Doris Kearns Goodwin portrait

Doris Kearns Goodwin's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Doris Kearns Goodwin recommends? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Doris Kearns Goodwin's favorite book recommendations of all time. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

The Guns of August book cover1

The Guns of August

Barbara Tuchman

4.3
"More dramatic than fiction...THE GUNS OF AUGUST is a magnificent narrative--beautifully organized, elegantly phrased, skillfully paced and sustained....The product of painstaking and sophisticated research."
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Tuchman has brought to life again the people and events that led up to Worl War I. With attention to fascinating detail, and
Jim Collins portraitDoris Kearns Goodwin portraitErik Martin portrait Recommended by Jim Collins, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Erik Martin, and 2 others.
Doris Kearns Goodwin portrait
Doris Kearns Goodwin

So beautifully written. But more importantly, for me, she was writing about battles and military stuff and things that you don’t imagine that sometimes a woman might be so adept at. [source]

Erik Martin portrait
Erik Martin

This book started my obsession with WWI, illustrating how drastically the world went from interrelated monarchies and cavalry charges to chemical warfare between modern nation states. If you want to see what disruption looks like, there's no greater period in human history. [source]

Matt Calkins portrait
Matt Calkins

The best way to understand how the world resolves its conflicts and its tensions is by looking at how a conflict that has been studied thoroughly, like World War I, unfolded and resolved. Business is like this too. If anyone were to ever get to the heart of Coke vs. Pepsi, they would see a parade of mistakes in the same way World War I looks in retrospect—so many ways you could have done better. [source]

2

Abraham Lincoln

John Hay, John G. Nicolay

3.6
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the
Doris Kearns Goodwin portrait Recommended by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
3

The Hellfire Club

Jake Tapper

3.8
A young Congressman stumbles on the powerful political underworld of 1950's D.C. in this "potent thriller" (David Baldacci) and New York Times bestseller from CNN correspondent Jake Tapper.

Charlie Marder is an unlikely Congressman. Thrust into office by his family ties after his predecessor died mysteriously, Charlie is struggling to navigate the dangerous waters of 1950s Washington, DC, alongsid
Doris Kearns Goodwin portrait Recommended by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
The President Is Missing book cover4

The President Is Missing

James Patterson, Bill Clinton

4.1
The President Is Missing confronts a threat so huge that it jeopardizes not just Pennsylvania Avenue and Wall Street, but all of America. Uncertainty and fear grip the nation. There are whispers of cyberterror and espionage and a traitor in the Cabinet. Even the President himself becomes a suspect, and then he disappears from public view...

Set over the course of three days, The President Is Missin
Doris Kearns Goodwin portrait Recommended by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
5

The Reckoning

John Grisham

3.8
October 1946, Clanton, Mississippi

Pete Banning was Clanton, Mississippi's favorite son--a decorated World War II hero, the patriarch of a prominent family, a farmer, father, neighbor, and a faithful member of the Methodist church. Then one cool October morning he rose early, drove into town, walked into the church, and calmly shot and killed his pastor and friend, the Reverend Dexter Bell. As if
Doris Kearns Goodwin portrait Recommended by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
6

The Rooster Bar

John Grisham

3.7
Mark, Todd, and Zola came to law school to change the world, to make it a better place. But now, as third-year students, these close friends realize they have been duped. They all borrowed heavily to attend a third-tier, for-profit law school so mediocre that its graduates rarely pass the bar exam, let alone get good jobs. And when they learn that their school is one of a chain owned by a shady Ne
Doris Kearns Goodwin portrait Recommended by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
7

The Accomplice (Theodore Boone, #7)

John Grisham

4.2
Theodore Boone is back on the case in an all-new adventure! Bestselling author John Grisham delivers a page-turning legal thriller for a new generation of readers.

Theo has been worried about his good friend Woody Lambert. Woody is struggling at school and making bad choices. But when Woody is arrested—an unwitting accomplice to armed robbery—Theo knows he is innocent. Racing the clock while Woody
Doris Kearns Goodwin portrait Recommended by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
8

Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer (Theodore Boone, #1)

John Grisham

4.0
A perfect murder
A faceless witness
A lone courtroom champion knows the whole truth . . . and he’s only thirteen years old
Meet Theodore Boone

In the small city of Strattenburg, there are many lawyers, and though he’s only thirteen years old, Theo Boone thinks he’s one of them. Theo knows every judge, policeman, court clerk—and a lot about the law. He dreams of being a great trial lawyer, of a life in
Doris Kearns Goodwin portrait Recommended by Doris Kearns Goodwin.