Doris Kearns Goodwin

A delight as a love story and as a history of the sixties - the time when I became an adult. It is fascinating to read through this recapitulation of the sixties and compare it to my own recollections as a young man. I even recall that LBJ came and spoke at a Graduation at UCLA. I need to look that up and see if my recollection is correct and see he addressed at the time.
The time of assassinations that year is indelibly written in my memory. Only a couple of years ago we saw the Laurel Hotel where King was shot.
As I think of these assassinations now and JFK’s assassination as well I am left wondering why- what was the motivation. I find no answer. The sixties were a time when our nation articulated a new vision. Its realization is incomplete as said so well by the author - but it became part of our collected sense of nation vision.
We badly need leaders that will help us articulate a new vision. While its realization may be imperfect we need it to restore cohesion to our society.
The sixties was also the era of my personal love story - when my wife and I met, got to know one another, fell in love and married. It is still working to years later.… (más)

This book will probably not be remembered as one of Kearns Goodwin's better efforts. Little of the research appears new or enthralling. The lessons for current political parties are pretty well understood. The role of the press as independent arbiter of public policy is nothing new. That said, I must admit to having enjoyed being in the company of William Howard Taft, a character I had little knowledge of before reading this book. Taft helped Roosevelt contain the trusts, the huge conglomerates who controlled the railroads, the production and distribution of oil, food production, and steel. Both men played a significant role in the way the US government behaves today. America had changed dramatically from the Civil War until Woodrow Wilson's election in 1912. Rockefeller, Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt all played large roles in the industrialisation of America during this period. This book is about the correction that took place as a result. About the progressive era that blew new winds into a Washington that had been dominated by Lincoln's Republican party and settled Wilson and the Democrats into power.… (más)