'Team of Rivals' Author Doris Kearns Goodwin Talks New Book, 'Bully Pulpit', Possible Movie (Q&A)
Doris Kearns Godwin, the popular historian whose book Team of Rivals became the basis for the Oscar-nominated film Lincoln, is back, reintroducing another favorite president to the American public.
In Bully Pulpit she turns her attention to the bromance between Teddy Roosevelt and his successor and later rival William Howard Taft. Roosevelt was president from 1901-1908, taking office after William McKinley's assassination....
In conversation, Goodwin expanded on the relationship between the two
men, what she admired about Teddy Roosevelt, how he'd fit into the
modern age and the idea of a movie version of Bully Pulpit.
On why she chose to write a book about Teddy Roosevelt:
I always choose somebody that I want to spend a lot of time with
because it takes me so long to write these books. As I got into it, I
found out more about Taft, his successor, and I really hadn’t known
about how deep their friendship was and how heartbreaking their rupture
was. And then I also realized that part of the distinction between the
two was one was good with the public and getting along with the press,
the other wasn’t. So, that’s when all my other guys came in – the
Muckrakers....