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An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s
An Unfinished Love A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of America’s most beloved historians, artfully weaves together biography, memoir, and history. She takes you along on the emotional journey she and her husband, Richard (Dick) Goodwin embarked upon in the last years of his life.
Dick and Doris Goodwin were married for forty-two years and married to American history even longer. In his twenties, Dick was one of the brilliant young men of John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier. In his thirties he both named and helped design Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and was a speechwriter and close advisor to Robert Kennedy. Doris Kearns was a twenty-four-year-old graduate student when selected as a White House Fellow. She worked directly for Lyndon Johnson and later assisted on his memoir.
Over the years, with humor, anger, frustration, and in the end, a growing understanding, Dick and Doris had argued over the achievements and failings of the leaders they served and observed, debating the progress and unfinished promises of the country they both loved.
The Goodwins’ last great adventure involved finally opening the more than three hundred boxes of letters, diaries, documents, and memorabilia that Dick had saved for more than fifty years. They soon realized they had before them an unparalleled personal time capsule of the 1960s, illuminating public and private moments of a decade when individuals were powered by the conviction they could make a difference; a time, like today, marked by struggles for racial and economic justice, a time when lines were drawn and loyalties tested.
Their expedition gave Dick’s last years renewed purpose and determination. It gave Doris the opportunity to connect and reconnect with participants and witnesses of pivotal moments of the 1960s. And it gave them both an opportunity to make fresh assessments of the central figures of the time—John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, and especially Lyndon Johnson, who greatly impacted both their lives. The voyage of remembrance brought unexpected discoveries, forgiveness, and the renewal of old dreams, reviving the hope that the youth of today will carry forward this unfinished love story with America.
Dick and Doris Goodwin were married for forty-two years and married to American history even longer. In his twenties, Dick was one of the brilliant young men of John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier. In his thirties he both named and helped design Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and was a speechwriter and close advisor to Robert Kennedy. Doris Kearns was a twenty-four-year-old graduate student when selected as a White House Fellow. She worked directly for Lyndon Johnson and later assisted on his memoir.
Over the years, with humor, anger, frustration, and in the end, a growing understanding, Dick and Doris had argued over the achievements and failings of the leaders they served and observed, debating the progress and unfinished promises of the country they both loved.
The Goodwins’ last great adventure involved finally opening the more than three hundred boxes of letters, diaries, documents, and memorabilia that Dick had saved for more than fifty years. They soon realized they had before them an unparalleled personal time capsule of the 1960s, illuminating public and private moments of a decade when individuals were powered by the conviction they could make a difference; a time, like today, marked by struggles for racial and economic justice, a time when lines were drawn and loyalties tested.
Their expedition gave Dick’s last years renewed purpose and determination. It gave Doris the opportunity to connect and reconnect with participants and witnesses of pivotal moments of the 1960s. And it gave them both an opportunity to make fresh assessments of the central figures of the time—John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, and especially Lyndon Johnson, who greatly impacted both their lives. The voyage of remembrance brought unexpected discoveries, forgiveness, and the renewal of old dreams, reviving the hope that the youth of today will carry forward this unfinished love story with America.
480 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2024
About the author
Doris Kearns Goodwin
40 books4,554 followersDoris Helen Kearns Goodwin is an American biographer, historian, former sports journalist, and political commentator. She has written biographies of numerous U.S. presidents. Goodwin's book No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1995. Goodwin produced the American television miniseries Washington. She was also executive producer of "Abraham Lincoln", a 2022 docudrama on the History Channel. This latter series was based on Goodwin's Leadership in Turbulent Times.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 506 reviews
May 6, 2024
For better or worse, your generation has been appointed by history to deal with those problems and to lead America toward a new age. You have the chance never before afforded to any people of any age. You can help build a society where the demands of morality, and the needs of the spirit can be realized in the life of the Nation … a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goals than the quantity of their goods.
(Page 165) From the commencement speech by President Johnson at the University of Michigan on May 22, 1964 presenting his idea of a “Great Society”, a speech written by Richard Goodwin.
Richard Goodwin, the author’s husband, has been called the “Thomas Paine of our generation.” He became a member of John Kennedy’s speechwriting staff in 1959 as Kennedy was beginning his quest for the presidency. He continued throughout the sixties working for President Kennedy, President Johnson, and Robert Kennedy, and was the author of many of the outstanding speeches given by these men.
Prior to his death in 2018 he and the author went through his many boxes of memorabilia from his time serving presidents in the sixties. This is neither an academic history nor a biography. This book is a memoir of those days spent discussing the people and events they witnessed. The history here is revealed in these discussions.
Here we have a person in Richard Goodwin who served the two presidents of the 1960s. Doris Goodwin, who would eventually work for Lyndon Johnson, was upset by the picture which Dick began painting when he went to work for Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy. He wrote that the “good times that began with John Kennedy in 1960, and ended with his death in 1963 juxtaposed to the bad times of 1968.” (Page 322) She points out that he ignores the changes LBJ brought about like the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, medicare, and The Great Society. These along with the tax cuts Kennedy had proposed were not passed in 1963, but in the years 1964 and 1965 during the Johnson presidency.
In this decade the battle for Civil Rights was waged. In December of 1972 Johnson delivered a keynote address at a major civil rights symposium at the LBJ library. The speech makes an excellent assessment of where civil rights stood in 1972 and still sits today. Johnson stated that he believed “the essence of government” was to ensure “the dignity and innate integrity of life for every individual .. regardless of color, creed, ancestry, sex or age.” That the difficulty of being “Black in a White society” remains the chief unaddressed problem of our country. “[But] if our efforts continue, and if our will is strong, and if our hearts are right, and if courage remains our constant companion, then, my fellow Americans, I am confident we shall overcome.” (Pages 381-382)
As someone who came of age in sixties and remembers many of the people and events from this time it was thrilling to read a “ground-level” view of these events. Doris Kearns Goodwin and her husband Richard Goodwin were participants in these events and not just observers. There is a challenge in this book for us now to live up to and fulfill the ideals from that decade.
May 6, 2024
"Dissenters are sometimes accused of demeaning the presidency. That office should demand respect. It's dignity however flows not from private right or title or the man who occupies it but solely from the fact that it's occupant is chosen by the people of the United States. It's their office and if they or any among them feel it's wrongly used then it is their obligation to speak."
Those words were Richard Goodwin's response to people saying that anti war protesters were traitors, unpatriotic and disloyal. I think some people today need to read these words because they still ring true.
Doris Kearns Goodwin is a nerd superstar. If you love History and if you are my friend on Goodreads you know I do, than you've heard of this woman. Now I'm a fraud because I still haven't read Team of Rivals....I'm getting to it. Doris is an icon and apparently her husband is too. I've obviously heard of Richard Goodwin but I never put the pieces together that he was Doris' husband. Dick as he was known was a speechwriter for pretty much every major Democratic politician over the last 60 years. He worked with JFK, his brother RFK( the only RFK we acknowledge here), Eugene McCarthy( I need to read up on him...was he the original Bernie Sanders?) and even Al Gore.
An Unfinished Love Story is Doris and Dick's trip down memory lane. In the last years of Dicks life they when through a treasure trove of boxes that told the story of the 1960's. Doris of course worked with LBJ a man whose legacy is finally being restored. LBJ was one of this countries greatest Presidents. Medicare, The Voting Rights bill, the Civil Rights bills and the Fair Housing bill are just a couple of his accomplishments....but Vietnam....but Vietnam. Vietnam fucked him just like it fucked my Uncle Mike who drafted during that administration and well he came back but not really. So I have some personal conflicts with LBJ. But unlike a certain current U.S. president, I don't think LBJ wanted war. I don't think he enjoyed the massacres of children. LBJ made terrible mistakes in Vietnam and those mistakes broke my uncles brain but he wasn't a blood thirsty genocidal monster.
