Lessons in Leadership.

AuthorChollet, Derek
PositionLeadership: In Turbulent Times - Book review

Doris Kearns Goodwin, Leadership: In Turbulent Times (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018), 496 pp., $29.99.

When Donald Trump sat down with German Chancellor Angela Merkel last July in Brussels on the margins of the most tempestuous NATO summit ever, he started off the conversation by asserting one point of historical trivia. Among Republicans, Trump bragged, he is a more popular leader than Abraham Lincoln. According to an official who was present, Merkel answered this odd--and dubious--claim with a typically deadpan response, saying she didn't realize there were public opinion polls in the 1860s.

Trump's fixation with Lincoln may seem ridiculous, but it is not necessarily unique. Every president is curious to measure themselves by history. But most try to learn from it. They study their White House predecessors for solace from the stresses of the moment, or to seek guidance for what to do. They stay in touch with those that are living, study books about others, and reach out to scholars to hear stories and learn lessons. For nearly a half-century--since she first worked as a White House Fellow for President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ)--Doris Kearns Goodwin has been one of those biographers presidents have sought for quiet counsel from the past. Yet one doubts she will be getting any invites from Trump.

As much as any historian writing today, Goodwin has shaped how we think about the presidency and how to judge Oval Office success. With vivid storytelling and a fine eye for character, she has always succeeded in bringing the past to life and making it relevant to the present. Her latest work, Leadership: In Turbulent Times, does so again by returning to the subjects of her award-winning books--Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt (TR), Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) and Johnson. Like any greatest hits collection, this book enables readers to revisit some old favorites as well as zoom out and appreciate a body of work. But more importantly, it allows one to think anew about these leaders and what made them distinct. It also is a sobering reminder of what we are missing today.

Goodwin doesn't set out to say anything particularly new about these presidents, and readers of her earlier works will find many familiar stories and observations. In this way, the book is less about presidential history than it is about leadership--and the lessons, she argues, apply as much to the boardroom and the ballfield as they do to the White House.

In Shakespearean terms, some leaders are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. Thes applies to the presidents Goodwin focuses upon. She zeroes in on the question of what made these presidents who they were, tracing their origins to their rise to power and describing the crucibles that forged their leadership approach. She then shows how these were tested at critical turning points thrust upon them--such as civil wars, financial crises or fundamental...

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