Doris Kearns Goodwin’s work for President Johnson inspired her career as a presidential historian. Her first book, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, was a critical and commercial success. She followed up with the Pulitzer Prize–winning No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II. She earned the Lincoln Prize for Team of Rivals, in part the basis for Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln, and the Carnegie Medal for The Bully Pulpit, about the friendship between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.
Her bestselling Leadership: In Turbulent Times was the inspiration for the History Channel docuseries on Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin Roosevelt, which she executive produced through her production company, Pastimes Productions. Goodwin is seen frequently in documentaries and on television news, cable networks and late-night talk shows. She even portrayed herself on an episode of the enduringly successful television show “The Simpsons.”
In 2024, she published two books: An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s, which debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and is currently being developed as a feature film, and her first book for young readers, The Leadership Journey: How Four Kids Became President, which debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list. In 2025, she executive produced an eight-part documentary miniseries with Kevin Costner on the American West for the History Channel.