I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. I knew I would get something out of this but I didn't expect to be pulled so fully into these stories. I have a list of the Presidents I wanted to read about this year and LBJ wasn't on it but after this book I need to move him up. This not only a great history book but its a wonderful love story.
A Must for History Buffs!
Those words were Richard Goodwin's response to people saying that anti war protesters were traitors, unpatriotic and disloyal. I think some people today need to read these words because they still ring true.
Doris Kearns Goodwin is a nerd superstar. If you love History and if you are my friend on Goodreads you know I do, than you've heard of this woman. Now I'm a fraud because I still haven't read Team of Rivals....I'm getting to it. Doris is an icon and apparently her husband is too. I've obviously heard of Richard Goodwin but I never put the pieces together that he was Doris' husband. Dick as he was known was a speechwriter for pretty much every major Democratic politician over the last 60 years. He worked with JFK, his brother RFK( the only RFK we acknowledge here), Eugene McCarthy( I need to read up on him...was he the original Bernie Sanders?) and even Al Gore.
An Unfinished Love Story is Doris and Dick's trip down memory lane. In the last years of Dicks life they when through a treasure trove of boxes that told the story of the 1960's. Doris of course worked with LBJ a man whose legacy is finally being restored. LBJ was one of this countries greatest Presidents. Medicare, The Voting Rights bill, the Civil Rights bills and the Fair Housing bill are just a couple of his accomplishments....but Vietnam....but Vietnam. Vietnam fucked him just like it fucked my Uncle Mike who drafted during that administration and well he came back but not really. So I have some personal conflicts with LBJ. But unlike a certain current U.S. president, I don't think LBJ wanted war. I don't think he enjoyed the massacres of children. LBJ made terrible mistakes in Vietnam and those mistakes broke my uncles brain but he wasn't a blood thirsty genocidal monster.
I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. I knew I would get something out of this but I didn't expect to be pulled so fully into these stories. I have a list of the Presidents I wanted to read about this year and LBJ wasn't on it but after this book I need to move him up. This not only a great history book but its a wonderful love story.
A Must for History Buffs!
July 8, 2024
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s is a beautiful book by beloved historian Doris Kearns Goodwin that encompasses the genres of biography, memoir and history as she tells the story of their last years together in their loving forty-two year marriage. It was during this time that they decided that they had to go through the many boxes of memorabilia, letters, diaries, documents and historical records that Richard Goodwin had saved from the 1960s, essentially a personal time capsule illuminating public and private moments of the turbulent 1960s when people believed that they could make a difference in the world in which they lived. It was a time of deep personal convictions and struggles for racial and economic justice. It tells about how the leaders and heroes of that decade—John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy and Lyndon Johnson—impacted not only both of their lives in profound ways, but the nation, too.
This cache was made up of more than three hundred boxes from the 1960s, when Richard Goodwin was considered one of the most brilliant young men of President Kennedy’s New Frontier and later named and helped to design the Great Society as championed by President Lyndon Johnson. Goodwin later was a speechwriter and close friend of Robert Kennedy. Doris Kearns was a graduate student when she was selected as a White House Fellow working directly for President Lyndon Johnson and later assisting in writing his memoir. Over the years, the Goodwins had argued over the achievements and failings of the leaders they served, often with anger and frustration. However, as they delved though the historical records, Richard Goodwin and Doris Kearns Goodwin ultimately came to understand one another and the series of both unsettling and heroic events that not only shaped their lives, but the lives of us all. It was heartwarming how they managed to lovingly, although often gingerly, delve into the historic and personal contents of the multiple boxes. It was very personal as they opened a bottle of wine when they sat down for a marathon evening of viewing the Kennedy-Nixon debates in 1960, or when they had to steel themselves for the fateful day when President Kennedy was killed in Dallas on November 22, 1963, or the speech of Lyndon Johnson in 1968 when he dropped out of the presidential race, or the rioting and bloodshed during the Democratic convention in Chicago in 1968.
This is a record of the heartbreak and machinations that were involved in getting through the major legislation during the Johnson presidency honoring the legacy of John Kennedy. Johnson was a statesman and politician believing that the president can control and shape the legislative calendar by determining the order and speed with which he sends messages to the Hill. The Great Society was an ambitious series of policy initiatives, legislation and programs to end poverty, reduce crime, abolishing racial inequality and improving the environment.
This was the decade of loss and trauma with the assassinations of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy. It was also a decade of unrest and demonstrations against the war in Vietnam. The nation was in turmoil. But at its heart, this is a love story of two people devoting their lives to public service thinking they could make a difference as they shared their lives and their experiences over forty-two years. There is a reason why Doris Kearns Goodwin has long been one of my favorite historians. I have more books of hers that I look forward to reading about Lyndon Johnson and the Roosevelts. However, now I am looking into many of the books authored by Richard Goodwin about the unsettling 1960s.
This cache was made up of more than three hundred boxes from the 1960s, when Richard Goodwin was considered one of the most brilliant young men of President Kennedy’s New Frontier and later named and helped to design the Great Society as championed by President Lyndon Johnson. Goodwin later was a speechwriter and close friend of Robert Kennedy. Doris Kearns was a graduate student when she was selected as a White House Fellow working directly for President Lyndon Johnson and later assisting in writing his memoir. Over the years, the Goodwins had argued over the achievements and failings of the leaders they served, often with anger and frustration. However, as they delved though the historical records, Richard Goodwin and Doris Kearns Goodwin ultimately came to understand one another and the series of both unsettling and heroic events that not only shaped their lives, but the lives of us all. It was heartwarming how they managed to lovingly, although often gingerly, delve into the historic and personal contents of the multiple boxes. It was very personal as they opened a bottle of wine when they sat down for a marathon evening of viewing the Kennedy-Nixon debates in 1960, or when they had to steel themselves for the fateful day when President Kennedy was killed in Dallas on November 22, 1963, or the speech of Lyndon Johnson in 1968 when he dropped out of the presidential race, or the rioting and bloodshed during the Democratic convention in Chicago in 1968.
“Book after book of my career as a historian, the practical knowledge Dick had gained during his time in the political cauldron of the Sixties filtered into and enriched my own comprehension of the pressures, limitations, and actual parameters of political choice and action.”
This is a record of the heartbreak and machinations that were involved in getting through the major legislation during the Johnson presidency honoring the legacy of John Kennedy. Johnson was a statesman and politician believing that the president can control and shape the legislative calendar by determining the order and speed with which he sends messages to the Hill. The Great Society was an ambitious series of policy initiatives, legislation and programs to end poverty, reduce crime, abolishing racial inequality and improving the environment.
“A measure must be sent to the Hill at exactly the right moment, and that moment depends on three things: first, on momentum; second, on the availability of sponsors in the right place at the right time; and third, on the opportunities for neutralizing the opposition. Timing is essential.”
“Momentum is not a mysterious mistress. It is a controllable fact of political life that depends on nothing more exotic than preparation.”
This was the decade of loss and trauma with the assassinations of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy. It was also a decade of unrest and demonstrations against the war in Vietnam. The nation was in turmoil. But at its heart, this is a love story of two people devoting their lives to public service thinking they could make a difference as they shared their lives and their experiences over forty-two years. There is a reason why Doris Kearns Goodwin has long been one of my favorite historians. I have more books of hers that I look forward to reading about Lyndon Johnson and the Roosevelts. However, now I am looking into many of the books authored by Richard Goodwin about the unsettling 1960s.
“One afternoon Dick asked me to slowly recite one of his favorite poems, Wordsworth’s ‘Intimations of Immortality.’ When I had nearly finished, he was breathing very deeply, and I thought for certain he had fallen asleep. I went on reading until the end. When I finished, he turned toward me, and from memory repeated:”
“Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind.”
