Doris Kearns Goodwin: Presidential Ambitions

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Academy of Achievement

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4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2016

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

When Doris Kearns Goodwin was six year old, she used to carefully document the Brooklyn Dodgers' games. And that, she says, eventually led her to the career she now has, as one of America's favorite historians and political commentators. Goodwin's books are so engaging, because they focus on the very human side of her subjects: Lincoln, Kennedy, Johnson, Taft and Roosevelt (Franklin, Eleanor AND Teddy). In this episode, she talks about her unusual approach. She also tells amazing stories about the extraordinary relationship she had with LBJ, which began when she was a White House fellow in her early 20's and led to her first book. And, she describes a night unlike any other, sleeping in the bedroom where Winston Churchill slept as a guest in FDR's White House. (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2016

Transcript

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0:00.0	Not too long after Barack Obama became a United States senator, this was in 2005.
0:11.8	He read a new book about one of his heroes. The book was team of rivals, the political
0:17.8	genius of Abraham Lincoln. Senator Obama was so excited by it that he called the author Doris Kearns Goodwin to ask if she'd be willing to meet and talk about Lincoln.
0:29.0	They did. And not too long after that, Obama announced he was running, with a heavy nod to the 16th President.
0:37.0	The life of a tall, gangly, self-made Springfield lawyer tells us that a different future is possible.
0:45.0	He tells us that there is power in words.
0:51.0	He tells us that there's power in conviction that beneath all the
0:55.5	differences of race and region, faith and station we are one people. He tells us
1:00.6	that there's power and hope.
1:01.8	President Obama has called under He tells us that there is power and hope.
1:03.3	President Obama has called Honduras Kearns Goodwin
1:06.3	quite a few times during his years in the White House
1:09.0	to talk about American history and leadership.
1:12.1	But the president is just one of her fans. Doris
1:15.8	Kearns Goodwin has a lot of them. Readers who appreciate the way she's able to
1:20.4	breathe some sort of vital life force into history.
1:24.6	She's written five hugely successful presidential biographies,
1:28.9	and she's won the Pulitzer Prize.
1:31.4	So what started her down this career path, believe it or not, the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1:37.0	Elston Howard sends a grounded a Pee Wee Reese and these Dodgers at last are world champion.
1:45.0	Delirious with joy.
1:46.8	Hang in there. An explanation is forthcoming.
	...

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