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Length: ~3hrs, 15 lessons

My rating: ★★★★ (5/5)

My one-liner takeaway: There’s an inexhaustible amount we can learn about our present from those who’ve come before if we understand them as people.

The driving message of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Masterclass is that what is happening today isn’t new or unique. Throughout American history we’ve seen anti-immigration sentiment, rapid industrialization making life feel out of control, struggles between different classes, and more. What she prescribes is that we look to the past and learn from how these challenges have been managed by great leaders. She draws moments from the lives of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson to make her point. Rather than turn this into a History Channel lesson, she brings these personalities to life, helping us understand them as persons with unique traits.

She notes that learning history is too often fixated on key dates, which overlooks the drama from events unfolding in real-time. Too often we gloss over the past, failing to see how much it rhymes with the present. Doris is a Pulitzer-winning biographer and a Harvard professor, so she is brilliant at teaching and getting a message across. The lessons are full of inspiring moments in history, and a reminder that there’s reason to be hopeful if we engage ourselves.

If you’d like to hear it directly from Doris, check out her course here. As of now there are over 100 instructors to learn from, with more being added every week!

This review is part of a larger series, where I try learning from every single course within the catalog. Find my full list here.