June 4, 2024
I’ve overheard and read praises for years about historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s writing. On my 30th birthday my husband downloaded Team of Rivals to a small MP3 player for me and after a few listening attempts I gave up. I was not ready as a reader for that large tome. I’ve thought about trying the book again this fall or winter right before An Unfinished Love Story was published. I decided to read An Unfinished… as my first Kearns Goodwin and I’m so grateful that I did.
An Unfinished Love Story details much of the history of the 1960s decade from the perspectives of Kearns Goodwin and her husband, Dick. They both worked for “Lyndon,” under the Johnson administration. Mr. Goodwin left his administrative position in 1965 and Ms. Kearns Goodwin began hers in 1968. Mr. Goodwin saved scads boxes of memorabilia and documents from his career. Together, they unpacked those boxes and spent precious evenings and weekends going back over poignant events that affected them personally over that historical decade of America’s history.
Richard Goodwin was JFK’s speechwriter. He worked very closely with President Kennedy and formed a lifelong friendship with Mrs. Jackie Kennedy Onassis. He worked for Eugene McCarthy’s political campaign, RFK’s campaign, President Johnson, and many other aspects of political life. Doris Kearns Goodwin worked for Lyndon Johnson and wrote his biography. She earned her doctorate in government from Harvard University in 1968 and had a teaching career as well as being a great biographer.
For someone who was not born until 1980, I very much appreciated this more personal approach to sharing what happened during that tumultuous and poignant decade in American history. I felt a tender sense of awe and respect in the way that Kearns Goodwin shared her marriage, her love story.
Highly recommended for readers interested in this important decade of American history or for those who enjoy social historical accounts.
An Unfinished Love Story details much of the history of the 1960s decade from the perspectives of Kearns Goodwin and her husband, Dick. They both worked for “Lyndon,” under the Johnson administration. Mr. Goodwin left his administrative position in 1965 and Ms. Kearns Goodwin began hers in 1968. Mr. Goodwin saved scads boxes of memorabilia and documents from his career. Together, they unpacked those boxes and spent precious evenings and weekends going back over poignant events that affected them personally over that historical decade of America’s history.
Richard Goodwin was JFK’s speechwriter. He worked very closely with President Kennedy and formed a lifelong friendship with Mrs. Jackie Kennedy Onassis. He worked for Eugene McCarthy’s political campaign, RFK’s campaign, President Johnson, and many other aspects of political life. Doris Kearns Goodwin worked for Lyndon Johnson and wrote his biography. She earned her doctorate in government from Harvard University in 1968 and had a teaching career as well as being a great biographer.
For someone who was not born until 1980, I very much appreciated this more personal approach to sharing what happened during that tumultuous and poignant decade in American history. I felt a tender sense of awe and respect in the way that Kearns Goodwin shared her marriage, her love story.
Highly recommended for readers interested in this important decade of American history or for those who enjoy social historical accounts.
May 3, 2024
Here is the book I didn’t know could be written. It should be no wonder that Doris Kearns Goodwin would be the one to do it. If this is DKG’s swan song, wow - she achieved! Recognizing that 81 is the new 71, of course. There could be more from her!
This book has been described as part history, part biography and part memoir. I agree and here are some good bits of each:
MEMOIR: (who knew Doris was married to this man?? I surely didn’t!)
“Throughout the Sixties, Dick [Goodwin] had participated in an inordinate number of pivotal, defining moments of the decade. He was there with JFK on the “Caroline”, a member of the small team that traveled with the candidate through the 1960 Presidential campaign; he was in that room to help JFK for his first debate with Richard Nixon; he was in the White House in the middle of the night when the president’s coffin returned from Dallas; he was at Lyndon Johnson’s side during the summit of his historic achievements with the Great Society and civil rights; He was in New Hampshire with Eugene McCarthy’s crusade, and with Robert Kennedy when he died in a Los Angeles hospital. Now, in Chicago , he was a central figure in the convention’s debate over the Vietnam peace plank.”
HISTORY: (My 1998 baby just asked if the riots he’s watching on tv now were worse than the Vietnam ones. I read this part of the book shortly after he asked so this is for him.)
“During the voting on the Vietnam plank, demonstrators in Grant Park, numbering around ten thousand, announced their intention to march to the convention hall. They had no permit to do so. When three protesters climbed the flagpole and started to take down the American flag, the police charged into the crowd surrounding the flagpole. Chaos ensued. The police threw tear gas bombs; the demonstrators responded with rocks and bottles. As people spilled into the street, the Chicago Tribune reported, ‘Michigan Avenue was turned into a bloody battleground.’”
BIOGRAPHY: (June 5, 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel)
“It was nearing midnight when Dick rose to accompany [Robert] Kennedy and a small group of family and friends and staff down to the hotel’s Embassy Ballroom where nearly two thousand supporters awaited his arrival and victory statement. Just as they were leaving, Dick received a call from an important McCarthy supporter. Dick never looked up as Bobby touched him on the shoulder and said, ‘I’ll go downstairs and do this, then we can talk some more over at the Factory,’ a local club where the campaign had reservations for a private party…. Shrieks sounded up and down the corridors outside, shrieks multiplied on every television…. Robert Kennedy had been shot.”
STOP READING AND GO LISTEN TO ROBERT KENNEDY’S FINAL SPEECH ON YOUTUBE NOW.
The end of this story has started me down Rabbit trails of Bobby Kennedy, Ethel Kennedy after Bobby’s Death and I definitely need to read The Death of a President by William Manchester.
I feel like I participated in a once in a lifetime opportunity in reading this book. I am most grateful for DKG for writing this and all her presidential history and that great baseball book too. She has been my most bountiful guide through many moments of my own discovery of our rich American history. ❤️
This book has been described as part history, part biography and part memoir. I agree and here are some good bits of each:
MEMOIR: (who knew Doris was married to this man?? I surely didn’t!)
“Throughout the Sixties, Dick [Goodwin] had participated in an inordinate number of pivotal, defining moments of the decade. He was there with JFK on the “Caroline”, a member of the small team that traveled with the candidate through the 1960 Presidential campaign; he was in that room to help JFK for his first debate with Richard Nixon; he was in the White House in the middle of the night when the president’s coffin returned from Dallas; he was at Lyndon Johnson’s side during the summit of his historic achievements with the Great Society and civil rights; He was in New Hampshire with Eugene McCarthy’s crusade, and with Robert Kennedy when he died in a Los Angeles hospital. Now, in Chicago , he was a central figure in the convention’s debate over the Vietnam peace plank.”
HISTORY: (My 1998 baby just asked if the riots he’s watching on tv now were worse than the Vietnam ones. I read this part of the book shortly after he asked so this is for him.)
“During the voting on the Vietnam plank, demonstrators in Grant Park, numbering around ten thousand, announced their intention to march to the convention hall. They had no permit to do so. When three protesters climbed the flagpole and started to take down the American flag, the police charged into the crowd surrounding the flagpole. Chaos ensued. The police threw tear gas bombs; the demonstrators responded with rocks and bottles. As people spilled into the street, the Chicago Tribune reported, ‘Michigan Avenue was turned into a bloody battleground.’”
BIOGRAPHY: (June 5, 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel)
“It was nearing midnight when Dick rose to accompany [Robert] Kennedy and a small group of family and friends and staff down to the hotel’s Embassy Ballroom where nearly two thousand supporters awaited his arrival and victory statement. Just as they were leaving, Dick received a call from an important McCarthy supporter. Dick never looked up as Bobby touched him on the shoulder and said, ‘I’ll go downstairs and do this, then we can talk some more over at the Factory,’ a local club where the campaign had reservations for a private party…. Shrieks sounded up and down the corridors outside, shrieks multiplied on every television…. Robert Kennedy had been shot.”
