An Unfinished Love Story

A Personal History of the 1960s

By: Doris Kearns Goodwin

Narrated by: Doris Kearns Goodwin, Bryan Cranston

Length: 17 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

Narrated by Doris Kearns Goodwin with the star of Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston! The audio edition also includes archival recordings of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Robert F. Kennedy.

An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of America’s most beloved historians, artfully weaves together biography, memoir, and history. She takes you along on the emotional journey she and her husband, Richard (Dick) Goodwin embarked upon in the last years of his life.

Dick and Doris Goodwin were married for forty-two years and married to American history even longer. In his twenties, Dick was one of the brilliant young men of John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier. In his thirties he both named and helped design Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and was a speechwriter and close advisor to Robert Kennedy. Doris Kearns was a twenty-four-year-old graduate student when selected as a White House Fellow. She worked directly for Lyndon Johnson and later assisted on his memoir.

Over the years, with humor, anger, frustration, and in the end, a growing understanding, Dick and Doris had argued over the achievements and failings of the leaders they served and observed, debating the progress and unfinished promises of the country they both loved.

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, illuminating public and private moments of a decade when individuals were powered by the conviction they could make a difference; a time, like today, marked by struggles for racial and economic justice, a time when lines were drawn and loyalties tested.

Their expedition gave Dick’s last years renewed purpose and determination. It gave Doris the opportunity to connect and reconnect with participants and witnesses of pivotal moments of the 1960s. And it gave them both an opportunity to make fresh assessments of the central figures of the time—John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, and especially Lyndon Johnson, who greatly impacted both their lives. The voyage of remembrance brought unexpected discoveries, forgiveness, and the renewal of old dreams, reviving the hope that the youth of today will carry forward this unfinished love story with America.

©2024 Doris Kearns Goodwin (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Decades of Memories

I liked everything about the book. Doris and Richard lived such a memorable life, encompassing years of our nation being defined, sometimes by the speeches of Richard and the stories of Doris.

An Unfinished Love Story

The author hit the right format to tell a very interesting story. As a visually, impaired reader, am lucky, I get the audiobook narrated by the author and historic audio from a history. I am fascinated with! Thank you, Doris, Kearns Goodwin!

A Great Listen

One of the best I’ve ever listened to, full of history and an endearing love story.

Engaging with politics deep in historical history

I liked the personal reflection of this famous political historian. She put herself in the story of the 60’s. I lived then but definitely enjoyed hearing it from her perspective.

Brilliance and enjoyment of thot generation.

So bright and energetic! A unique time in our history. Took me back to my own time in Washington as a young woman.

Author’s Love of Her Own Work

The mutual love of the author and her husband was heartwarming. But Ms. Goodwin should have employed a disciplined editor. That would have improved the book immensely. Not asking for cold-eyed objectivity but the gush brought into question the accuracy of Ms. Goodwin’s work.