Leadership: In Turbulent Times
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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Community Reviews
The structure (recognition of ambition, tragedy, leadership, death decline) across the four presidents felt forced while I read it, but I was grateful for it during reflection.
As simple as it is, the structure gave me a place to hang my thoughts and I found myself referring to it again and again. The author’s personal relationship with Johnson made those chapters feel particularly human and are the best in the book.
The book left me feeling clearer about the ways in which leaders interact with their environments and an appreciation for how that inclination rises in childhood and is matured through complex experience.
I remain somewhat mystified anyone would go to the trouble, but perhaps that isn’t the part that is supposed to require explanation.
As simple as it is, the structure gave me a place to hang my thoughts and I found myself referring to it again and again. The author’s personal relationship with Johnson made those chapters feel particularly human and are the best in the book.
The book left me feeling clearer about the ways in which leaders interact with their environments and an appreciation for how that inclination rises in childhood and is matured through complex experience.
I remain somewhat mystified anyone would go to the trouble, but perhaps that isn’t the part that is supposed to require explanation.
Excellent study of 4 Presidents who made specific contributions that impacted the American people greatly. Each president began life with rich or poor but all very ambitious and smart. It was important to them to make a difference. Each suffered some life challenge which produced a character to deliver amazing results in a time of tribulation for the country. Very inspiring & good book for now, with our polarized politics, big banks & corporations, etc.
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