STOP READING AND GO LISTEN TO ROBERT KENNEDY’S FINAL SPEECH ON YOUTUBE NOW.
The end of this story has started me down Rabbit trails of Bobby Kennedy, Ethel Kennedy after Bobby’s Death and I definitely need to read The Death of a President by William Manchester.
I feel like I participated in a once in a lifetime opportunity in reading this book. I am most grateful for DKG for writing this and all her presidential history and that great baseball book too. She has been my most bountiful guide through many moments of my own discovery of our rich American history. ❤️
May 31, 2024
There are many 5-star reviews, however this was not my experience. The audiobook was "read by the author with Bryan Cranston." Let's just say that out of more than 18-hours of narration, Bryan Cranston features for less than 30-minutes. I wish that their roles were reversed. Overall, it was a very claustrophobic experience and I skimmed the last 2-3 hours of listening.
April 29, 2024
Wow! Doris and her late husband Dick, a speechwriter for JFK and LBJ, are going through his boxes of memorabilia. He was a pivotal figure during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and she, much younger, was a student intern, though they didn't meet then. This remarkable book chronicles events in the 1960's as both reflect on their memories as spurred by each item in the boxes. The tone is conversational and friendly, and since they were there it has an immediacy and accessibility not often found in nonfiction. I gained so much insight into JFK's New Frontier and LBJ's Great Society. Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in American history.
May 16, 2024
4.5 stars.
This was a fascinating read. Doris Kearns Goodwin and especially her husband Richard "Dick" Goodwin not only had center seats at many of the pivotal/seminal moments of the 1960's, they often had lead supporting and even starring roles at many points. Thus we get a book that's both from a historian's and an insider's perspective, but even more, from people who are simultaneously objective, looking at events in hindsight, but also intricately, passionately involved in how the 1960s unrolled and about the aftereffects of everything that happened.
My one big carp with this book is that it feels like we hear about EVERY-SINGLE-TIME Dick Goodwin smokes a cigar! (Having said that, it's mildly amusing hearing about him trying to teach chain-smoker Jackie Kennedy how to smoke a cigar.) But otherwise, this book embodies a very interesting kind of historical work and we are all the richer for it.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.
This was a fascinating read. Doris Kearns Goodwin and especially her husband Richard "Dick" Goodwin not only had center seats at many of the pivotal/seminal moments of the 1960's, they often had lead supporting and even starring roles at many points. Thus we get a book that's both from a historian's and an insider's perspective, but even more, from people who are simultaneously objective, looking at events in hindsight, but also intricately, passionately involved in how the 1960s unrolled and about the aftereffects of everything that happened.
My one big carp with this book is that it feels like we hear about EVERY-SINGLE-TIME Dick Goodwin smokes a cigar! (Having said that, it's mildly amusing hearing about him trying to teach chain-smoker Jackie Kennedy how to smoke a cigar.) But otherwise, this book embodies a very interesting kind of historical work and we are all the richer for it.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.
May 20, 2024
Admittedly, I am a millennial and likely not the target audience for the book. However, the local independent bookstore's monthly non-fiction book club selected this work.
Doris Kearns Goodwin (who I am very familiar with) and her husband, Dick Goodwin (an astute 1960's speechwriter whose hands seem to be everywhere in Democratic politics at the time) who I was not familiar with - go through many of his boxes in storage which contain so much personal ephemera during his time with the Kennedys and other politicians.
In what could be categorized as part history, part memoir, and part love-letter to a spouse she clearly adores - is a unique prism of the trajectory of the 1960's. The early years when anything seemed possible (well for those who were caucasian and college-education), to LBJ's incredible work with the 89th Congress to enact what at that time was progressive legislation, to the War in Vietnam which left so many disillusioned, and then whatever dreams remaining amongst optimists completely change after the MLK and RFK assassinations.
As a side note, I wonder in an alternate universe, what would have happened if RFK had not been assassinated, and potentially won the 1968 election. Despite being a blue-blood who had everything in life handed to him on a silver platter, the man completely understood and addressed class issues in his speeches. It's something in my estimation that the modern tone-deaf Democratic party (with the exception of Bernie Sanders and a few astute moderates like Tim Ryan, Sherrod Brown, and Jon Tester who sadly are going to lose in 2024 (and in Ryan's case 2022) just doesn't understand - opting for identity politics instead. it's a losing proposition and will continue to be one until the brass starts understanding flyover country better, rather than completely writing it off.
Off my soapbox now. I give this book my highest recommendation, especially to anyone who lived in the era. Alas, few in my generation read and would probably think RFK was an acronymic musician like SZA - so for those under 50, unless you're a history nerd like myself, I wouldn't recommend.
Will be interesting to see how the book club goes. Usually my talks about class inequities, which JFK understood but was too concerned to act on, LBJ was able to persuade most in the 89th congress to pass legislation on, and what RFK could have been get shushed in the name of identity politics.
End my soapbox rant. On to returning to my usual sports, music, and narrative non-fiction books in my stack.
Doris Kearns Goodwin (who I am very familiar with) and her husband, Dick Goodwin (an astute 1960's speechwriter whose hands seem to be everywhere in Democratic politics at the time) who I was not familiar with - go through many of his boxes in storage which contain so much personal ephemera during his time with the Kennedys and other politicians.
In what could be categorized as part history, part memoir, and part love-letter to a spouse she clearly adores - is a unique prism of the trajectory of the 1960's. The early years when anything seemed possible (well for those who were caucasian and college-education), to LBJ's incredible work with the 89th Congress to enact what at that time was progressive legislation, to the War in Vietnam which left so many disillusioned, and then whatever dreams remaining amongst optimists completely change after the MLK and RFK assassinations.
As a side note, I wonder in an alternate universe, what would have happened if RFK had not been assassinated, and potentially won the 1968 election. Despite being a blue-blood who had everything in life handed to him on a silver platter, the man completely understood and addressed class issues in his speeches. It's something in my estimation that the modern tone-deaf Democratic party (with the exception of Bernie Sanders and a few astute moderates like Tim Ryan, Sherrod Brown, and Jon Tester who sadly are going to lose in 2024 (and in Ryan's case 2022) just doesn't understand - opting for identity politics instead. it's a losing proposition and will continue to be one until the brass starts understanding flyover country better, rather than completely writing it off.
Off my soapbox now. I give this book my highest recommendation, especially to anyone who lived in the era. Alas, few in my generation read and would probably think RFK was an acronymic musician like SZA - so for those under 50, unless you're a history nerd like myself, I wouldn't recommend.
Will be interesting to see how the book club goes. Usually my talks about class inequities, which JFK understood but was too concerned to act on, LBJ was able to persuade most in the 89th congress to pass legislation on, and what RFK could have been get shushed in the name of identity politics.
End my soapbox rant. On to returning to my usual sports, music, and narrative non-fiction books in my stack.
January 30, 2024
Another wonderful story from DKG. This one is a memoir of her life and her marriage and it is a fantastic story to unfold. If you have read any of her other historical books you will want to read this one, it’s the icing on the cake, thoroughly enjoyable.
June 17, 2024
My interest regarding this book centered around my fondness for Doris Kearns Goodwin. I didn't even know who her husband was, other than that he too, was involved in politics. I've come away with an immense respect for the man and his skills.
Dick Goodwin has passed away, but Doris made him come alive here. A speechwriter for JFK, then for LBJ, then to McCarthy, to Bobby Kennedy, and he's had a hand in many others as well. This audio version plays the original recordings of some of these speeches, and let me tell you, some of them gave me the chills. Kennedy asking "Do not ask what can my country do for me...." *shiver*
Dick Goodwin wanted to make America a better and more equal place, as evidenced by many decades of working towards civil rights, poverty, and voting rights.
