Dick and Doris Goodwin were married for forty-two years and married to American history even longer. The Goodwins' last great adventure involved finally opening the more than three hundred boxes of letters, diaries, documents, and memorabilia that Dick had saved for more than fifty years. They soon realized they had before them an unparalleled personal time capsule of the 1960s.
The book is a year-by-year march through the ’60s as viewed by newcomers to the corridors of power. But it’s also a rather sweet portrait of a devoted couple growing old together ... This is not a news-breaking book, and it’s not about dish; that’s not really the Kearns Goodwin brand. But it is eminently readable, appealing especially to anyone fascinated by the period covered, and a touching invitation to eavesdrop on a long marriage between two people who had an unusual level of access to presidential policy and personality.
The tension in the book is provided by the tensions of the era — LBJ versus RFK, white versus Black, young versus old, tradition versus experimentation, Richard Nixon versus Hubert Humphrey. But it also is marked by the gentle tension between a woman who saw romance in the struggles and torment of Lyndon Johnson and a man tied tightly to the Kennedys ... Above all, this book is a reminder of the uncashed check of American promise ... A love story, to be sure. But also a tragic story, of hopes dashed and dreams unfulfilled. Sit down and weep.
Manages to be different than anything that has come before ... Gives us hundreds of interesting vignettes about the time she and her husband spent with these historic characters. But the spine of the book is the eternal debate about who deserved more credit for the landmark legislative accomplishments of the ’60s — JFK or LBJ.
