Leadership Fueled through Adversity

Review of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Leadership: In Turbulent Times (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018), ISBN 978-1-4767-9592-8473, pages 497, hardcover, $30.

Pulitzer Prize winning biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin spent decades studying presidents of the United States who served during some of the U.S.’s most tense and defining moments. Chief

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among her noteworthy subjects are Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson. In her newest work, Leadership: In Turbulent Times (LTT), Kearns Goodwin revisits these presidents through a collective lens of leadership. Shifting from her previous book-length individual biographies, the present work is a qualitative multiple case study of four of the U.S.’s greatest leaders.

LTT is organized along three major sections. In section one, “Ambition and the Recognition of Leadership,” Kearns Goodwin explores the origins of the men’s driving ambition and political lives. We learn of Lincoln’s humble beginnings as the son of an itinerant tenant farmer father and a mother who was “superior to her husband in every way.” Early in Lincoln’s life, we see both his ambition and determination to learn, as well as his tendency toward melancholy, born at least in part from a neglectful father and the early loss of his beloved mother.

Theodore Roosevelt, born into privilege and wealth, was a sickly child who developed the will and work ethic to build up his bodily strength. He was also endowed with a “mental vitality” and “prodigious memory.” From early in life, he was determined, purposeful, and single-minded in reaching goals once set.

Franklin Roosevelt, also born into wealth and privilege, entered politics later in life than had Lincoln and T. Roosevelt. Working initially for a Wall Street law firm, he jumped at the invitation from Duchess county bosses to run for a Democratic seat in the State Assembly. Anchoring F. Roosevelt’s leadership potential was his self-confidence, congenial temperament, and a contagious optimistic outlook.

Lyndon Johnson grew up in a modest home, his father a Texas state legislator and his grandfather a cowboy. From these two men he fell in love with storytelling: political stories from his father and tales of cattle drives and the west from his grandfather. Extremely intelligent, ambitious, and determined, Johnson was long-committed to the welfare of less fortunate individuals. His experiences as a teacher and principal of a six-teacher Mexican-American elementary school in Cotulla, Texas, would cement a social-justice perspective to his life’s mission. His emotional intelligence in understanding the needs and feelings of those around him, his achievement drive, and his intense work ethic were his building blocks for eventual masterful leadership in domestic affairs.

Section two of LTT, “Adversity and Growth,” explores “dramatic reversals that shattered the private and public lives of all

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four men” (xiii). Kearns Goodwin labels these trying experiences as “crucible events.” When Lincoln was a member of the Illinois State Legislature, he advocated for massive spending on infrastructure projects to widen rivers, build railroads, dig canals, and build new roads. When a recession hit Illinois in 1837, these projects collapsed and many in the state blamed Lincoln for the crushing economic conditions. By 1840, at 32 years of age, with the recession not abating, Lincoln “fell into a depression so profound that his friends feared he might kill himself. They confiscated all knives, razors, and scissors from his room” (98). Lincoln left the Legislature and returned to his private law practice, where in time he would regroup and renter the political fray.

The crucible event for T. Roosevelt was the deaths of his beloved wife and mother on the same day in the same house when he was just 26 years of age. This event, coupled with some Republican defeats in the New York State Assembly, led T. Roosevelt to a two-year hiatus on his ranch in the Badlands of South Dakota. It was this period of reflection and harmony with nature and animals that recast his spirit and readied him for the political path to the Presidency. F. Roosevelt’s crucible event was being stricken by polio at the age of 39 that left him permanently paralyzed from the waist down. How F. Roosevelt mobilized his own healing process “lead to significant growth, intensified ambition, and enlarged gifts for leadership” (162).

Finally, Johnson’s first crucible event centered on his Texas senate election loss in 1941. Given that Johnson’s professional and personal identity were intricately intertwined, this loss was “a bodily blow, a referendum on his self-worth” (183). A second crucible event for Johnson was his massive heart attack at the age of 46 while serving as the youngest majority leader in the history of the Senate. This near fatal health crisis brought Johnson a new focus on life and service priorities, further increasing his empathy for those in need of health care.

In section three of LTT, “The Leader and the Times: How They Led,” Kearns Goodwin reviews the presidents’ distinct and winning leadership styles during crisis moments in U.S. history. Lincoln took defining action in his Emancipation Proclamation, winning the Civil War and ending slavery. T. Roosevelt stepped in to end a devastating five-month coal strike that was sure to lead to a national economic crisis, countless deaths from freezing, and possible violence. F. Roosevelt led the U.S. out of the Great Depression with innovative New Deal programs that brought millions back to steady employment. Finally, Johnson both finished and extended his predecessor’s (JFK) Civil Rights initiatives and shepherded multiple bills through Congress, making the 89^th Congress perhaps the most productive and

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bipartisan in history. However, Johnson’s legacy, according to Kearns Goodwin, will never match those of Lincoln, T. Roosevelt, and F. Roosevelt, because of the failure of his leadership around the Vietnam War.

LTT is beautifully written, rigorously researched, and well-integrated. Like Lincoln and Johnson, Kearns Goodwin is a master storyteller. Finally, what did I learn about great leadership under the most trying times? I took away five important lessons:

First, there is no singular template of a great leader. Lincoln, T. Roosevelt, F. Roosevelt, and Johnson forged their leadership styles through a combination of genetic predispositions, family and community experiences, struggling through deep adversity and trauma, and having the resilience to rebound and forge ahead with focused public service goals. Second, proximity to the people, the everyday person, characterized these great leaders. Though quite different in personality and temperament, all displayed a keen socio-emotional intelligence and deep empathy in dealing with everyday folks. Third, communicate and consult with opposing constituencies. Knowing they often could not change opinions or political stances of politicians on such thorny issues as slavery (Lincoln), labor relations (T. Roosevelt), government involvement in the economy (F. Roosevelt), or civil rights (Johnson), each president honored the opposing forces by listening to them, being patient, and influencing an attitude of compromise for a larger national goal.

Fourth, courage and executive decision-making. In time, each president, after a period of contemplation and consultations with various sides, stuck their neck out to make difficult but definitive decisions, knowing that torrents of anger and even hate might follow from sizable portions of the political leadership and public. Fifth, have a quiet refuge away from the frenetic life of the work setting. For Lincoln, it was the old Soldiers’ Home, a 300 acre complex in the hills outside the city; for T. Roosevelt, it was his Badlands, South Dakota ranch; for F. Roosevelt, it was his Warm Springs, Georgia spa; and for Johnson, it was his beloved Texas ranch. I wonder how many of us reading this review have a get-away refugee to escape to for deep reflection and emotional restoration?

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