Jonathan Eig (L) on stage with Doris Kearns Goodwin at Chicago Humanities Festival. (Photo by Timothy Schmidt.)

History is personal.

Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer-Prize winning presidential historian and author of six other biographies, knows that well. She turns the spotlight on her own life, in her latest book, An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s, underscoring the need for everyone to know and share their history.

“In her latest book, “An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s,” @DorisKGoodwin underscores the need for everyone to know and share their #history. ”

“The power of that decade was that people were filled with the idea that they could make a difference,” says the 81-year-old at a recent Chicago Humanities Festival event. That sentiment echoes again today.

“What mattered was I learned I was part of something bigger than myself,” says Goodwin, interviewed on stage by Jonathan Eig, author of five books, whose most recent, King: A Life, earned him the 2024 Pulitzer in nonfiction.

Goodwin’s assertions mirror the 9 Leadership Power Tools created by Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead. The first Power Tool is, “Know your history.” If you do, then “you can create the future of your choice,” Feldt says.

“@DorisKGoodwin’s assertions mirror the 9 Leadership Power Tools created by @GloriaFeldt, co-founder and president of @Takeleadwomen. #knowyourhistory”

The path you create personally and professionally depends on an authentic connection, discovery and sharing of your past.

In her 2018 book, Leadership in Turbulent Times, Goodwin scrutinizes effective leadership styles and the roles of individual ambition, intention and personal backstories in the success of several presidents.

Candidly articulating moments of her 42-year marriage with the late Dick Goodwin, who worked for John F. Kennedy as he ran for president, and then was Lyndon Baines Johnson’s and later Robert F. Kennedy’s speechwriter, Goodwin says, “This was part biography and partly a memoir of me and him.”

Goodwin’s husband, who came up with the term, “The Great Society,” passed in 2018 from complications with cancer. They had been working together on this book for several years going through more than 100 boxes of letters, archives, tapes and artifacts of work that her husband stored over the years.

“The path you create personally and professionally depends on an authentic connection, discovery and sharing of your past. #leadership”

On his 80th birthday, they embarked on this project. Goodwin recalls her husband saying, “If I have any wisdom left, I better start dispensing it now.”

Called “America’s historian-in-chief” by New York Magazine, Goodwin has spent decades researching and writing biographies of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore and Eleanor Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Kennedys and LBJ.

“I call them my guys,” Goodwin says.

The thread of a push for gender parity is evident in all Goodwin’s work and her coverage of leaders. Her husband was also a driver for parity, working with Ruth Bader Ginsberg in 1957 on the staff of Harvard Law Review.

“The thread of a push for #genderparity is evident in all @DorisKGoodwin’s work and her coverage of #leaders.”

LBJ was a mentor to her, Goodwin says, and he told her she reminded him of his mother.

“LBJ was the greatest president of my lifetime,” she says. Other presidents and their partners whose lives she chronicled affected her as well. “Lincoln was able to use humor to whistle off sadness,” Goodwin says.

Eleanor Roosevelt also required that only female reporters attend press conferences—forcing newspapers to hire female reporters, many for the first time. She also pushed for women to be hired for assembly lines in manufacturing. Goodwin says when asked how women learn to operate machinery so quickly, Roosevelt says, “A woman asks directions.”

“@DorisKGoodwin says when asked how women learn to operate machinery so quickly, Eleanor Roosevelt says, “A woman asks directions.” #womenlead”

At a time when learning about history is under siege with banned books and the elimination of some history curriculum in K-12 classrooms as well as undergraduate curriculum, the urgency of knowing the truth of history is prevalent.

Point Loma Nazarene University history professor Kelli McCoy, tells the university newspaper, Lomabeat, why learning history unedited is critical.

“Partly, history is about helping us understand ourselves and the world around us. But for me, it goes beyond that. I’m optimistic that if we can understand the past it will help us shape the future. And, looking at things that were good or bad in the past might help us understand what might be good or bad in the future.”

"We live in a world where everyone’s experience, everyone's story has value and has to be represented,” Dr. Carole Boyce Davies, chair of Howard University’s English Departments, tells NBC Miami.

A mother of three grown sons, and grandmother now, Goodwin says it is critical for older people to communicate the importance of their stories. She advises the younger generations, “Let them tell their stories to you.”

“@DorisKGoodwin says it is critical for older people to communicate the importance of their stories. #tellyourstory”

Feldt agrees. Power Tool #9 reminds us, “Tell your story.” Feldt says, “Your story is your truth; your truth is your power. Telling your story authentically helps you lead (not follow) your dreams and have an unlimited life.”

Discussing the broader themes of this book, Goodwin says, “This is also an unfinished love story with America and where we are with America.”

Goodwin, who began this journey as a White House Fellow for President LBJ in 1968 when she was a graduate student at Harvard University, says there are parallels with history and the present.

The eras Goodwin researched heavily—the Civil War, Depression, World War II, The Vietnam War, the 60s—were times “when people thought democracy was in peril. They all lived with some anxiety.”

And yet, history shows us that the problems were rectified.

Bringing the conversation to the present, Goodwin says, “I have an optimistic view because history teaches us you have to have faith.”

““I have an optimistic view because history teaches us you have to have faith.” — @DorisKGoodwin. #progress”

She adds, “It’s up to us, the citizens to do the most important thing we have to do, to vote.” Because of that, she says she is confident, “America will heal and be fine again.”

For that and countless other reasons, Goodwin says, “History is magical.”

Leadership Takeaway of the Week:

“I have an optimistic view because history teaches us you have to have faith.”

Doris Kearns Goodwin, award-winning author and historian

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About the Author

Michele Weldon is editorial director of Take The Lead, an award-winning author, journalist, emerita faculty in journalism at Northwestern University and a senior leader with The OpEd Project. @micheleweldon www.micheleweldon.com