An Unfinished Love Story A Personal History of the 1960s

The book is wonderful. It gave me a much better view of the domestic achievements of President Johnson, but, at the same time, the thoughts and actions of Robert Kennedy and President John Kennedy. I found it interesting and was caught a little off guard on how things in 60s have affected us today and yet how some things remain the same as they were in 60s. Throughout the book, a little more in the audible version, you can see the love Doris Kearns Goodwin had for husband and what a remarkable man he was. It unfortunate but I do hear speeches that center on the middle class like they did in the 60s.

It felt like a gift. Finishing Doris Kearns Goodwin’s AN UNFINISHED LOVE STORY, I felt as though I had been on a journey, soaring high above the clouds, above any ordinary world. Here was history recounted with far more than first-person witness, here was history by the history maker. Richard Goodwin was not only there, but there was there because of his presence. Time and time again: JFK, LBJ, RFK and everything in between. Doris Kearns Goodwin recounts the 1960’s with her husband as they plow through boxes of archives. Archives precious beyond photos, precious beyond news clips, precious because this witness to history is more upfront and center than anyone else was ever allowed – a speechwriter, an advisor, a friend of icons of our time. Doris Kearns Goodwin is a splendid storyteller, especially with a delicious story to tell. Filled with emotion, this true account brims with love. One of my favorite books of the year.

I recommend this book with great enthusiasm. It is one of the most heartfelt books I’ve ever read. It’s a tribute to DKG’s husband, Richard Goodwin, but it is also a “you are there” journey through so many of the movements of the mid-1960s which we hold up as examples of what we aspire to achieve at our best: the Great Society, voting rights, an attack on poverty. While I lament the failure to deliver on these visions after 60 years, they continue to shine a light on the nation we must seek to realize.Ms. Goodwin has put together a remarkable blend of history, personal memoir, perspective and human feeling that will remain with me for a long time. I believe it will touch you.Her perspectives and recollections of Bobby Kenned leap from the page.I truly believe that among the men and women who have died prematurely during my adult lifetime, none has probably had a greater negative impact on history than the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. If he had lived and won the presidency, which I think was likely, this country would have been different in so many ways. We would have exited the Vietnam War sooner with less deaths. But most importantly, I think he uniquely among the politicians over the last 60 years had the heart and mind and voice and spirit to bring people together, across race and across class.His contemporaneous remarks the night Martin Luther King died will forever remain with me, his quotation from Aeschylus—“In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom, through the awful grace of God.”“Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: To tame the savageness of man and to make gentle the life of this world…”“Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.”I have admired Doris Kearns Goodwin’s writings about presidents and leadership for decades. Never, however, have I admired her soul as I do now. What a life she has lived; what a timeless tribute she has written to her husband. His role was principally that of an agitator and speechwriter. His fingerprints were all over President Johnson’s greatest speeches driving the domestic revolutions of the mid-1960s. He played a big role in Bobby Kennedy’s “Ripple of Hope” talk in South Africa.DKG has rescued the forgotten or never known role of most speechwriters for her husband. This is a worthy tribute and it is, perhaps above all, a tribute to her.I’m confident you will enjoy this, Greg.Warmly,Johncc FGPPS – This is a fragment of William Wordsworth’s poem, Intimations of Immortality, which was a favorite of Doris’ husband, Dick. She had read it to him close to his death at the age of 86. When she finished reading it, he turned to her and from memory repeated it:“Though nothing can bring back the hourOf splendor in the grass, of glory in the flowerWe will grieve not, rather findStrength in what remains behind.”I love this. It touches me at this stage of my life. For obvious reasons. Not just satisfaction, but glory in what remains behind. The memories, of course, but even more, the satisfaction and confidence that knowing I have four children and they have four spouses and we have ten grandchildren who I know, who I am absolutely certain will go on to do different but good things. No one could ask for anything more than that. And more…there are other leaders whom I know, much younger than I, like you, who through the grace of God will live on much longer than I will, who will continue to pursue the unfinished business of this country and provide the opportunity for everyone to achieve their full potential, without discrimination, with the benefits of health and education that everyone deserves.

Do you love history? Have a fascination with the 60s? The Kennedys? LBJ? DKG’s stories are remarkable, and this book is unlike any other because she’s combined her vast knowledge as an historian along with heaps of cool facts about her remarkable, brilliant husband Dick Goodwin’s illustrious career and pivotal role he played as a presidential speechwriter and political advisor as they unearthed hundreds of letters, journals, memos, (more than 300 boxes that had been in storage and they only started going through them before he died).A trusted member of JFK’s campaign as a speechwriter and later assistant special counsel on Latin American affairs under the president, a close friend of Jackie and Bobby’s too, to LBJ he became indispensable, once again an instrumental speechwriter and special assistant to the president and an integral part of the civil rights movement. The speeches Goodwin wrote for both presidents moved a nation, to belief, action, the creation of programs, that Kennedy dreamt of, and Johnson implemented. And all that doesn’t even include everything he did that led to his professional career. ​As the title says, it’s a love story rolled up in history, with some of the most interesting facts, intimate tales of relationships formed in his (and her) early days in D.C., what they witnessed up close and personal, the words he wrote, which had a profound impact on the American people from the evolution of the Peace Corps to the signing of the Voting Rights Act. To think, this was all tucked away in storage. Eloquently told with wit, charm, with the dazzle that only Ms. Kearns Goodwin can deliver.

This book is a riveting tale of the sixties, a period that is so difficult to adequately describe due to the intense passions and conflict that made it so meaningful. When we were in it, it seemed truly magical and it was but suddenly it was done. The author is a master storyteller who captures the events and their momentous impact on history and the individual living through this. It brought back to my heart and to my mind the greatness of those times. I for one am thankful that there is a written memoir that describes all of this so magnificently.