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A review by aswhitesell
Leadership: In Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin
4.0
I am grateful to the publisher (Simon & Schuster) and the author (Doris Kearns Goodwin, DKG) for the advanced reader’s copy (ARC) which I received via Goodreads Giveaways.
I was particularly excited to receive this book, as it was already at the top of my to-buy list. This certainly did not disappoint.
DKG is a national treasure; I often think of her as our nation’s Historian Emeritus. Her research is incredibly thorough and well-documented. Toward that end, the length of the book intimidated me, until I realized how much of it was devoted to bibliography and research notes. I am glad that she documents everything in appendices, rather than as footnotes which tend to interrupt the flow of reading on each page.
The book is well organized into 4 sections (basically: formative years, early career, leadership in turbulent times, and post-career). Within those sections, we learn about four presidents who led our country through particularly trying times in our history and to their goals for our greatness: Lincoln (Civil War and emancipation), Teddy Roosevelt (Square Deal), Franklin Roosevelt (New Deal), and LBJ (Great Society).
These four men had particularly divergent childhoods and moments of turbulence and seminal change. DKG does a great job of comparing and contrasting. She goes into great detail, including documented conversations and writings from those who knew each of these men. These aren’t just the facts in any given history book. We get to know the mean and how they came into their own, and how they shaped our country’s past and therefore our future.
I found the book particularly comforting, to know that we have had such excellence in leadership before, and someday we will again.
I was particularly excited to receive this book, as it was already at the top of my to-buy list. This certainly did not disappoint.
DKG is a national treasure; I often think of her as our nation’s Historian Emeritus. Her research is incredibly thorough and well-documented. Toward that end, the length of the book intimidated me, until I realized how much of it was devoted to bibliography and research notes. I am glad that she documents everything in appendices, rather than as footnotes which tend to interrupt the flow of reading on each page.
The book is well organized into 4 sections (basically: formative years, early career, leadership in turbulent times, and post-career). Within those sections, we learn about four presidents who led our country through particularly trying times in our history and to their goals for our greatness: Lincoln (Civil War and emancipation), Teddy Roosevelt (Square Deal), Franklin Roosevelt (New Deal), and LBJ (Great Society).
These four men had particularly divergent childhoods and moments of turbulence and seminal change. DKG does a great job of comparing and contrasting. She goes into great detail, including documented conversations and writings from those who knew each of these men. These aren’t just the facts in any given history book. We get to know the mean and how they came into their own, and how they shaped our country’s past and therefore our future.
I found the book particularly comforting, to know that we have had such excellence in leadership before, and someday we will again.