Some of our finest scholars in America today are women. They write histories, important science studies and biographies. Let me share with you my favorite books written by women, which I have had the pleasure of reading recently.
I begin with my favorite presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. I have read all of her books and recommend them highly. But let me share three which I especially liked.
The first is “No Ordinary Time,” a study of the Franklin D. Roosevelt years and the Roosevelt leadership during the depression and World War II. The second is a study of Abraham Lincoln’s leadership, “Team of Rivals,” the basis of the recent motion picture on Abraham Lincoln’s life.
The third is “Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream,” which grew out of her collaborative work with Johnson as they built his presidential library and prepared his personal memoirs. Among the finest science writers of our time is Dave Sobel, whom I met and became friends with in Oak Park, when she was on tour promoting her extraordinary book on Copernicus, “A More Perfect Heaven,” in 2011. Her book “Longitude,” a study of navigational developments making possible safer travel at sea, was made Into a highly successful television documentary.
My favorite of all of her books is “Galileo’s Daughter.” This is a twin biography of both Galileo and his daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, a scientist in her own right at the Florence convent. British historian Sonia Purnell, has produ.
