The #1 New York Times bestseller from "America's historian-in-chief" (New York magazine).
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of America's most beloved historians, artfully weaves together biography, memoir, and history. She takes you along on the emotional journey she and her husband, Richard (Dick) Goodwin embarked upon in the last years of his life.
Dick and Doris Goodwin were married for forty-two years and married to American history even longer. In his twenties, Dick was one of the brilliant young men of John F. Kennedy's New Frontier. In his thirties he both named and helped design Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and was a speechwriter and close advisor to Robert Kennedy. Doris Kearns was a twenty-four-year-old graduate student when selected as a White House Fellow. She worked directly for Lyndon Johnson and later assisted on his memoir.
Over the years, with humor, anger, frustration, and in the end, a growing understanding, Dick and Doris had argued over the achievements and failings of the leaders they served and observed, debating the progress and unfinished promises of the country they both loved.
The Goodwins' last great adventure involved finally opening the more than three hundred boxes of letters, diaries, documents, and memorabilia that Dick had saved for more than fifty years. They soon realized they had before them an unparalleled personal time capsule of the 1960s, illuminating public and private moments of a decade when individuals were powered by the conviction they could make a difference; a time, like today, marked by struggles for racial and economic justice, a time when lines were drawn and loyalties tested.
Their expedition gave Dick's last years renewed purpose and determination. It gave Doris the opportunity to connect and reconnect with participants and witnesses of pivotal moments of the 1960s. And it gave them both an opportunity to make fresh assessments of the central figures of the time—John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, and especially Lyndon Johnson, who greatly impacted both their lives. The voyage of remembrance brought unexpected discoveries, forgiveness, and the renewal of old dreams, reviving the hope that the youth of today will carry forward this unfinished love story with America.
The #1 New York Times bestseller from "America's historian-in-chief" (New York magazine).
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of America's most beloved historians, artfully weaves together biography, memoir, and history. She takes you along on the emotional journey she and her husband, Richard (Dick) Goodwin embarked upon in the last years of his life.
Dick and Doris Goodwin were married for forty-two years and married to American history even longer. In his twenties, Dick was one of the brilliant young men of John F. Kennedy's New Frontier. In his thirties he both named and helped design Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and was a speechwriter and close advisor to Robert Kennedy. Doris Kearns was a twenty-four-year-old graduate student when selected as a White House Fellow. She worked directly for Lyndon Johnson and later assisted on his memoir.
Over the years, with humor, anger, frustration, and in the end, a growing understanding, Dick and Doris had argued over the achievements and failings of the leaders they served and observed, debating the progress and unfinished promises of the country they both loved.
The Goodwins' last great adventure involved finally opening the more than three hundred boxes of letters, diaries, documents, and memorabilia that Dick had saved for more than fifty years. They soon realized they had before them an unparalleled personal time capsule of the 1960s, illuminating public and private moments of a decade when individuals were powered by the conviction they could make a difference; a time, like today, marked by struggles for racial and economic justice, a time when lines were drawn and loyalties tested.
Their expedition gave Dick's last years renewed purpose and determination. It gave Doris the opportunity to connect and reconnect with participants and witnesses of pivotal moments of the 1960s. And it gave them both an opportunity to make fresh assessments of the central figures of the time—John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, and especially Lyndon Johnson, who greatly impacted both their lives. The voyage of remembrance brought unexpected discoveries, forgiveness, and the renewal of old dreams, reviving the hope that the youth of today will carry forward this unfinished love story with America.
Reviews-
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April 29, 2024
The high hopes of 1960s liberalism founder on the shoals of the Vietnam War in this nostalgic memoir. Pulitzer winner Goodwin (No Ordinary Time) revisits her late husband Richard Goodwin’s experiences as a speechwriter to presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and working on the 1968 presidential campaigns of senators Robert F. Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy. Drawing on Richard’s journals and letters, Goodwin explores his starry-eyed enthusiasm for the landmark civil rights and Great Society measures he helped bring about, and his disillusionment after he left the White House in 1965 and turned against Johnson’s escalation of the Vietnam War. Goodwin credits him with nudging RFK into an antiwar position and, by orchestrating McCarthy’s New Hampshire primary victory, dissuading Johnson from running for reelection. She paints colorful vignettes of the speechwriter’s craft—“ ‘ask if he can’t put some sex in it.... some beautiful Churchillian phrases,’ ” Johnson demanded for a speech on poverty—and of Richard’s mercurial intellect, harnessed in groggy all-nighters spent penning celebrated orations like Johnson’s “We Shall Overcome” speech. The narrative is dominated by larger-than-life personalities, especially the tenacious LBJ, who was determined to uplift the downtrodden by riding roughshod over anyone who objected. It’s a vivid portrait of peak liberalism. -
Doris Kearns Goodwin's voice is well known from TV appearances; not surprisingly, her narration comes across as thoughtful and familiar. Bryan Cranston's role is minimal. The use of snippets of speeches from John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Robert Kennedy add to the authenticity of the presentation. This is a kind of oral history of the 1960s told through the unique lens of her late husband, the irrepressible Dick Goodwin, who maintained dozens of boxes of files and memorabilia from his time as speechwriter for JFK, LBJ, and RFK. He worked closely with Jackie, as well. Goodwin lovingly tells the many stories of the man who coined the term "Great Society" for Johnson and was widely considered an unparalleled crafter of speeches. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
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Starred review from September 13, 2024
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Goodwin (Team of Rivals) sparkles in her memoir-biography-history, reflecting on the experiences she and her late husband, Richard "Dick" Goodwin, had with the Kennedys and Johnsons in the 1960s. Opening with a loving retelling of how she and Dick met and courted, she segues to the present, where Dick reviews notes and memorabilia he saved from his time as a speechwriter for JFK, LBJ, and RFK. Her account is told in chronological order, and Goodwin provides detailed context for each milestone. As she narrates, she channels Dick's amazement of Ruth Bader Ginsberg's accomplishments in law school, stress at being Kennedy's speechwriter, friendship with Jackie Kennedy, shock and confusion during the assassination and its aftermath, optimism turned to frustration when working with LBJ, and devastation after RFK's death. Goodwin weaves in her experience working for LBJ when in her twenties and writing his biography. Recordings inserted of JFK, LBJ, and RFK reading Dick's speeches bring history alive. Actor Bryan Cranston performs correspondence from Dick so convincingly that one would swear it was Dick reading them. VERDICT A must-listen for those who would like to be in "the room where it happened" in the 1960s.--Stephanie Bange
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
