An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s
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The #1 New York Times bestseller from “America’s historian-in-chief” (New York magazine)
An Unfinished Love Story: 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.
Reviews with the most likes.
Fascinating and heartfelt history of the turbulent 1960s as seen through the eyes of bestselling historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and her late husband. Dick Goodwin, who died in 2018, had an amazing career as speechwriter/advisor to John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Robert Kennedy (also, briefly, 1968 presidential candidate Edmund Muskie). Dick's contributions informed and promoted JFK's New Frontier and LBJ's Great Society, leading to landmark legislation like the Civil Rights Act and the creation of Medicare. A true 20th century liberal (before that word became an anathema to both Right and Left), Goodwin lived his mission to “close the gap between America's ideals and the reality of its citizens' daily lives.”
The presidents and candidates come alive, flaws and all, as Dick describes his interactions with them. He had an especially complex relationship with the mercurial LBJ; Goodwin was one of the strongest supporters of Johnson's domestic policies but broke bitterly with him over the president's escalation of the Vietnam war. Doris saw a kinder, gentler side of Johnson late in his tenure during her one-year White House fellowship. As a result, the Goodwin marriage frequently included heated arguments over Johnson's relative accomplishments and legacy (in contrast, most of my marital spats concern dirty dishes left in the sink).
I came away with a better understanding of these iconic men (and Muskie), and by the last page I was in awe of (and slightly in love with) Dick, a unique political strategist and a true mensch. It was always a treat to see Doris on The Colbert Report and other late night news/comedy shows in the early aughts. But it might have been even better to interview this illustrious power couple together. Does the “unfinished love story” refer to America's unfulfilled promises, or Doris losing Dick after 42 years of marriage? I'm not sure which one was the greater tragedy.
