Episode · The Daily Stoic · 2025-09-04
Ryan Holiday & Doris Kearns Goodwin: books mentioned on The Daily Stoic
What You Were NEVER Taught About Lincoln | Doris Kearns Goodwin
Ryan Holiday recommended Plain Speaking by Merle Miller, and discussed Meditations by Aurelius Marcus and Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Doris Kearns Goodwin discussed The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin and The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Meditations
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is a collection of personal journals and philosophical notes written by the Roman emperor during his military campaigns, offering profound insights into Stoic philosophy, self-discipline, and personal endurance.
Discussed“I saw that you were calling Aurelius your guy. And I was thinking, "Oh my god, I do the same thing with Teddy and Franklin and Lincoln." And I don't mean to be unifferial. It's just that I've lived with him for so long like you've lived with meditations.”
Where to get it
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Team of Rivals
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin is an acclaimed historical biography examining Abraham Lincoln's extraordinary political leadership and his strategic decision to appoint his fiercest opponents to his presidential cabinet.
Discussed“Actually, let let me let me just get into it right now then because for for for that chapter, I fell in love with a thing that you have as an epigraph to team of rivals, which uh you can see here I have I have done my reading on. These are all all pages I have marked.”
Where to get it
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The Bully Pulpit
The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin is a sweeping historical examination that contrasts the political strategies, media savvy, and presidencies of William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt.
Discussed“I think partly what happened is somebody was telling me they were reading it. A woman wrote me a letter, the bully pulpit um on Teddy and she said she was loving it, but she was reading it at night when she went to bed and she fell asleep and it broke her nose.”
Where to get it
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The Guns of August
Why people recommend it: Detailing the catastrophic miscalculations and diplomatic failures that plunged the world into global conflict, The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman is a masterclass in military history.
Discussed“I mean I do believe I remember Barbara Tuckman was a great heroine when I read her book Guns of August when I was in college and she said that even when you're a narrative historian you have to pretend to yourself you do not know how a war ended”
Where to get it
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Plain Speaking
Plain Speaking by Merle Miller is an acclaimed oral history composed of candid interviews with President Harry S.
Recommended“Well, one of my favorite presidential biographies I'm i'm using that term loosely is Merl Miller plain speaking. I love it. And and and one of the things that I love about that is there's a scene in it where uh he starts talking about Marcus Aurelius uh Truman does”
Where to get it
