Doris Kearns Goodwin Examines Presidential Leadership

Doris Kearns Goodwin: I became a historian first, and then a writer. In graduate school, I was working on my thesis on Supreme Court history when I was selected to join the White House Fellows, one of America’s most prestigious programs for leadership and public service. At the White House celebration of the newly chosen Fellows, President Johnson asked me to dance—not that peculiar, as there were only a few women in the program. He told me he wanted me to be assigned directly to him, but it was not to be that simple.

For like many young people, I had been active in the anti-Vietnam War movement and had co-authored an article that called for the removal of LBJ, published in the New Republic several days after the White House dance. Despite this, LBJ said: “Bring her down here for a year, and if I can’t win her over, no one can.” I worked with LBJ in the White House and later assisted him in the writing of his memoirs. I will forever be grateful to him because there’s no question that my experience working for him shaped my desire to become a presidential historian.

On becoming a writer, credit goes to my husband, Richard Goodwin. I was a wife, mother, professor at Harvard, and a writer—trying to do it all. I realized that there wasn’t enough time in the day, and it was my husband’s confidence in me and my writing that helped me realize that I could become a full-time writer and give up the teaching. It was a very hard decision because I loved teaching, too, but I’m so happy that it turned out this way because it’s been a great adventure the last 50 years!

Goodreads: Tell us about your research and writing process for Leadership: In Turbulent Times.

DKG: I was inspired, in part, to write this book after a student asked me, “How can I be like the giants you write about? Could I recognize whether I will be a leader?” So I started thinking about my guys, as I like to call them—Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson—when they were young and unsure of their skills, ambition, and goals ahead. And instead of focusing on my guys separately, as I had for my other books, I began researching them through the exclusive lens of leadership.

My research draws from history, literature, biography, philosophy, political science, and business to deal with this mysterious and fascinating subject of leadership. This concentrated approach allowed me to dig deeper into the particular leadership strengths of each of the men. By following my guys as they grew into their leadership positions through loss, self-reflection, and experience, I got to know them more intimately than ever before—and I hope the reader feels the same. I sought to make these presidents human and accessible, so that we could truly see ourselves in their places and learn from the trajectory of their leadership. All told, it was a great challenge and a stretch in the way I think.

Goodreads: In your new book you analyze the leadership style of four U.S. presidents: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson. Why did you select these four men?

DKG: These four presidents—Lincoln, the two Roosevelts, and Johnson—form a family tree, a lineage of leadership that spans the entirety of our country’s history. Lyndon Johnson’s hero was Franklin Roosevelt; Franklin Roosevelt’s hero was Theodore Roosevelt; Theodore Roosevelt’s hero was Abraham Lincoln; and the closest Lincoln found to an ideal was George Washington. These guys are also the ones I know best. They were wonderful to “live with” over the course of my career, and it was fascinating to go back and look at them exclusively through the lens of leadership.

Goodreads: Although you say there is no common thread in the leadership trajectory of these presidents, did you find some similar traits that made them successful leaders?

DKG: Correct. I found no common pattern that describes the trajectory of successful leadership. Although set apart in background, abilities, and temperament, Lincoln, the Roosevelts, and LBJ shared a fierce ambition and a deep-seated resilience that enabled them to surmount uncommon adversity. 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.

Goodreads: Why should leaders read history?

DKG: The study and stories of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson set forth a template of shared purpose, collaboration, compromise, and civility—the best of our collective identity in times of trouble. We ignore history at our peril, for without heartening examples of leadership from the past, we fall prey to accepting our current climate of uncivil, frenetic polarization as the norm. The great protection for our democratic system, Lincoln counseled, was to “read of and recount” the stories of our country’s history, to rededicate ourselves to the ideals of our founding fathers. Through Leadership: In Turbulent Times, I hope I’ve provided a touchstone, a road map, for leaders and citizens alike.

Goodreads: What other history books would you recommend for people who wish to learn about leadership?

DKG: The Art of War by Sun Tzu and Leadership by James MacGregor Burns.

Goodreads: What books would you recommend for someone who has just recently become interested in American political history (what books would be in your starter kit on U.S. political history)?

DKG: My starter kit on U.S. political history would include: A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman, Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson, Seizing Destiny: How America Grew from Sea to Shining Sea by Richard Kluger, and any book by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

Goodreads: What are you currently reading, and what books are you recommending to your friends?

DKG: I’ve learned from the presidents I have studied how important it is to make time to relax and unwind as the day comes to an end. Just as Abraham Lincoln went to the theater more than 100 times during the Civil War to surrender his mind into “other channels of thought,” so I curl up in bed at night with a great mystery that transports me into a fictional world where there are puzzles to solve, absorbing characters to follow, and big surprises to experience.

Some of my recent favorites are: Camino Island by John Grisham, I’ve Got My Eyes on You by Mary Higgins Clark, The Hellfire Club by Jake Tapper, and The President Is Missing by James Patterson and Bill Clinton.

Doris Kearns Goodwin's Leadership: In Turbulent Times is in stores on September 18. Be sure to add it to your Want to Read shelf.

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