QQOTD: Doris Kearns Goodwin
“[Team of Rivals] … is a story of Lincoln’s political genius revealed through his extraordinary
array of personal qualities that enabled him to form friendships with men who
had previously opposed him; to repair injured feelings that, left untended,
might have escalated into permanent hostility; to assume responsibility for the
failures of subordinates; to share credit with ease; and to learn from
mistakes. He possessed an acute understanding of the sources of power inherent
in the presidency, an unparalleled ability to keep his governing coalition intact,
a tough-minded appreciation of the need to protect his presidential
prerogatives, and a masterful sense of timing.”
Goodwin has written biographies of several
U.S. presidents, including Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream;
The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga; Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln;
and The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism.
Goodwin’s book No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1995.
How might our
current president Donald Trump learn an important lesson from Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the
United States?