by Doris Kearns Goodwin, 2024, Simon & Schuster, New York

I have read other books by Doris Goodwin and think highly of her as an author and historian. This book is quite different from her other books as it is a personal memoir of her relationship with her husband, Dick Goodwin. I didn’t know anything about him and he wrote many of the speeches for presidents Kennedy and Johnson in the 60’s.

The book walks through the major events of the 60’s that Dick was involved in. He had collected many documents and mementoes from the time he spent in both administrations. Dick and Doris decided to open them up some sixty years later to go through them with the idea that they would write a book together about their experiences. Doris ended up writing the book as Dick passed away before they had a chance to write the book, but they were able to go through most of the boxes together and she kept notes about their conversations while they were going through them.

Doris writes very well and the episodes she relates bring many of the political figures of the 60’s to life. For me, this is a walk down memory lane as I was in high school and college during that time. I’m not sure someone who hadn’t lived through the events of the 60’s in their youth would have the same reaction to the book that I had, but it really struck a chord with me.

One thing that amazed me was that I had never heard of Dick Goodwin and his impact on those events. While his efforts and talents were considerable, he was someone who I never heard of until I read this book.