Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Remarkable Journey of America’s Acclaimed Historian, Pulitzer Prize Winner, and Master Storyteller of Presidential LeadershipBy Gerald A. Lewis
Length4h 17m
About this audiobook
Here it is — 3,906 characters, leaning hard into the dramatic hook while staying true to what's actually in the book:
---
DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN
The Remarkable Journey of America's Acclaimed Historian, Pulitzer Prize Winner, and Master Storyteller of Presidential Leadership
She criticized a sitting president in print — and he hired her anyway. Then he danced with her at a White House ball, brought her into the Oval Office, and years later, walked her across his Texas ranch, confessing doubts he shared with almost no one else alive. That relationship turned a twenty-four-year-old graduate student into the historian who would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize, help write the film that won Daniel Day-Lewis an Oscar, and become one of the most trusted voices in America — right before nearly losing it all.
This is the book that tells the whole story. Not the flattering highlight reel. The real one.
Before she was interviewing presidents, she was a six-year-old at a Long Island kitchen table, reconstructing entire Brooklyn Dodgers games from memory to relay to her father, pitch by pitch, because he couldn't listen live. That instinct — turning scattered facts into a story someone could believe in — never left her. It carried her to Harvard, into Lyndon Johnson's White House during the most explosive year of his presidency, and eventually into the archives of Lincoln, the Roosevelts, and the Kennedys.
Then, in 2002, it nearly destroyed her.
Reporters discovered that passages in her book on the Kennedy family echoed another author's work almost word for word. She'd quietly settled with that author a decade earlier — and never told anyone. As the scandal widened, she resigned from the Pulitzer Prize board in disgrace, and critics openly called for her own Pulitzer to be revoked. Most biographies rush past this. This one doesn't blink. You get the timeline, the apology, the fallout — and the astonishing decade that followed, when she came back stronger than before.
Inside, you'll discover:
- The White House dance that rewrote her entire career, straight from a president she'd publicly tried to remove from office
- How eight years alongside a dying ex-president's memories became the most intimate presidential research ever conducted
- The full, unflinching account of the 2002 plagiarism scandal — what she hid, what she admitted, and how it almost ended everything
- The literary marriage behind the scenes: her 42 years with speechwriter Richard Goodwin, the man who wrote Robert Kennedy's most famous words
- How a disgraced historian rebuilt her reputation by writing the book that became Spielberg's Lincoln
- The mentor who taught her that presidents aren't born powerful — they're built by crisis, exactly like she was
- Why business schools and military academies now teach her books as leadership doctrine
- What she's doing right now, in her ninth decade, still unwilling to stop
This is a story about the price of ambition, the fragility of reputation, and the astonishing fact that the same instincts that made Doris Kearns Goodwin one of America's greatest storytellers are the exact instincts that almost ended her career. Her own life's work insists that no leader should be remembered for a single moment, good or bad. This book finally turns that unflinching standard back on her.
If you loved Team of Rivals or No Ordinary Time, you've only read half her story. If you think you know how scandals end careers, her comeback will surprise you.
Includes a complete timeline, reading guide, discussion questions, and bibliography.
An…
Audiobook details
GenreBiography and Memoir, Other
Length4 hrs 17 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction
34Chapter 32: Writing About the Living — The Ethics of Contemporary Biography
2Introduction
35Chapter 33: The Kennedy School and the Institute of Politics
3Chapter 1: A Curious Mind Is Born
36Chapter 34: Theodore Roosevelt Before the Presidency
4Chapter 2: Discovering the Power of Education
37Chapter 35: William Howard Taft’s Reluctant Ambition
5Chapter 3: College Years and Finding Her Voice
38Chapter 36: Franklin Roosevelt Before the White House
Show all chaptersShow less
6Chapter 4: Entering Public Service
39Chapter 37: Lyndon Johnson’s Rise to Power
7Chapter 5: Inside the White House
40Chapter 38: The 1964 Election and the Great Society Mandate
8Chapter 6: Becoming a Historian
41Chapter 39: Grief and Biography — Writing About Death
9Chapter 7: The First Major Success
42Chapter 40: The Historian as Public Intellectual
10Chapter 8: Winning the Pulitzer Prize
43Chapter 41: Presidential Libraries and the Preservation of Memory
11Chapter 9: Bringing Presidents to Life
44Chapter 42: The Ninth Decade
12Chapter 10: Challenges Behind the Success
45Chapter 43: The Papers of a Marriage — Inside the Briscoe Archive
13Chapter 11: Leadership Lessons Across History
46Chapter 44: Teaching Leadership — A Curriculum in Four Presidents
