About the Author

Doris Kearns Goodwin's work for President Johnson inspired her career as a presidential historian. Her first book was Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. She followed up with the Pulitzer Prize-winning No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Homefront in World War II. She earned the Lincoln Prize for Team of Rivals, in part the basis for Steven Spielberg's film Lincoln, and the Carnegie Medal for The Bully Pulpit, about the friendship between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Her bestselling Leadership: In Turbulent Times was the inspiration for the History Channel docuseries on Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Roosevelt, which she executive produced. Her most recent book, An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s, provides a front-row seat to the pivotal people--JFK, LBJ, RFK and MLK--and events of this momentous decade.

Reviews

"Goodwin spent eight years working on The Bully Pulpit and the effort shows, much to the reader's benefit and delight. She keeps the story clipping along, chooses enlightening anecdotes...and has the narrative and historical acumen to weave her theme through 900 pages. At 70, let's hope she has at least a couple more biographies in mind...For now, savor The Bully Pulpit. It is a command performance of popular history."-- "Christian Science Monitor"

"Goodwin's evocative examination of the Progressive world is smart and engaging. . . . She presents a highly readable and detailed portrait of an era. The Bully Pulpit brings the early 20th century to life and firmly establishes the crucial importance of the press to Progressive politics."-- "The Washington Post"

"Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin has scored again with 'The Bully Pulpit, ' a thorough and well-written study of two presidents, as well as the journalists who covered them and exposed scandals in government and industry....Her genius in this huge volume (750 pages of text) is to take the three narratives and weave them into a comprehensive, readable study of the time ....The Bully Pulpit is a remarkable study of a tumultuous period in our history."-- "St. Louis Post-Dispatch"

"The interplay between personality and politics, temperament and leadership is one of the key themes animating Doris Kearns Goodwin's telling books...The same is true of her sprawling new book, The Bully Pulpit, which gives us revealing portraits of Theodore Roosevelt and his close friend, handpicked successor and eventual bitter rival, William Howard Taft...She also uses her impressive narrative skills to give us a visceral sense of the world in which Roosevelt and Taft came of age...She creates emotionally detailed portraits of the two men's families, provides an informed understanding of the political forces (conservative, moderate and insurgent) arrayed across the country at the time, and enlivens even highly familiar scenes like Teddy Roosevelt's daring charge up San Juan Hill."--Michiko Kakutani "The New York Times"

"These fascinating times deserve a chronicler as wise and thorough as Goodwin. The Bully Pulpit is splendid reading."-- "Dallas Morning News"