Doris Kearns Goodwin: Paths to the Presidency

Abe Lincoln grew up poor in a frontier cabin deep in the woods while Teddy Roosevelt lived in an elegant brownstone on East 20th Street in New York City.  His distant cousin Franklin enjoyed a comfortable childhood on his family’s estate on the Hudson River while Lyndon Johnson’s home in the Texas Hill Country was without electricity or running water. Yet all four men rose to the presidency of the United States and led the country through some of its most turbulent times. In her new book, The Leadership Journey, #1 New York Times bestselling author, Pulitzer Prize winner, and leading historian Doris Kearns Goodwin explores how young people from such disparate backgrounds became leaders of the highest order, what the four had in common and what we can learn about leadership from them. Dr. Goodwin returns to our stage to share the invaluable leadership lessons she has mined over a 50-year career studying some of America’s best presidents, with the hope that young people can learn from the early lives of these boys who grew up to occupy the White House. Through stories of their dramatically different upbringings and experiences, Goodwin shows how they became larger-than-life figures and carried the country through especially challenging times. The author of eight critically acclaimed, bestselling books, including No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, which won the Pulitzer Prize. Her biography of Abraham Lincoln was the inspiration for Steven Spielberg’s film about the 16th president, and The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys was adapted into an award-winning television miniseries. A popular speaker and television commentator, she is also the executive producer of History Channel miniseries about several American presidents.