Doris Kearns Goodwin is a world-renowned presidential historian, public speaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning, #1 New York Times best-selling author. Her seventh book, Leadership: In Turbulent Times, became an instant New York Times bestseller and serves as the basis for HISTORY Channel documentary events “Abraham Lincoln” and “Theodore Roosevelt,” which Ms. Goodwin executive produces through Pastimes Productions, Inc., the independent film and television production company she founded with Beth Laski.
A culmination of Ms. Goodwin’s five-decade career of studying the American presidents, Leadership: In Turbulent Times offers in depth studies of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson that provides an accessible and essential road map for aspiring and established leaders in every field, and for all of us in our everyday lives.
Ms. Goodwin’s career as a presidential historian and author was inspired when as a 24-year-old graduate student at Harvard, she was selected to join the White House Fellows, one of America’s most prestigious programs for leadership and public service that still exists today. Ms. Goodwin was chosen to work directly with President Johnson in the White House and later assisted him in the writing of his memoirs. Her first book, the national bestselling Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, was published and republished to critical acclaim and rave reviews. In Spring 2019 it was rereleased with a new foreword by Ms. Goodwin, highlighting LBJ’s accomplishments in domestic affairs that have stood the test of time.
Ms. Goodwin was awarded the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for her bestselling and critically lauded No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II, described by the Pulitzer committee as “presenting an aspect of American history that has never been fully told….A brilliant narrative account of how the United States of 1940, an isolationist country divided along class lines, still suffering the ravages of a decade-long depression and woefully unprepared for war, was unified by a common threat and by the extraordinary leadership of Franklin Roosevelt to become, only five years later, the preeminent economic and military power in the world.”
Ms. Goodwin’s celebrated bestseller Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln was awarded the prestigious Lincoln Prize, the inaugural Book Prize for American History, the Lincoln Leadership Prize and was the basis for Steven Spielberg’s hit film “Lincoln,” which earned 12 Academy Award nominations, the most of any film in 2012, including for best picture, director and acting for Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones. Day-Lewis took home the Oscar for his performance.
Ms. Goodwin’s bestselling book The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys was adapted into an award-winning multi-part TV miniseries for ABC. Her best-selling and timeless memoir Wait Till Next Year is the heartwarming story of growing up loving her family and baseball. Her sixth book, The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism, examines the dynamic history of the first decade of the Progressive era. It was a bestseller and awarded the Carnegie Medal.
Well known for her hundreds of appearances and commentary on television, Ms. Goodwin is frequently seen in documentaries including Ken Burns’ The History of Baseball and The Roosevelts: An Intimate History; and on all the news and cable networks and shows including The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She played herself as a teacher to Lisa Simpson on The Simpsons and a historian on American Horror Story.
Ms. Goodwin has received numerous other awards for her writings and contributions to American history, including having been inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. Her critically acclaimed three-hour MasterClass on U.S. History and Leadership is among the platform’s most popular.
