Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Visionary
The future, and what is barely possible, reads round the next corner.
Doris Kearns Goodwin is a renowned historian and author known for her insights into American political history. This interview reveals her ability to connect past and present, encouraging a deeper understanding of leadership and civic responsibility in turbulent times.
“Oh my God, I was certain he would kick me out of the program, or even worse, he might destroy the entire program. But instead, surprisingly, he said, oh, bring her down here for a year. And if I can't win her over, no one can. So I was not assigned directly to him in the White House, though. I think I was too insidiary for that.”
“No, I do indeed feel like it was the greatest gift he could have given me. He had a very difficult life which I learned about, of course, when I was a little girl, but never having met his parents or grandparents. Grandparents had come over from Ireland, and then my father was orphaned when he was ten years old.”
“I can imagine myself back at the War of the Roses, and I must have some relief from this terrible anxiety it will kill me and the theater is it, or for Lincoln when he told funny stories he was a great storyteller, and he could tell stories to people who were around him and they laugh, and when he would laugh somehow he was whistling off…”
“Didn't necessarily know he was dying right then, but he knew that he had cancer and that the radiation hadn't worked, and there was no sense of talking about death. He was still working on a book that he hoped to finish. But he kept saying, I love this town. I love what's happened to our life. Our kids are great. How lucky we are.”
The Axe Files with David Axelrod — Best of The Axe Files: Doris Kearns Goodwin
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