This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.

Are leaders born or made? Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin draws upon her research of four U.S. presidents—Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson—to show how they first recognized leadership qualities within themselves and were recognized by others as leaders.

Goodwin explains how no common pattern describes the trajectory of leadership. Set apart in background, abilities and temperament, these four men shared a fierce ambition and a deep-seated resilience that enabled them to surmount uncommon hardships.