The speaker at next week’s Convocation on Critical Issues at Missouri Western says she writes about people she likes because she doesn’t want to spend time with people she doesn’t like. Doris Kearns Goodwin will talk about reasons Abraham Lincoln was a great leader…and a great politician.

She says Lincoln’s skill as a politician was one of the fun discoveries she made in ten years of research, and what made him a great politician was his character: kindness, moral strength, and empathy. Goodwin’s Lincoln biography “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,” was a best-seller, winner of many awards, and the inspiration for the movie Lincoln.

She’ll be the featured speaker at the Convocation next Tuesday at 10 am in the M.O. Looney Complex Arena. Admission is free.