Leadership

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ΓÇ£After five decades of magisterial output,Doris Kearns Goodwin leads the league of presidential historians. Insight is her imprint.ΓÇ¥ΓÇöUSA TODAY ΓÇ£A book like Leadership should help us raise our expectations of our national leadersour country and ourselves.ΓÇ¥ΓÇöThe Washington Post ΓÇ£We can only hope that a few of GoodwinΓÇÖs many readers will find in her subjectsΓÇÖ examples a margin of inspiration and a resolve to steer the country to a better place.ΓÇ¥ΓÇöThe New York Times Book Review In this culmination of five decades of acclaimed studies in presidential historyPulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin offers an illuminating exploration of the early developmentgrowthand exercise of leadership. Are leaders born or made? Where does ambition come from? How does adversity affect the growth of leadership? Does the leader make the times or do the times make the leader? In LeadershipGoodwin draws upon the four presidents she has studied most closelyΓÇöAbraham LincolnTheodore RooseveltFranklin D. Rooseveltand Lyndon B. Johnson (in civil rights)ΓÇöto show how they recognized leadership qualities within themselves and were recognized as leaders by others. By looking back to their first entries into public lifewe encounter them at a time when their paths were filled with confusionfearand hope. Leadership tells the story of how they all collided with dramatic reversals that disrupted their lives and threatened to shatter forever their ambitions. Nonethelessthey all emerged fitted to confront the contours and dilemmas of their times. No common pattern describes the trajectory of leadership. Although set apart in backgroundabilitiesand temperamentthese men shared a fierce ambition and a deep-seated resilience that enabled them to surmount uncommon hardships. At their bestall four were guided by a sense of moral purpose. At moments of great challengethey were able to summon their talents to enlarge the opportunities and lives of others. This seminal work provides an accessible and essential road map for aspiring and established leaders in every field. In todayΓÇÖs polarized worldthese stories of authentic leadership in times of apprehension and fracture take on a singular urgency.