Doris Kearns Goodwin on Learning from American Presidents

Randall Stephens

In 2008, popular historian Doris Kearns Goodwin gave a TED talk on what she had learned from studying the lives of American presidents. I had not seen this before, and only became aware of it when it popped up on Facebook via American Experience.

Most non-history majors (and perhaps even many majors) will want to know how their knowlegde of history can be applied in the present. (Few young majors, to be sure, have the antiquarian gene.) This clip seems like a good way to explore the "usable past."