Imagine working for a man, (JFK), growing close to him, and then the guy gets shot. During that time he became very close to Jackie and Bobby Kennedy. Years later when Bobby Kennedy declared his run for the presidency, he wanted Dick on his side and Dick went. Only to have RFK shot as well. His friendship with Jackie lasted for the rest of her life, but then she passed from cancer. Obviously Dick Goodwin has been through some shit: he must have been a very strong man.
Doris and Dick went through boxes of voluminous diaries, notes, and various reports, as Dick's health was slowly declining. Where any of Dick's letters were quoted, they were narrated by Brian Cranston. D & D were able to finish, but Doris took many years before she felt capable of putting it all together for this book. Hearing about when the man passed made me tear up. They had been together for about 40 years or so, and it was clear in her voice how much she cared for this impressive man.
My highest recommendation, especially on audio! Fascinating!
*Thanks to my local library for the free audio download. LIBRARIES RULE!*
Dick Goodwin has passed away, but Doris made him come alive here. A speechwriter for JFK, then for LBJ, then to McCarthy, to Bobby Kennedy, and he's had a hand in many others as well. This audio version plays the original recordings of some of these speeches, and let me tell you, some of them gave me the chills. Kennedy asking "Do not ask what can my country do for me...." *shiver*
Dick Goodwin wanted to make America a better and more equal place, as evidenced by many decades of working towards civil rights, poverty, and voting rights.
Imagine working for a man, (JFK), growing close to him, and then the guy gets shot. During that time he became very close to Jackie and Bobby Kennedy. Years later when Bobby Kennedy declared his run for the presidency, he wanted Dick on his side and Dick went. Only to have RFK shot as well. His friendship with Jackie lasted for the rest of her life, but then she passed from cancer. Obviously Dick Goodwin has been through some shit: he must have been a very strong man.
Doris and Dick went through boxes of voluminous diaries, notes, and various reports, as Dick's health was slowly declining. Where any of Dick's letters were quoted, they were narrated by Brian Cranston. D & D were able to finish, but Doris took many years before she felt capable of putting it all together for this book. Hearing about when the man passed made me tear up. They had been together for about 40 years or so, and it was clear in her voice how much she cared for this impressive man.
My highest recommendation, especially on audio! Fascinating!
*Thanks to my local library for the free audio download. LIBRARIES RULE!*
April 22, 2024
I have always enjoyed books by Doris Kearns Goodwin, so when I saw she had written another I decided to read it. Still, I wasn't prepared. It is truly a masterpiece. It's a combination of 1) a biography of her husband Dick Goodwin, 2) a memoir, and 3) a history of the turbulent 1960s. It is simply wonderful. I recommend "An Unfinished Love Story." She should get another Pulitzer Prize.
May 17, 2024
She did it again. With an assist from her husband, Dick. Doris Kearns Goodwin has crafted another gem and may have repositioned herself as my favorite biographer/historian.
An Unfinished Love Story is their story, but mostly it reveals his remarkable journey in the 1960s, serving as a speechwriter for John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Eugene McCarthy, and Robert Kennedy. Lightning struck multiple times in his life, and he recorded much of it in papers and memorabilia that he kept in boxes, untouched, for decades. It was time to open the boxes.
I am accustomed to presidential biographies, which follow one man from beginning to end, but this book follows an agenda—civil rights—through the administrations of two presidents and multiple other leaders in the ‘60s. Until that agenda gets hijacked by the increasing conflict in Vietnam, and attacked repeatedly by the assassin’s bullet. Somehow Dick Goodwin remained focused, balancing loyalty with strategy.
We follow Dick during the whirlwind JFK presidential campaign, and with him when he loses his place in the White House. Our hopes raise as its doors open to him once again, before everything is thrown into doubt.
Next is a look at Dick’s work with LBJ, with a ride on the roller coaster is his euphoria and destruction. Finally, outside the White House again, Dick rejoins the campaign trail with McCarthy and then switches to support his friend, Robert, before the chaotic days in Chicago and Los Angeles.
As Dick retreats in the book, Doris ascends, working in the Johnson White House herself and, more importantly, his Texas ranch. Taken together, both of their stories build a personal, heartbreaking picture of Lyndon Johnson. It’s hard not to feel bad for the man as he loses so much, even as Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Kennedys lose it all. The contrasting tragedies of Johnson and the others reveals instant death on the one hand and a slow, agonizing fall from grace on the other. Jack Kennedy never had to sit back and reflect on his legacy and his failings. Johnson was tortured by them.
With Doris, Johnson insists that his memoir should present him as a statesman, not “some backwoods politician.” But he is exactly wrong: I read the stories of the presidents to discover who they are as people—their human side. It’s easy to be a rich and powerful figurehead, out-of-reach at the top; I want to be the Goodwins and discover the real person behind the statesman. True power comes from openly revealing yourself for posterity.
The last chapters of the book are difficult to read, and must have been enormously challenging to write. Lyndon, and then Dick, ultimately pass from the scene completely. I always make the joke that in my favorite literary genre of historic biography every book ends the same way: The main character dies. But that’s not right. Sometimes they all die.
And yet, they all live.
An Unfinished Love Story is their story, but mostly it reveals his remarkable journey in the 1960s, serving as a speechwriter for John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Eugene McCarthy, and Robert Kennedy. Lightning struck multiple times in his life, and he recorded much of it in papers and memorabilia that he kept in boxes, untouched, for decades. It was time to open the boxes.
I am accustomed to presidential biographies, which follow one man from beginning to end, but this book follows an agenda—civil rights—through the administrations of two presidents and multiple other leaders in the ‘60s. Until that agenda gets hijacked by the increasing conflict in Vietnam, and attacked repeatedly by the assassin’s bullet. Somehow Dick Goodwin remained focused, balancing loyalty with strategy.
We follow Dick during the whirlwind JFK presidential campaign, and with him when he loses his place in the White House. Our hopes raise as its doors open to him once again, before everything is thrown into doubt.
Next is a look at Dick’s work with LBJ, with a ride on the roller coaster is his euphoria and destruction. Finally, outside the White House again, Dick rejoins the campaign trail with McCarthy and then switches to support his friend, Robert, before the chaotic days in Chicago and Los Angeles.
As Dick retreats in the book, Doris ascends, working in the Johnson White House herself and, more importantly, his Texas ranch. Taken together, both of their stories build a personal, heartbreaking picture of Lyndon Johnson. It’s hard not to feel bad for the man as he loses so much, even as Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Kennedys lose it all. The contrasting tragedies of Johnson and the others reveals instant death on the one hand and a slow, agonizing fall from grace on the other. Jack Kennedy never had to sit back and reflect on his legacy and his failings. Johnson was tortured by them.
With Doris, Johnson insists that his memoir should present him as a statesman, not “some backwoods politician.” But he is exactly wrong: I read the stories of the presidents to discover who they are as people—their human side. It’s easy to be a rich and powerful figurehead, out-of-reach at the top; I want to be the Goodwins and discover the real person behind the statesman. True power comes from openly revealing yourself for posterity.
The last chapters of the book are difficult to read, and must have been enormously challenging to write. Lyndon, and then Dick, ultimately pass from the scene completely. I always make the joke that in my favorite literary genre of historic biography every book ends the same way: The main character dies. But that’s not right. Sometimes they all die.
And yet, they all live.
June 25, 2024
I couldn’t put this book down. A true page turner for any lover of American history. What a life she has lived; what a timeless tribute she has written to her husband.
May 16, 2024
This book is a love story about Doris Kearns Goodwin’s late husband Dick Goodwin. It also is a love story to JFK, Lyndon Johnson and RFK. She practically canonizes them. It was just too much. Plus the author narrates the 18 hour audio in a chipper style. That was so annoying. The book needed a good haircut and a professional narrator.
