You can be forgiven if, just looking at the title, you think Leadership: In Turbulent Times (Simon & Schuster, $30) is about the United States in 2018. It’s not, but it’s very relevant nonetheless. Looking to the past to better understand the present, acclaimed presidential biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin examines the leadership qualities demonstrated during periods of national crisis by four exceptional presidents—Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson. She describes how true presidential leadership isn’t so much a function of temperament or background, but of a capacity for resilience in the face of one’s own failures and limitations. It requires sacrifice, courage, and a clear moral compass. As a reviewer in the New York Times noted, “Goodwin’s special strength as an historian has always been her ability to present subtle, complex studies of her subjects’ personalities and to show how they interact with their times.”
