American · b. 1943
Pulitzer Prize (1995)
Doris Kearns Goodwin is an American presidential historian whose Team of Rivals explores Lincoln's political genius through his decision to appoint his opponents to his cabinet.
Doris Kearns Goodwin is one of America’s most visible presidential historians, a regular television commentator and author of multiple books on presidents and political leadership. She won the Pulitzer Prize for No Ordinary Time, her study of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during World War II. Team of Rivals, published in 2005, became her most widely read work — a biography of Lincoln that uses the lives and careers of his three main rivals for the 1860 Republican nomination (William Seward, Salmon Chase, and Edward Bates) to illuminate Lincoln’s extraordinary political intelligence. Rather than marginalize these men, Lincoln put them in his cabinet and found ways to harness their abilities and ambitions in service of the Union.
The book is long and deeply researched, drawing extensively on letters, diaries, and contemporary accounts to build a vivid portrait of the political world of the Civil War era. Goodwin’s strength is her ability to balance multiple biographies simultaneously and to make nineteenth-century political dynamics genuinely readable. The “team of rivals” concept resonated powerfully with readers interested in leadership and management, and Barack Obama’s publicized admiration for the book brought it wider attention after his 2008 election.
Goodwin’s career has been shadowed by a 2002 plagiarism controversy, in which passages in an earlier book were found to be improperly attributed. She acknowledged and apologized for the errors, though critics have periodically revisited the incident. Team of Rivals itself has not been the subject of comparable challenges. As a popular work of presidential biography and leadership narrative, it remains one of the most readable accounts of Lincoln’s political genius available.
Doris Kearns Goodwin is one of America’s most celebrated and beloved historians, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author renowned for her insightful, deeply researched, and beautifully written studies of American presidents and their eras. Combining rigorous scholarship with masterful storytelling and a profound understanding of leadership and character, Goodwin has brought American history vividly to life for a wide readership. Her work illuminates the personalities, decisions, and historical forces that shaped pivotal moments in the nation’s past, and she has become one of the most respected and popular interpreters of the American presidency and the art of leadership.
Goodwin’s acclaimed book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln is among her most influential works, a masterful study of how Lincoln assembled a cabinet of his political opponents and skillfully led them through the crisis of the Civil War. Exploring Lincoln’s extraordinary political and emotional intelligence, the book offers a rich portrait of leadership, character, and statesmanship that has been widely admired, including by political leaders. Its insight into Lincoln’s genius for managing strong personalities and uniting rivals in a common cause has made it a touchstone in discussions of leadership and one of Goodwin’s signature achievements.
A central preoccupation of Goodwin’s work is the nature of leadership and character, particularly as embodied by the presidents she studies. She is deeply interested in what makes effective leaders, how character is forged through adversity, and how individuals rise to meet the challenges of their times. Her book Leadership in Turbulent Times, examining several presidents through the lens of leadership, distills these concerns directly. This focus on leadership and character gives her historical work a practical wisdom and a relevance beyond pure history, offering lessons and insights into the qualities that enable great leadership.
Goodwin is celebrated for her ability to bring history vividly to life through compelling narrative and rich human detail. She combines exhaustive research with the storytelling skill of a fine novelist, creating immersive, character-driven accounts that make the past feel immediate and alive. Her attention to the personalities, relationships, and emotional lives of her subjects, alongside the larger historical events, gives her work its warmth and its narrative power. This gift for narrative history, for making the past engaging and accessible without sacrificing scholarly rigor, is central to her wide appeal and her success.
Goodwin has written acclaimed studies of several presidents and eras, including her Pulitzer Prize-winning No Ordinary Time, about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during the Second World War, and The Bully Pulpit, about Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive era. Each of her books combines deep research with masterful storytelling and penetrating insight into character and leadership. This distinguished body of work, spanning some of the most consequential figures and periods in American history, has established her as one of the foremost popular historians of the American presidency and a trusted guide to the nation’s past.
Beyond her books, Goodwin has become a prominent public intellectual and a familiar, trusted voice in American public life, frequently appearing as a commentator on history, politics, and current events. Her warmth, wisdom, and deep historical knowledge have made her a beloved figure who brings the lessons of the past to bear on the present. This role as a public historian, sharing her insight and perspective with a broad audience, reflects her belief in the value and relevance of history, and it has extended her influence well beyond her readership into the wider national conversation.
Doris Kearns Goodwin has established herself as one of America’s most beloved and respected historians, celebrated for her insight into leadership, her narrative skill, and her illumination of the American past. For newcomers, Team of Rivals is the essential starting point, with No Ordinary Time and Leadership in Turbulent Times offering further entry into her work. For readers seeking deeply researched, beautifully written, and genuinely illuminating history that brings America’s presidents and pivotal eras to life while exploring the timeless questions of leadership and character, Doris Kearns Goodwin is an essential and rewarding author.
by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Kearns Goodwin examines Lincoln's political genius through the lens of the three rivals he defeated for the 1860 Republican nomination — whom he then appointed to his cabinet.
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by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Kearns Goodwin's Pulitzer Prize-winning account of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during World War II — their partnership, their tensions, and their transformation of America into the Arsenal of Democracy.
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by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Kearns Goodwin examines four American presidents — Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, and LBJ — asking how they developed the qualities of leadership and how they deployed those qualities in moments of crisis.
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by Doris Kearns Goodwin
An epic multigenerational saga tracing the rise of two Irish-Catholic Boston families — the Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys — from immigrant poverty to the pinnacle of American political power.
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