June 5, 2024
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History is informative and touching. Written by one of my favorite writers, Doris Kerns Goodwin shares with readers her life with her late husband, Richard Goodwin – a gifted and caring speechwriter. I enjoyed learning about their lives both before and after they were married. I also enjoyed learning more about Jackie Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson. As a college student during the 1960s, this book brought back a lot of memories – the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy, as well as the civil rights struggles, the Viet Nam War, the bombing in Cambodia, and the killings of four students at my alma mater. In many ways, these moments in history never leave you. One final comment. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., an adviser to President Kennedy, and a good friend of Dick Goodwin, is mentioned throughout this book. As a history major at Kent State University, my last course was during the summer of 1965. It focused on World War II to the present day. Throughout the course, Dr. William Zornow, our professor, kept reminding us not to miss our last class. As we gathered in Bowman Hall on that last day, Dr. Zornow pointed to the back of the lecture hall and said with a big smile, “I don’t think our guest speaker needs an introduction.” We all turned around and there wearing a suit and a signature bow tie was Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. It was quite a moment for all of us.I would later purchase his new book, A Thousand Days, from The Book of the Month Club. The price for this hardback was $9.00.
June 24, 2024
I have told this story quite a few times over the years, probably because it has had such a profound impact on me.
It was back in the early nineties while I was working at a famous/ infamous Los Angeles restaurant. It was a Saturday evening and we had just opened at 5pm. A well dressed man in his early sixties walked into the restaurant. He was early and was waiting for five other guests to arrive.
Our General Manager told me to sit him on table four which was a table for six or more guests and looked directly out at Santa Monica Boulevard. He followed me and sat down at the very end of the table. I asked him if he would like a drink and he replied, “Yes please, a Johnny Walter Black on the rocks.”
I brought him the drink and he asked where I was from and I told him from the Bronx but that my father was born and raised in Massachusetts. In the city of Lawrence and during the summer time they lived in the resort city of Salisbury Beach.
He was also from Massachusetts, and when I asked him if he now lived in Los Angles he replied, “God no!” He still lived in Massachusetts but travelled the country quite a lot. He was even quite familiar with the part of the Bronx I was from.
He continued, “That for the longest time he didn’t visit Los Angeles, and it was only lately, after twenty years, that he started to come back to visit friends.”
I asked, “Did you dislike the city that much?”
He simply shook his head and took a sip from his glass and replied, “I was Robert Kennedy’s chief advisor during his 1968 run for president. I was at the Ambassador Hotel, celebrating his California victory in the primary, when he was killed.”
He took another sip from his glass and continued, “I don’t know what you think about President John F. Kennedy or Senator Ted Kennedy, but one thing I can tell you for sure and that is that Robert F. Kennedy is the best human being I have ever known.”
His eyes watered over as he finished the scotch in his glass and looked out at Santa Monica Blvd. I picked up his glass and remarked, “This one is on the house.”
He replied, “You don’t need to do that.”
“Oh yes I do,” as I walked over to the bar with the empty glass and felt tears rolling down my cheeks.
The other guests arrived just as I turned from the bar with the new drink. He stood up and greeted all his guests and then, like a real gentleman, he introduced me to each of his guests and remarked, “He’s been a joy to talk to while I waited.”
Ernest Hemingway remarked, “To be a great writer, one has to write honestly.” I have met and conversed with many politicians, made friends and conversed for hours with many of the Hollywood elite, and talked to Nobel Prize winners in a range of different fields and to this very day the words, ROBERT F. KENNEDY IS THE BEST HUMAN BEING I HAVE EVER KNOWN were to me the most honest statement any one individual said to me while working at that famous/infamous restaurant.
It was after talking to that gentleman that I decided to put aside all innuendos and rumors I have ever heard about the Kennedys and to do my own historical research on the Kennedys and no one individual and historian has been more helpful and knowledgeable to me than the great Doris Kearns Goodwin. First, with her biography “The FItzgeralds and the Kennedys,” followed by “Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream,” and finally with “An Unfinished Love Story. The Personal History of the 1960’s.”
“An Unfinished Love Story,” to me at least, is a tribute to her late husband Richard Goodwin who was a speech writer and advisor to President John Kennedy, President Lyndon Johnson (until he stopped working for him in 1965 over the Viet Nam War, which he did not support. The war took priority over Civil Rights and replaced the great record of accomplishments President Johnson had compiled during his first two years as President), for a short time for Senator Eugene McCarthy, and finally for Senator Robert F. Kennedy when he joined the democratic race for president against McCarthy.
To say that Mr. Goodwin was a man of great moral integrity might be an understatement. He could have made a fortune, not by being one of the great speechwriters of all time and an advisor, but by simply selling his great skills to the highest bidder.
Mr. Goodwin and his wife Doris Kearns, toward the end of his life, decided to go through the attic filled boxes in their home in Concord, Mass. that were titled the 1960’s. What they uncovered was a treasure throve, a first hand account, of the 1960’s through the eyes of her husband, through his many speeches, random ideas, and concrete ideas while working for two Presidents, senator McCarthy, and Robert F. Kennedy.
She also contributed with her written recollections of the 1960’s as a graduate student, an activist, and finally working for President Johnson during the very end of his term as President, and eventually went down to his home in Texas and helped him write his memoirs.
Many of the famous speeches delivered by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and by Robert F. Kennedy were drafted by Mr. Goodwin who never compromised his belief in equal rights for all, and the hope of a better future for all mankind.
“An Unfinished Love Story,” is a treasure that I highly, highly recommend.
And as for my historical research into the Kennedys I learned that to truly understand history one cannot rely on newspaper articles, or rumors, or partisan insanity and disinformation.
One simply needs to do the research and read actual accounts of what happened and how the individuals, often unheard of heroes, influenced the country and made it the envy of the world…at least until recently when our 45th president, our republican congress, and our corrupt Supreme Court decided to take a wrecking ball to it. I can only hope that more Americans wake up to the fantastic job President Biden has done in restoring America to its once prominent place. “The Shining City on the Hill.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYiOU...
And yes, I have no doubt that the customer, the advisor to Robert F. Kennedy, saw the greatest human being he has ever met in Mr. Kennedy. After Robert Kennedy rose from the shadows of his legendary brother, President Kennedy, he represented the very best in a human being and proved it over and over again. First, with his trip to South Africa in support of the anti-apartheid movement and then in his legendary run for president and the promise of a presidency that would fight for the equal rights and opportunities that all Americans deserved and an end to the war in Viet Nam.
It was back in the early nineties while I was working at a famous/ infamous Los Angeles restaurant. It was a Saturday evening and we had just opened at 5pm. A well dressed man in his early sixties walked into the restaurant. He was early and was waiting for five other guests to arrive.
Our General Manager told me to sit him on table four which was a table for six or more guests and looked directly out at Santa Monica Boulevard. He followed me and sat down at the very end of the table. I asked him if he would like a drink and he replied, “Yes please, a Johnny Walter Black on the rocks.”
I brought him the drink and he asked where I was from and I told him from the Bronx but that my father was born and raised in Massachusetts. In the city of Lawrence and during the summer time they lived in the resort city of Salisbury Beach.
He was also from Massachusetts, and when I asked him if he now lived in Los Angles he replied, “God no!” He still lived in Massachusetts but travelled the country quite a lot. He was even quite familiar with the part of the Bronx I was from.
He continued, “That for the longest time he didn’t visit Los Angeles, and it was only lately, after twenty years, that he started to come back to visit friends.”
I asked, “Did you dislike the city that much?”
He simply shook his head and took a sip from his glass and replied, “I was Robert Kennedy’s chief advisor during his 1968 run for president. I was at the Ambassador Hotel, celebrating his California victory in the primary, when he was killed.”
