Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin to speak at OU April 13

Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin speaks at OU April 13
Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin to speak at OU April 13
Doris Kearns Goodwin, whose work is recognized in literary and film circles, is the speaker for OU's 2017 Varner Vitality Lecture.

Tickets are now available for Oakland University’s 2017 Varner Vitality Lecture featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning author and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. Goodwin will present her talk “How Did We Get Here: The First 100 Days of an Unprecedented Presidency,” at 7 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.) on Thursday, April 13 in the Athletics Center O’rena, on OU’s campus.   

 

Goodwin, who earned a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University, is the author of six critically acclaimed and New York Times best-selling books, including her most recent, The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism. Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks Studios has acquired film and television rights to the book. Spielberg and Goodwin previously worked together on the 2012 film Lincoln, based in part on Goodwin’s award-winning book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.

 

Goodwin was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in history for No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II, and is the author of the bestsellers Wait Till Next Year, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, and The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, which was adapted into an award-winning five-part TV miniseries.

 

Along with her books and film adaptations, Goodwin frequently appears on television networks NBC, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, CNN, as well as The Charlie Rose Show and Meet the Press. Other appearances have included The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and many more.

 

In addition, Goodwin has served as a consultant and has been interviewed extensively for PBS and the History Channel's documentaries on Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, the Kennedy family, and Ken Burns’ The History of Baseball and The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. She most recently served as a consultant on HBO Films' All the Way starring Bryan Cranston as President Johnson. Goodwin is currently working on her next project on leadership – a look at how Lincoln, FDR, LBJ and Teddy Roosevelt became leaders and how they led.

 

Goodwin’s experience as a 24-year-old White House fellow, working directly for President Lyndon Johnson fueled her interest in becoming a presidential historian and author. Among her many honors and awards, she was awarded the Charles Frankel Prize, given by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Sarah Josepha Hale Medal, the New England Book Award, and recently the Carl Sandburg Literary Award and the Ohioana Book Award.

 

The Varner Vitality Lecture Series is named in honor of Oakland’s first chancellor, Durward “Woody” Varner. The series aims to energize and sustain the highest academic and scholarly aspirations of the University community. Previous speakers include Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former president of India; Dr. Madeleine Albright, the first female U.S. Secretary of State; Dr. Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist; and most recently, Bill Nye, scientist, author and TV host.

 

The event is free and open to the public. Tickets are available at the CSA Service Window, located in room 49 on the lower level of the Oakland Center. For more information or to request special assistance, call (248) 370-2400.