontz’s Dragon Tears and Mr. Murder. He also won six AudioFile Earphones Awards.
Richard Thomas, a film and television actor, is best known for his role as John-Boy Walton on the CBS television series, The Waltons. His performance earned him a Primetime Emmy, as well as two Golden Globe nominations. Also an audiobook narrator, he has read numerous books, including John Grisham’s Theodore Boone series.