World-renowned presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author Doris Kearns Goodwin will participate in a talk titled “An Evening with Doris Kearns Goodwin” as Northeastern Illinois University presents the ninth installment of the Daniel L. Goodwin Distinguished Lecture Series. The event will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 17 in the Auditorium of the University’s Main Campus, 3701 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. in Chicago. The discussion will be moderated by distinguished journalist and former host of “Chicago Tonight” Phil Ponce and will center on how the past informs the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Tickets are $25 per person and go on sale to the general public on Friday, Aug. 23 and can be purchased at neiu.edu/tickets, in person at the Welcome Desk and Box Office on the Main Campus, or by calling (773) 442-4636.
A Q&A with the audience will follow the discussion. A limited number of tickets will be available for $50, which will include admission to the event and a copy of Doris’ latest book, the New York Times No. 1 bestseller, “An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s,” to be signed after the Q&A.
“This year’s presidential campaign has already been remarkable,” said Northeastern President Katrina E. Bell-Jordan. “I am looking forward to hearing Ms. Goodwin’s viewpoint as a preeminent presidential historian. This is an exceptional opportunity for the University and greater community, and I encourage everyone to attend.”
The Daniel L. Goodwin Distinguished Lecture Series was established by the late Daniel L. Goodwin (no relation to the speaker), Chairman and CEO of Inland Real Estate Group of Companies, Inc., as part of his historic $2.5 million commitment to Northeastern Illinois University. The lecture series continues to support freedom of speech by engaging prominent thinkers who represent all sides of contemporary issues.
Doris Kearns Goodwin is the author of nine books, including the critically acclaimed and New York Times bestseller “Leadership: In Turbulent Times,” which incorporates her five decades of scholarship studying U.S. Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson. Her first book for young readers, “The Leadership
Journey: How Four Kids Became President,” will be published in September and examines the childhoods of Lincoln, both Roosevelts and Johnson, to show how essential leadership traits can be developed.
In 2020, Doris executive produced her first documentary miniseries, “Washington,” for the History Channel, through her independent production company, Pastimes Productions Inc. Other miniseries for the History Channel include “Abraham Lincoln, “Theodore Roosevelt” and “FDR.” Pastimes is currently executive producing an eight-part documentary miniseries, Kevin Costner’s “The West” for the History Channel, and has a number of other projects in various stages of development.
Doris earned the Pulitzer Prize in History for “No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II.” Her “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln”was awarded the Lincoln Prize and was, in part, the basis for Steven Spielberg’s highly acclaimed film “Lincoln.”
Her eighth book, “An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s,” was published in 2024. Artfully weaving together biography, memoir, and history, this new book takes readers on the emotional journey Doris and her husband, Richard (Dick) Goodwin, embarked upon in the last years of his life as they delved into more than 300 boxes of letters, diaries, documents and memorabilia that Dick had saved for more than 50 years. They soon realized they had before them an unparalleled personal time capsule of the 1960s, of the events and pivotal figures of the decade — 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.
Well-known for her appearances and commentary on television, Doris is seen frequently in documentaries and on broadcast news, cable networks and late-night talk shows. She even played herself as a teacher on “The Simpsons” and a historian on “American Horror Story.”
Doris’ interest in presidential leadership was inspired by her experience as a 24-year-old White House Fellow, working directly for President Johnson in his last year in the White House, and later assisting him in the preparation of his memoirs. Her first book was the widely praised and enormously popular “Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream.”
Doris graduated magna cum laude from Colby College. She earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Government from Harvard University, where she taught Government, including a course on the American presidency.
Doris, who resides in Boston, was the first woman to enter the Boston Red Sox locker room in 1979, and is a devoted fan of the World Series-winning team.
The Daniel L. Goodwin Distinguished Lecture Series has previously featured journalism icons Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, political pundits James Carville and Mary Matalin, Olympic champion Jackie Joyner-Kersee, financial expert Terry Savage, environmental activist Erin Brokovich, and former Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike.
Doris Kearns Goodwin. Photo by: Annie Leibovitz
