For 388 years Harvard Square has been a catalytic converter of power. Vintage lamp-posts have lit the path of scholars theoretically applying lessons of The Humanities to the future they intend to write. In so many ways the Square manifests the adage, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
On a chilly May 2024 evening, traffic weaved around pedestrians bustling about Cambridge’s Historic District. Some navigated the political intersection of conflicts incubating inside Harvard Yard, others eager to hear Doris Kearns Goodwin promote her latest book, managed the logistics of entering the First Parish in Cambridge.
Inside Harvard Yard 5/10/2024
First Parish in Cambridge 5/10/2024
Clad in faded corduroys, a confluence of grey-haired, Birkenstock-wearing activists swarmed spaces steeped in orthodoxies that have known the tests of time. Inside the Meeting House, built to colonize like-minded spirits, the uniformed ones relived American history through the prism of Mr. and Mrs. Dick Goodwin’s attic-bound archives.
Written by 81 year old Pulitzer Prize winner, Doris Kearns Goodwin, “An Unfinished Love Story” is the prolific writer’s latest interpretation of American history. The recollections are framed in the most personal of rose-colored contexts and include memories of working for President Lyndon Johnson, whose presidency ended unceremoniously when it became clear he couldn’t win the popular vote.
To be sure lovers of history won’t be disappointed by the reminiscences included in this 410 page memoir. However, unlike most history books the tone of this work is soulful. “Unfinished Love Story” is a composite of atmospherics and facts culled from the author’s husband’s dog-eared notes stashed long-ago in the attic of their home in Concord, Massachusetts.
Endearingly, DKG shares anecdotes of falling in love with Dick Goodwin, whose study of classical humanities wrapped easily around the halcyon ambitions of the Kennedy family. After the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy, Dick Goodwin’s role as a presidential advisor and script-writer continued to score the legacy of Jackie Kennedy Onassis.
Penned often in the poetic style beloved by devotees of the Camelot-era this book is a tender interpretation of American history. It’s also, in unexpected post-election context, a vintage lamp-post foreshadowing the political assassination of Joe Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign.
Page 288 summarizes an exchange Dick Goodwin had with JFK. Doris wrote, ” The dialogue in his mind on this morning was Cicero’s comparison of various types of friends: ‘Useful friends with whom we have transactional relations, Amusing friends with whom we share pleasure and games, and those rare friends that Cicero calls ‘Another-self ‘ with whom we share soul secrets and deepest feelings.
Doris continues, ‘Dick recounted at least twenty times he heard President Kennedy say “in politics there are no friends, only allies.” ‘ The idealistic couple believed JFK was wrong. But a review of recent presidential history proves Cicero and JFK understood human nature.
Cancer treatments in 2018 wrote the last chapter of Dick Goodwin’s life. The soul-mated historians spent his final days revisiting dusty boxes of book-ended history. Doris said they felt they could deny death as long as there were more memories to discover. “An Unfinished Love Story” can be read as a metaphor for their personal lives coupled with the deepest feelings of a generation of political allies.
On May 10th, 2024 in Cambridge’s Historic District, DKG predicted “Biden will win the election. Things will go our way”. The grey haired crowd applauded the historian who naively dismissed the wisdom of Cicero and JFK, refusing to believe, the catalytic power of political friendship exists only in it’s transactional value.
Inside The First Parish in Cambridge 5/10/24
Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s Vice President announced her presidential campaign on July 21, 2024. “The more things change, the more they stay the same. “
Doris Kearns Goodwin : Harvard Square Book Store 5/10/2024
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