Presidential historian raises funds for Lincoln Library Foundation

Posted on October 30, 2018
Presidential historian discusses Lincoln, Roosevelt and Kenndy (PHOTO:Dave Dahl)

 

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD– Presidential historian. Drinking buddy of Daniel Day-Lewis.

That’s Doris Kearns Goodwin, whose talk Monday headlined a fund-raiser for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation in Springfield. Her visit comes at the debut of Leadership in Troubled Times, which looks at Lincoln and three other presidents.

“Imagine what it was like for FDR, coming in when the banks were collapsing,” Goodwin said, responding to a question about whether these times were indeed the worst, “no jobs were to be held, hunger was in the streets. Or even Lyndon Johnson, coming in with JFK’s assassination, and not being certain whether there was a conspiracy from Cuba or the Mafia or with Russia; there were bombings of little kids in the civil rights movement.”

Goodwin also said it was a proud moment for the Wall Street Journal to quote Day-Lewis as enjoying binge-drinking with her.

Her best-known Lincoln book is 2005’s Team of Rivals.

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