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4.29 AVERAGE
4.29 AVERAGE
As always with Doris Kearns Goodwin, she makes me want to read more history. Great format to discuss Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson. I'm pretty much on top of Lincoln and both Roosevelt's, but I'm lacking in my knowledge of LBJ...more's the pity since he was president in my lifetime (albeit in my very young youth)! Great book for anyone looking for a little knowledge of some great leaders...and enough to whet your appetite for more history!
As usual, DKG knocks it out of the ballpark! This is one I have recommended to my leadership students, and will continue to do so. An examination and exploration of the leadership strengths and weaknesses of four prominent U.S. presidents, as they have encountered challenges and obstacles.
This is a wonderful book. In an engaging and accessible way you learn about the childhoods, early careers, periods of crisis and depression, and crowning leadership achievements of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson. I wish all history books were this engaging.
Goodwin seems married to a premise that is unnecessary and I think, largely untrue, that there's some important common thread running from Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt to Franklin Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson, and that we can learn a lot about leadership by observing the commonalities among them. Coincidentally, these are the four presidents she knows the most about, having studied the first three throughout her career, and worked in the fourth's White House.
What are the odds?
I suspect Goodwin herself knows the raison d'etre of her book is pretty flawed, because she spends time, particularly early in the book, defending it from imagined detractors. She defends, for instance, equating Teddy Roosevelt's death of his first wife (at age twenty-two) and mother (age forty-eight) within twenty-four hours of each other, with LBJ's loss in his first senate election. She defends it because she knows there are people out here in real life who'll call shenanigans on that load, and she knowsthat, even as she's writing the book, because some part of her must recognize it. Lincoln's 'turbulent time?' A little dust-up called the Civil War, or what was then called the War for the Preservation of the Union. Teddy Roosevelt's? Coal miner's strike.
It's four administrations Goodwin knows well in search of a significant underlying paradigm that doesn't exist.
Nevertheless, each part of the book is interesting enough - even if it is sort of Goodwin's greatest hits repackaged, so I rate it three stars if you want to give it a go.
And I need to call out Teddy Roosevelt, because that trust-buster threw me a t-shirt at yesterday's Nats game. Thanks, TR!
What are the odds?
I suspect Goodwin herself knows the raison d'etre of her book is pretty flawed, because she spends time, particularly early in the book, defending it from imagined detractors. She defends, for instance, equating Teddy Roosevelt's death of his first wife (at age twenty-two) and mother (age forty-eight) within twenty-four hours of each other, with LBJ's loss in his first senate election. She defends it because she knows there are people out here in real life who'll call shenanigans on that load, and she knows
It's four administrations Goodwin knows well in search of a significant underlying paradigm that doesn't exist.
Nevertheless, each part of the book is interesting enough - even if it is sort of Goodwin's greatest hits repackaged, so I rate it three stars if you want to give it a go.
And I need to call out Teddy Roosevelt, because that trust-buster threw me a t-shirt at yesterday's Nats game. Thanks, TR!
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Very inspirational - especially FDR. Lincoln of course is superb but the author had already covered this in her Team of Rivals.
DKG would be a special person to meet.
DKG would be a special person to meet.
This was my first book by this author and will not be my last. It was very educational and fairly easy to read. And I felt like I did, learn a lot about the leadership styles of these four presidents. I guess I would have just liked to hear more about their faults as leaders. I mean, she mentioned some failures on the way to the president presidency, but except for Johnson, didn't really mention as much. Overall though, especially in these turbulent times, it was a very interesting book.
A very enjoyable read. DKG uses selections from the lives of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR and LBJ to point out leadership lessons learned. The first part of the book dealt with the ambition of each of the four future presidents and what factors set them on an upward trajectory. Part 2 examines a period of great adversity faced by each of them and how that led to their growth. And part 3, the final section, covered each President at the height of his power, with particular attention to what we can learn from their leadership approach. The epilogue follows the story of each to their death. I think anyone who enjoys American history and is interested in what makes leaders successful will appreciate this book.
Doris Goodwin does not get the credit she deserves as a top notch biographer
Fun history read, in terms of leadership development, of marginal use.