He took another sip from his glass and continued, “I don’t know what you think about President John F. Kennedy or Senator Ted Kennedy, but one thing I can tell you for sure and that is that Robert F. Kennedy is the best human being I have ever known.”
His eyes watered over as he finished the scotch in his glass and looked out at Santa Monica Blvd. I picked up his glass and remarked, “This one is on the house.”
He replied, “You don’t need to do that.”
“Oh yes I do,” as I walked over to the bar with the empty glass and felt tears rolling down my cheeks.
The other guests arrived just as I turned from the bar with the new drink. He stood up and greeted all his guests and then, like a real gentleman, he introduced me to each of his guests and remarked, “He’s been a joy to talk to while I waited.”
Ernest Hemingway remarked, “To be a great writer, one has to write honestly.” I have met and conversed with many politicians, made friends and conversed for hours with many of the Hollywood elite, and talked to Nobel Prize winners in a range of different fields and to this very day the words, ROBERT F. KENNEDY IS THE BEST HUMAN BEING I HAVE EVER KNOWN were to me the most honest statement any one individual said to me while working at that famous/infamous restaurant.
It was after talking to that gentleman that I decided to put aside all innuendos and rumors I have ever heard about the Kennedys and to do my own historical research on the Kennedys and no one individual and historian has been more helpful and knowledgeable to me than the great Doris Kearns Goodwin. First, with her biography “The FItzgeralds and the Kennedys,” followed by “Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream,” and finally with “An Unfinished Love Story. The Personal History of the 1960’s.”
“An Unfinished Love Story,” to me at least, is a tribute to her late husband Richard Goodwin who was a speech writer and advisor to President John Kennedy, President Lyndon Johnson (until he stopped working for him in 1965 over the Viet Nam War, which he did not support. The war took priority over Civil Rights and replaced the great record of accomplishments President Johnson had compiled during his first two years as President), for a short time for Senator Eugene McCarthy, and finally for Senator Robert F. Kennedy when he joined the democratic race for president against McCarthy.
To say that Mr. Goodwin was a man of great moral integrity might be an understatement. He could have made a fortune, not by being one of the great speechwriters of all time and an advisor, but by simply selling his great skills to the highest bidder.
Mr. Goodwin and his wife Doris Kearns, toward the end of his life, decided to go through the attic filled boxes in their home in Concord, Mass. that were titled the 1960’s. What they uncovered was a treasure throve, a first hand account, of the 1960’s through the eyes of her husband, through his many speeches, random ideas, and concrete ideas while working for two Presidents, senator McCarthy, and Robert F. Kennedy.
She also contributed with her written recollections of the 1960’s as a graduate student, an activist, and finally working for President Johnson during the very end of his term as President, and eventually went down to his home in Texas and helped him write his memoirs.
Many of the famous speeches delivered by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and by Robert F. Kennedy were drafted by Mr. Goodwin who never compromised his belief in equal rights for all, and the hope of a better future for all mankind.
“An Unfinished Love Story,” is a treasure that I highly, highly recommend.
And as for my historical research into the Kennedys I learned that to truly understand history one cannot rely on newspaper articles, or rumors, or partisan insanity and disinformation.
One simply needs to do the research and read actual accounts of what happened and how the individuals, often unheard of heroes, influenced the country and made it the envy of the world…at least until recently when our 45th president, our republican congress, and our corrupt Supreme Court decided to take a wrecking ball to it. I can only hope that more Americans wake up to the fantastic job President Biden has done in restoring America to its once prominent place. “The Shining City on the Hill.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYiOU...
And yes, I have no doubt that the customer, the advisor to Robert F. Kennedy, saw the greatest human being he has ever met in Mr. Kennedy. After Robert Kennedy rose from the shadows of his legendary brother, President Kennedy, he represented the very best in a human being and proved it over and over again. First, with his trip to South Africa in support of the anti-apartheid movement and then in his legendary run for president and the promise of a presidency that would fight for the equal rights and opportunities that all Americans deserved and an end to the war in Viet Nam.
May 13, 2024
A wonderful book that is both a memoir and a glimpse into the political history of the 1960s. I did not realize that Dick Goodwin was such an important figure in history. He was close with the Kennedy's and LBJ and was a key player in the policies and speeches of the era. I loved the many anecdotes and personal histories mixed in of the Goodwin's experiences. Highly recommended read for anyone that wants to learn about the 1960s and enjoy a love story throughout.
April 13, 2024
Excellent. Loved the background minutiae of an important part of US history. The book brought back many memories with added clarity and insight. Important figures of the times were brought to life once again.
June 1, 2024
A powerful work. Any baby boomer will be moved as they relive these moments of the 60's and 70's through a tale based on two of the major participants sorting through material retained from the period.
It was especially powerful for me, given my father's participation in Kennedy's campaign and later as his friend and employee. Interesting to hear the discussion around making my Dad's boss the first Black cabinet member, details of the campaigns, mention of the hotel in NH where I worked as a bus boy and where my father took my new wife and me to our first political dinner.
It brought back my memories of meeting JFK in NH and again at the White House, holding the car door for Robert Kennedy as he arrived to give a talk at an event at my sister's school in Potomac Maryland after meeting Bobby previously as he came down the steps from an aircraft in Manchester, NH. When I shook his hand I realized that he was my height, significantly shorter than his brother Jack, but he had always been my favorite due to our interesting in mountaineering and other outdoor sports.
I highly recommend the audio version of this book as it contains actual recordings of the Kennedys, Johnson and others as the story plays out and provided a great 17 hours of memories as I drove.
It was especially powerful for me, given my father's participation in Kennedy's campaign and later as his friend and employee. Interesting to hear the discussion around making my Dad's boss the first Black cabinet member, details of the campaigns, mention of the hotel in NH where I worked as a bus boy and where my father took my new wife and me to our first political dinner.
It brought back my memories of meeting JFK in NH and again at the White House, holding the car door for Robert Kennedy as he arrived to give a talk at an event at my sister's school in Potomac Maryland after meeting Bobby previously as he came down the steps from an aircraft in Manchester, NH. When I shook his hand I realized that he was my height, significantly shorter than his brother Jack, but he had always been my favorite due to our interesting in mountaineering and other outdoor sports.
I highly recommend the audio version of this book as it contains actual recordings of the Kennedys, Johnson and others as the story plays out and provided a great 17 hours of memories as I drove.
May 29, 2024
The book I just finished reading was a very good and detailed read about the love story of two famous writers who experienced what it was like to work with the Kennedys and the Johnson administrations and to help them further develop their own ideas of how the world should go
May 10, 2024
Politics aside, this was such an outstanding behind the scenes look at two presidencies and so many historic and moving speeches. I love how Kearns Goodwin wove in her own 'personal history' with the amazing experiences she and her husband had with JFK, LBJ, MLK and others. If you are a history buff, I think you'll love this as much as I did as it reads like an intriguing love story with her husband, politics, and history.
July 11, 2024
Wowwww this was incredible. DKG gives us such cool insights into civil rights legislation, speech writing, campaigns, and DC. Doris is an impressive historian but also a great writer for telling these events in such an engaging and fun way. Yay I’m so excited to move to DC
May 21, 2024
What a storyteller DKG is. Was lucky enough to see her speak last month and I listened to this book quickly. Being born in the tumultuous year of 1968 and lover of history, her accounting of this decade between her work and her late husbands was moving to me. Highly recommend listening to it as you hear the actual voice of JFK, LBJ, MLK, RFK. This project was obviously therapeutic for her as she deals with the death of her husband. The last chapters as Dick is dying are sad but if you are intrigued by the 60s. Listen. I also enjoyed looking at pics in the actual book. Also if you get Spotify premium this book is included.
