Includes bibliographical references and index.

"In this culmination of five decades of ... studies in presidential history, ... Doris Kearns Goodwin [explores] the early development, growth, and exercise of leadership. Are leaders born or made? Where does ambition come from? How does adversity affect the growth of leadership? Does the man make the times or do the times make the man? In [this book, she] draws upon four of the presidents she has studied most closely--Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson (in civil rights)--to show how they first recognized leadership qualities within themselves, and were recognized by others as leaders"--Provided by publisher.