Harvard Business Review

regulation, and conservation measures – or the civil rights movement, to learn how it created the pressure that allowed the voting rights and desegregation acts to pass.

I find it interesting, though, that Lincoln didn’t read biographies – at least you don’t hear about him reading of Washington or Jefferson, the people you would imagine he’d be very interested in. He was more impressed by their words. It’s the documents of American history – the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence – that became his inspiration. He said himself that he never had a thought that didn’t come from the Declaration of Independence. If Lincoln is Obama’s role model, then he might want to go back to those documents and study them in great detail. I think that appreciating them and their great promise is what makes you understand what hope is all about.

country won World War II. But he reminded them that America had faced disasters before and had come out the other side. Despite the cruel winter at Valley Forge, for example, Americans still won independence. FDR’s speech was so successful that thousands of affirming telegrams flooded into the White House.

Obviously there’s a fine line between optimism that’s simply not credible and a sense of real confidence that there’s something about the United States and its people and its system that’s going to make the country pull together and get out of this hole. Roosevelt once said something like, “The most efficient dictatorship could never compete with the free energies of a free people in a democratic system.” I think that’s right – and not just for the United States but for democracies around the world.

Fitzgeralds, FDR, LBJ, Lincoln, and now Theodore Roosevelt – whom would you choose to spend an evening with?

Lincoln, without question. It took me 10 years to write his biography, and he was a very amiable companion all those years.

If I did get to meet him, though, I wouldn’t ask him what I, as a historian, know I’m supposed to ask him – about what he would have done to bring the country together after the Civil War, had he lived. I’d ask him to tell me stories. Everyone remarked upon his extraordinary sense of humor, and he was widely admired as a storyteller. He said himself that a good story is better than a drop of whiskey. I’d just sit at the kitchen table with him and have him tell me one story after another, for then he would truly come to life again.

Do you really have such hope when everything seems to be crashing down around us?

Yes, I really do. In times of crisis, things become possible that wouldn’t be possible in ordinary times. The way the U.S. government is set up, with so many checks and balances, means that it almost takes a deep crisis to move forward. So there are only certain moments in history when great change can take place. FDR had this opportunity in the Depression; Lincoln did during the Civil War. Obama has that same great opportunity now. The challenges Americans are now facing give him a chance to pull the country together in new ways, working across party lines.

Also, history is a great reminder that, however bad things look today, they’ve been worse before, and Americans still pulled through. Today’s crisis is not as bad as the Great Depression, let alone the Civil War that Lincoln confronted. One of my favorite FDR speeches is one he made in 1942 that was very similar to Obama’s victory speech in Chicago. FDR warned his listeners that there would be many failures before the

Of all the politicians you’ve written about – the Kennedys and the

Reprint R0904C

To order, see page 119.

EXECUTIVE DOCTOR OF MANAGEMENT the doctorat e for practicing executives Designed for for-profit, non-profit and public sector leaders Integrate theory and practice to gain new management knowledge and research tools through interdisciplinary curriculum Complete in 3 years while working full-time Enhance your contribution to organizations and society through practitioner-scholar research Develop a global perspective on economic, social and political issues

EDM admission criteria include a Master’s degree and at least ten years of senior management experience. Periodic on-campus residencies are required. Application Deadline: June 4