The New York Times bestselling book about the early development, growth, and exercise of leadership from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin “should help us raise our expectations of our national leaders, our country, and ourselves” (The Washington Post). “After five decades of magisterial output, Doris Kearns Goodwin leads the league of presidential historians” (USA TODAY). In … 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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Business students invariably ask me: ‘With what historical figure would you like to have lunch?’ Doris Kearns Goodwin has prepared a marvelous banquet with four leaders whose lives provide lessons for all of us. Pull up a chair.
Four towering individuals . . . in a masterwork on how good leaders become great leaders, how burning personal ambition can be elevated into driving ambition for a cause greater than self. Riveting, uplifting, and incisive, Leadership is a culminating work of a true intellectual artist.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author has written separately on 4 Presidents: Lincoln, both Roosevelts, and Lyndon Johnson. Here she brings together all four around the theme of Leadership. Each started with a bang, hit a wall, and through resilience went on to play a major role in US history. Informative history from a wise observer.
I’ve read Doris’s individual biographies of the subjects in this book and I wondered how she could augment those excellent in depth studies. I was pleased to learn that, through focus on leadership and character traits, she was able to bring yet another thought provoking book to fruition.
I enjoyed the book and recommend it not only for those interested in history, but also those interested in the characteristics of great leadership.
Read November 9, 2019
I do not recommend power reading this book like I just did [I got how the chapters were set up wrong and so I had A LOT more book than I realized to listen to and would have started MUCH earlier if I had been better prepared since I am seeing the author tomorrow at an author event and my brain is now mush]. I recommend taking each chapter a day at a time and reading/listening to this nice and slow. Because, like all Doris Kearns Goodwin, there is A LOT OF INFORMATION. A. LOT. I mean, I just read a 978 page book on Lincoln by her and there was stuff in this book about him that she DID NOT COVER in the 978 page book. It boggled my mind.
This is an amazing book – it looks at 4 presidents in different phases of their presidency and how they handled the crisis’s that came their way. As Lincoln and FDR are two of my favorite presidents, I was really looking forward to this [and will be reading the full biography on FDR next year with the bestie]and I was not disappointed. I can take or leave Teddy Roosevelt, though he did so much while he was president and after, that it is always interesting to learn about him [this is the third book though I have read this year though about him. I am a little TR’ed out tbh]. The only negative for me in this book is the sections on LBJ. Ugh. Though I learned things about him that I didn’t know, it doesn’t take away from what a PUTZ he was and a whiner and how he chose not to listen to those who were wiser around him in regards to Vietnam. For me, that whole debacle erases all the good that he did an tried to do before that happened.
The narration for this book was spectacular. Absolutely amazing. David Morse narrated Lincoln’s chapters, Richard Thomas [of The Walton’s fame] narrated Teddy Roosevelt’s chapters, Jay O. Sanders [he is in one of my all-time favorite movies {The Day After Tomorrow} and he is AMAZING with accents] narrates FDR’s chapters and Beau Bridges narrates the chapters on LBJ [which was on the few amazing things about those chapters]. It made the book go much faster than expected and each narrator brought their own unique voice to what they were reading. I would listen to any of them narrate anything. Amazing.
This is a really great book for anyone who loves history – it really was a great read.
This book exemplifies the importance of Leadership especially in the world we live in now.
This is one of Goodwin’s best. It explores the leadership style of each president and she isn’t afraid to offer some perspective on the failings as well as the successes of each man.
Excellent book.
Excellent!
Inspiring and comforting. Such incredible leaders- but also really makes you see the twists and turns of fate. Also how someone can be visionary and blind at the same time. Reminds you that all of our current problems are rooted in problems we’ve been struggling with since our nation’s founding.
I enjoy all her books.
Doris Kearns Goodwin did a wonderful job of dissecting leadership and how it developed in the four presidents she writes about.
Typical book from Doris Kearns Godwin. Excellent, easy to read, entertaining, This a historical comparison and review of four great presidential leaders. Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR and Lyndon Johnson.
The author is a distinguished historian with a gift for clear, well founded prose that never fails to hold the reader’s interest. She had already written well-recognized books on each of the four presidents covered here, each with a distinctive point of view; but this is by no means a rehash of earlier works. Instead, she concentrates on their personal leadership style. Highly recommended.
I like the authors style of writing and the way the story is presented.
As always, Goodwin’s books are very readable and fascinating. This one approaches her previous novels from a different approach. Worth the read.