14Chapter 12: Becoming America’s Trusted Historian
47Chapter 45: The Reader’s Verdict — Sales, Syllabi, and Staying Power
15Chapter 13: Richard and Doris: A Marriage of Two Historians
48Chapter 46: What Comes Next for Presidential History
16Chapter 14: Inspiring a New Generation
49Chapter 47: The Vantage Point — Inside Johnson’s Own Memoir
17Chapter 15: A Lifetime of Achievement
50Chapter 48: Concord, Massachusetts and the Weight of History
18Chapter 16: The Legacy of Storytelling
51Chapter 49: A Historian’s Advice to Young Writers
19Chapter 17: Beyond the Books
52Chapter 50: A Final Word on Sources and Silence
20Chapter 18: Inside the Archive — How the Books Get Made
53Chapter 51: Reading Kearns Goodwin Today
21Chapter 19: Kearns Goodwin Among Her Contemporaries
54Chapter 52: Coda — The Scorebook and the Archive
22Chapter 20: The Business of Bestsellers
55Appendix: A Note on Names
23Chapter 21: Presidents as People — The Common Thread Across Four Books
56A Note on This Edition
24Chapter 22: A Reader’s Guide to Key Figures
57Conclusion
25Chapter 23: What the Critics Say
58Timeline
26Chapter 24: The Great Society — What Johnson Built
59Notes on Sources
27Chapter 25: The Vietnam War and a Presidency Under Strain
60Awards and Honors at a Glance
28Chapter 26: Lincoln’s Cabinet at War
61Her Books at a Glance
29Chapter 27: The Roosevelts and the Second World War
62Chapter-by-Chapter Reading Guide
30Chapter 28: Richard Neustadt and the Harvard School of Presidential Studies
63Discussion Questions for Readers and Book Clubs
31Chapter 29: The White House Fellows Program — An American Institution
64Acknowledgments
32Chapter 30: Baseball as American Memory
65About the Author
33Chapter 31: Colby College and the Liberal Arts Tradition
More from Gerald A. Lewis
Defying JihadEsther Ahmad8h 50m$20
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m$24 · $0.00
Frederick Douglass: All 3 Memoirs in One VolumeFrederick Douglass42h 36m$1 · $0.00
Send MeMarty Skovlund, Joe Kent8h 10m$26 · $0.00
Ulysses S. Grant: Life of the Fearless General & Commander-in-Chief (Complete Edition - Volumes 1&2)Ulysses S. Grant30h 34m$2 · $0.00
Left for DeadEbony Canion5h 34m$17
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m$24 · $0.00
Forever BoyKate Swenson9h 27m$29 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m$29 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m$29 · $0.00
A Bridge Not Too FarDeepak Ohri4h 55m$15
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m$24 · $0.00
A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings With George Müller (The Complete Four-Volume Edition)George Müller43h 37m$2 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m5 (2)$29 · $0.00
Scandal Between the Sheets & Stranded with the Tempting StrangerBrenda Jackson9h 22m$24 · $0.00
The Holy Bible - 1 SamuelKing James2h 13m3 (1)$3 · $0.00
KJV Holy BibleBroadStreet Publishing Group LLC96h 16m$10 · $0.00
Book of ColossiansUnknown Author16m$8
The American Standard Bible — The Gospel of MatthewMatthew3h 56m$2 · $0.00
Everyday Chanakya | Time Management S01E08Radhakrishnan Pillai42m$4
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m$24 · $0.00
The King James Audio Bible New Testament CompleteChristopher Glyn20h 2m5 (1)$12 · $0.00
Faiths CheckbookCharles Spurgeon12h 44m$11 · $0.00
Be Wild Be FreeAmber Fossey26m$7 · $0.00
Ten Things I Wish You Knew About Your Child's Mental HealthDr. Billy Garvey4h 53m$20 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m$20 · $0.00
The Chosen Book OneAmanda Jenkins, Kristen Hendricks, Dallas Jenkins3h 8m$10 · $0.00
The Lives of BrianBrian Johnson9h 45m$29 · $0.00
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the HorseCharlie Mackesy58m$11 · $0.00
Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of LukeJ.C. Ryle27h 13m$18 · $0.00
My First Beethoven AlbumNaxos1h 23m$6 · $0.00
CrossroadsKaleb Dahlgren7h 56m$26 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m$29 · $0.00
Brain Training for RidersAndrea Monsarrat Waldo5h 56m$19 · $0.00
My Effin' LifeGeddy Lee17h 11m5 (1)$40 · $0.00
You may also like
The Life & Legacy of W.E. GladstoneJohn Morley80h 27m$2 · $0.00
Piety & PowerTom LoBianco11h 30m$29 · $0.00
The Analects of ConfuiusConfucius3h 4m$2.30
The Real RomneyMichael Kranish, Scott Helman12h 50m$33 · $0.00
George Washington's Rules of CivilityMoncure Daniel Conway, George Washington3h 37m$2 · $0.00
The Magic Mountain (Summarized Edition)Thomas Mann8h 9m$2
The BertramsAnthony Trollope25h 28m$2 · $0.00
Advice to Young MenWilliam Cobbett9h 5m$1 · $0.00
The Education of Henry AdamsHenry Adams19h 18m$2.30
There Is Simply Too Much to Think AboutSaul Bellow20h 28m$30
Letters to a daughterHubert Bland4h 11m$2 · $0.00
What a Party!Terry McAuliffe15h 17m$25 · $0.00
Letters to His Son, 1752Philip Dormer Stanhope Earl of Chesterfield4h 40m$2 · $0.00
Linda CondonJoseph Hergesheimer6h 53m$2 · $0.00
The GovernatorIan Halperin13h 43m$33 · $0.00
As It HappenedClement R. Attlee9h 7m$2 · $0.00
The Disappearance of ChildhoodNeil Postman5h 58m$14
The Growth of a SoulAugust Strindberg4h 52m$2 · $0.00
The Life of William Ewart Gladstone (Vol. 1-3) (Annotated)John Morley81h 16m$2 · $0.00
Nice TryJosh Gondelman5h 59m$24 · $0.00