May 23, 2024
This is a must listen to book. The interweaving of primary source audio and listening to Doris Kearns Goodwin narrate it was brilliant. I have always enjoyed Doris Kearns Godwin books, but this one is my favorite. I can't recommend it enough. There is so much to learn from it. I am truly thankful for this book. I will use it to better teach my students about our history, government, and country.
May 12, 2024
A beautiful love letter to her husband, Dick Goodwin, of an amazing life of a brilliant man who was involved in so many of the historical events of the 60s - friend of Jackie Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy, speechwriter for John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson - and a memoir of their lives separate and together looking back to settle which president was superior in total, JFK (Dick) and LBJ (Doris). How astounding to have lived the lives they lead and have an inside perspective to the most important events of the 60s that have shaped our country’s history. Kearns Goodwin has crafted a wonderful story of history that is a page turner!
February 20, 2024
Engrossing...review to come later
*I read an advance copy and was not compensated
*I read an advance copy and was not compensated
July 15, 2024
4.5 on audio. Review to come
July 13, 2024
In An Unfinished Love Story, Richard Goodwin’s and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s personal slants on the political and social environment of the 1960s provide a unique and fascinating look at the decade’s successes and tragedies.
This book wasn’t intended to be balanced. An Unfinished Love Story is a one-sided account seen through the eyes of two idealistic young people.
And as a tribute to her late husband, Kearns Goodwin paints a picture of him that is unashamedly biased—as might be expected from a loving spouse. Her pride in his associations and accomplishments—as well as her occasional retorts to criticisms of him—makes the book much more personal than a dry history.
As a result, you may achieve a better understanding of the efforts behind the incredible progress made in the early to mid-60s on issues that continue to influence Americans today--issues such as healthcare and civil rights. You’ll also get a feel for the impact that war, assassinations, and civil unrest had on those issues.
The final chapter focuses on Richard Goodwin’s deteriorating health, his eventual death, and Kearns Goodwin’s attempts to adjust to life without him. The chapter is charged with compassion and loss but without being maudlin and weepy. It is not an uncomfortable chapter to read, and will likely generate an empathy with the author and her experience.
In her wrapup, Kearns Goodwin voices concerns about the current disregard of history exhibited by many in America:
Kearns Goodwin suggests that this account of the 1960s could provide those of us in the 21st century with a lesson from history…
It worked for me.
This book wasn’t intended to be balanced. An Unfinished Love Story is a one-sided account seen through the eyes of two idealistic young people.
And as a tribute to her late husband, Kearns Goodwin paints a picture of him that is unashamedly biased—as might be expected from a loving spouse. Her pride in his associations and accomplishments—as well as her occasional retorts to criticisms of him—makes the book much more personal than a dry history.
As a result, you may achieve a better understanding of the efforts behind the incredible progress made in the early to mid-60s on issues that continue to influence Americans today--issues such as healthcare and civil rights. You’ll also get a feel for the impact that war, assassinations, and civil unrest had on those issues.
The final chapter focuses on Richard Goodwin’s deteriorating health, his eventual death, and Kearns Goodwin’s attempts to adjust to life without him. The chapter is charged with compassion and loss but without being maudlin and weepy. It is not an uncomfortable chapter to read, and will likely generate an empathy with the author and her experience.
In her wrapup, Kearns Goodwin voices concerns about the current disregard of history exhibited by many in America:
“We are clearly in the midst of a profound “testing time” today, and at such times, I have long argued, the study of history is crucial to provide perspective, warning, counsel, and even comfort. At a moment when the guidance of history is most needed, however, history itself is under attack, its relevance in school curriculums questioned.”
Kearns Goodwin suggests that this account of the 1960s could provide those of us in the 21st century with a lesson from history…
“…allowing us to see what opportunities were seized, what mistakes were made, what chances were lost, and what light might be cast on our own fractured time. Too often, memories of assassinations, violence, and social turmoil have obscured the greatest illumination of the Sixties, the spark of communal idealism and belief that kindled social justice and love for a more inclusive vision of America.”
It worked for me.
May 24, 2024
I was totally captivated by this book by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Her writing is elegant yet personal and she captures the events and complex relationships of the sixties with such laser accuracy and immediacy that you feel you are in the room. Among the many books published about the decade this one is unique because of the dual perspectives of the author and her husband, Richard Goodwin. Doris Kearns was considerably younger than her husband who was at the heart of both the RFK and LBJ administrations. Dick served in multiple roles most notably as a speechwriter for both presidents. Since Doris entered the world of politics much later she was more closely aligned and loyal to Johnson. She accompanied him to his Texas ranch after his presidency to help with his memoir and became like a member of the Johnson family.
When Dick turned eighty he was finally ready to explore with Doris the rich archive of over 300 boxes of materials he had collected over his years at the epicenter of power. In a friendly sort of rivalry Doris and Dick carried on a long conversation over years with Doris' recollections of working with LBJ juxtaposed with Dick's memories of the glow of his early years in Camelot and his more troubled years in the Johnson administration. With the benefit of hindsight and the wealth of information from the boxes, An Unfinished Love Story gives a uniquely clear-eyed and revealing look at the turbulent sixties. The book offers a wealth of fascinating anecdotes and quotations from some of Dick's most memorable speeches. Both the stress and intoxication of being at the center of power come through loud and clear. By the end the debate between Doris and Dick is satisfactorily resolved.
One memorable quotation about the 89th Congress:
"Yet it was not simply the quantity of bills that excited us. It was the fact that President Johnson's domestic agenda spoke directly to our daily lives. Head Start programs would provide preschool children from low-income families with healthy meals and offered them greater likelihood to graduate from high school. Government loans, scholarships, and the Work-Study Program would allow millions of first-generation students to attend college. Pollution would be reduced from the air we breathe and the water we drink.
Life expectancy would be increased and infant mortality reduced through Medicare and Medicaid. Segregated hospitals would vanish from the South once the government made clear that hospitals requesting Medicare funds would have to comply with the nondiscrimination provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. And the diversity of our country would be dramatically expanded by a landmark immigration reform ending a discriminatory quota system that favored European whites, opening immigration access to people from Latin America, Asia, and Africa. .... We were at work trying to make lives better." (p254-5)"
When Dick turned eighty he was finally ready to explore with Doris the rich archive of over 300 boxes of materials he had collected over his years at the epicenter of power. In a friendly sort of rivalry Doris and Dick carried on a long conversation over years with Doris' recollections of working with LBJ juxtaposed with Dick's memories of the glow of his early years in Camelot and his more troubled years in the Johnson administration. With the benefit of hindsight and the wealth of information from the boxes, An Unfinished Love Story gives a uniquely clear-eyed and revealing look at the turbulent sixties. The book offers a wealth of fascinating anecdotes and quotations from some of Dick's most memorable speeches. Both the stress and intoxication of being at the center of power come through loud and clear. By the end the debate between Doris and Dick is satisfactorily resolved.
One memorable quotation about the 89th Congress:
"Yet it was not simply the quantity of bills that excited us. It was the fact that President Johnson's domestic agenda spoke directly to our daily lives. Head Start programs would provide preschool children from low-income families with healthy meals and offered them greater likelihood to graduate from high school. Government loans, scholarships, and the Work-Study Program would allow millions of first-generation students to attend college. Pollution would be reduced from the air we breathe and the water we drink.
Life expectancy would be increased and infant mortality reduced through Medicare and Medicaid. Segregated hospitals would vanish from the South once the government made clear that hospitals requesting Medicare funds would have to comply with the nondiscrimination provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. And the diversity of our country would be dramatically expanded by a landmark immigration reform ending a discriminatory quota system that favored European whites, opening immigration access to people from Latin America, Asia, and Africa. .... We were at work trying to make lives better." (p254-5)"
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