Leadership in Turbulent Times

Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin, 473 pages.
Goodwin explores leadership during periods of crisis by focusing on Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson. The audio version gives each President his own reader, with Beau Bridges reading the Lyndon Johnson chapters and Richard Thomas reading one of the others (FDR?). Goodwin has written entire books on each of the men covered here, so there is not much new uncovered, but she does do a great job of telling how each of these men honed their skills and became great leaders. A wonderful book.

An Extraordinary Marriage

Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage by Hazel Rowley  345 pp.

I admit I'm a sucker for books about the Roosevelts, especially Eleanor and Franklin. As a result there is little information out there that I haven't read somewhere already. That is the case with this book. It is very readable and well done but there is nothing really new here. It focuses more on their personal relationships than the politics although you can't have a book about the Roosevelts without including some politics. Their household of family, staffers, and friends would be referred to as an entourage (or posse ☺) nowadays. Franklin's relationships with Lucy Mercer, Missy LeHand, Daisy Suckley, and other women are well documented as are Eleanor's with Lorena Hickok and her bodyguard, Earl Miller. Whether or not all of those relationships were sexual is still a matter of opinion and Rowley contends that most were. Rowley is gentler in her comments about Franklin's domineering mother, Sara Delano, than most Roosevelt biographers. Obviously a 300+ page book does not have the amount of information that are in the Joseph Lash and Doris Kearns Goodwin volumes or Eleanor's own writings. But this is a pretty good overview that is not as dry as some of the other books.