Leadership in Turbulent Times

This instantly became one of my favorite books. Goodwin’s writing is majestic: it is so incredibly readable without losing much of the detail inherent in the complex situations she is tackling. It only helps that she chose to profile and contrast four of my favorite figures of American presidential history: Lincoln, Teddy Rosevelt, FDR, and Lyndon Johnson. She strikes such brilliant synchronicity between the challenges facing each of the four during the Civil War, the Coal Strike of 1902, the Great Depression, and the passage of the Civil Rights Act, respectively, and how each leader similarly (and differently) exerted leadership to get through each tribulation.

It’s clear that Goodwin could have only written this book after the 40 years she has spent writing volumes on each individual character. But more than that, it’s clear how enjoyable it must have been to revisit her notes here in this work, as she compared and contrasted their qualities from a new angle.