An Unfinished Love Story Audiobook By Doris Kearns Goodwin cover art

An Unfinished Love Story

A Personal History of the 1960s

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An Unfinished Love Story

By: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Narrated by: Doris Kearns Goodwin, Bryan Cranston
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About this listen

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.

The #1 New York Times bestseller from “America’s historian-in-chief” (New York magazine).

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
Editors Select Presidents & Heads of State United States Witty Heartfelt Inspiring Thought-Provoking Feel-Good American History Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Interview: "An Unfinished Love Story" is Doris Kearns Goodwin’s most personal history yet

'But more importantly, I really began to realize that all my life as an historian, it's to keep people alive...'
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  • An Unfinished Love Story
  • 'But more importantly, I really began to realize that all my life as an historian, it's to keep people alive...'

Editorial Review

Doris Kearns Goodwin like we’ve never seen before
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin is always an immediate add-to-Library, and An Unfinished Love Story is by far her most personal work to date. Simultaneously a reflection of the final years spent with her late husband, Richard, and a look back at the history of the 1960s, Goodwin’s latest offers an intimate take on the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Based on more than 300 boxes of personal documents and memorabilia, it’s also incredible in audio—with a performance led by Goodwin herself, intertwined with passages from actor Bryan Cranston and archival audio excerpts. It’s the perfect blend of history, biography, and memoir, and offers a totally new side to Goodwin that I am so grateful she’s chosen to share with her listeners. —Michael C., Audible Editor

What listeners say about An Unfinished Love Story

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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!

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Doris doing the narration

This was such a walk down the memory lane of the ‘60’s; so well told by a natural born story teller, (Dick was right about that!) I cannot rave about the performance, subject matter or presentation enough. I have purchased 7 hardcover books and sent them to all my history buff friends,
Thank you Doris for many great books over the years and thank you for recognizing LBJ’s monumental and oft forgotten contributions to the 60’s and how his legislation still touches our lives right now in so many positive ways.

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Audible is perfect for this

The audio book allows presidents' words to be read in their own voices. It felt like many perspectives were being portrayed in one book by people who were actually there. It was an amazing experience.

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Better to Listen than Read

Many books are equally as enjoyable whether read or in an Audible format. This book is the exception. Where, I ask you, can you have someone that lived the story ride with you in your car, go with you on a walk or sit on the screened porch with you and tell you you about their experiences and that of her husband living the history of the 1960s? I was a sophomore in college when JFK was assassinated so lived most the history that was the basis for this book. Never did I have the depth of knowledge and understanding of what was happening and why that was told in this book. I now have perspective. Probably difficult for Doris Kearns Goodwin to finish, but I am grateful.

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Untold Story

Exceptional political speech writer . An important piece of history. A must listen story .

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This Is Saying A Lot... This is her finest book.

To borrow one of her phrases, Thank you for letting me live with you and your late husband. This book not only told a part of the story of the 60's but it reminded me of things I had known but had forgotten. It is written in a way that let me fully relive a part of my pre teen and teen years, but rekindle an appreciation for the good that LBJ had done. Having the addition of DKG reading this book makes it even better. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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Loved the entire work

Excellent and touching book! It was informational and very touching. Excellent narration and inclusion of historical voice inclusion.

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Fascinating story

Doris Kearns Goodwin lets us, the readers, into some of the most personal and captivating moments of both her and her husband Dick’s life, and skillfully weaves their story with the historical events of the last 4 decades of the 20th century. The insight into these events was fascinating as was the history of Dick’s career as a speech writer and political advisor. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely recommend it to others.

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Chronicles from Two or Three Amazing Decades

America had some great and moral leaders in the sixties and seventies, and it was eye-opening to hear about them through the perspective of someone who was often “in the room where it happens”

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Colorful history brought to life

A rich , vivid description of the 60’s. Narration by the author and audio clips of recorded speech add to the pleasure.

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