A Critique of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Speech

Doris Kearns Goodwin

On Tuesday night, February 7, I attended a speech by Doris Kearns Goodwin at Aurora University. Doris Kearns Goodwin authored the book “Team of Rivals” about Lincoln and has written on Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Baines Johnson. Goodwin’s book “Team of Rivals” has greatly influenced President Obama in his political thought and is currently being made into a movie. 

I expected that the speech would be yet another boring academic speech by a dreary intellectual who only wanted to sell more of their latest book. Although Goodwin did sell her books at the event I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the speech was extremely interesting. Goodwin was able to effectively engage her audience with amusing and hilarious anecdotes about past presidents. More than finding it just amusing I walked away from the speech with a greater intellectual understanding of history and a better person for it.

A Promo Picture for the new movie based on "Team of Rivals." Here is Daniel Day Lewis as Abraham Lincoln.

One thing that struck me about the speech was her description of Lincoln and his spiritual beliefs. At a very young age Lincoln lost his mother and this incident affected his outlook on life. On his mother’s deathbed she told Lincoln that she would never see him again, even in the afterlife. This pessimistic view of the afterlife affected Lincoln and he struggled to find meaning in what his mother described as a meaningless world. Goodwin recounted that Lincoln eventually believed that by making a mark on history he could live long after he was gone in the memories of others. This belief led Lincoln to try to become a great figure who would be remembered for ages to come, something that he succeeded in brilliantly. The idea that if someone makes a mark on history they can live long past they have died is greatly appealing for a agnostic like myself. This thought makes me want to strive to do great things and be remembered for something in my life.

Another aspect of Goodwin’s speech that I found appealing was her emphasis on historical narrative. Goodwin talked abut the importance of being able to write well as a historian. Her advice on trying to forget how a historical event ends was very useful in that it allows the writer to tell of an event in an exciting way since they do not know how it will end.

Overall the speech by Goodwin was one of the most entertaining and intellectually enlightening speeches I have ever attended and I greatly look forward to reading and critiquing "Team of Rivals."