For the record: Doris Kearns Goodwin.

• Position: Interview

Pulitzer Prize winner and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin has written books about Lyndon Johnson, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and the Kennedy family. Her book on Lincoln, "Team of Rivals," was adapted in part into the feature film "Lincoln," which was nominated for 12 Academy Awards. She wrote a memoir "Wait Till Next Year" about growing up a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers and was the first female journalist to enter the Boston Red Sox locker room. Goodwin has addressed sessions at NCSL's Legislative Summit.

State Legislatures: What could today's legislators learn from Teddy Roosevelt, the subject of your next book,

Doris Kearns Goodwin: There are universal traits our great leaders share that are applicable even when the context changes. What makes Teddy Roosevelt especially relevant is that he began his storied career in the New York State Assembly. He often said the state assembly was a great school for him. He learned the most important lesson in politics when he was just 23 years old--that he had to work with the other people, he had to compromise and figure out what would make the assembly work as a whole, and he brought that lesson to all the rest of his career.

SL: What would Teddy Roosevelt think of today's political climate?

DKG: I think it would worry him a lot. He believed he could mobilize the public with his speeches, but in the end he knew he had to get a legislature--either Congress or the state assembly--to come together. I think the whole dysfunction of Washington today and the inability of the two sides to compromise would sadden him.

SL: What was the role of the media in Teddy Roosevelt's day?

DKG: During his time, especially the magazine world, was considered the golden age of crusading journalism. McClure's, for example, was headed by this wonderful character (Sam McClure) who was a genius, manic depressive and crazy, but incredibly brilliant. He would allow his writers--Ida Tarbell, Ray Baker, William Allen White, Lincoln Steffens--two years of research on their subjects, whether it was Standard Oil or railroad abuses or city corruption or food and drug problems, before they even had to write a word. So their pieces were really investigative, fact-based pieces. Today so much of the journalistic world has turned to entertainment. Because of the blogs and the need to be on the Internet, even our best journalistic attention is focused away from these longer pieces to shorter and shorter...