Team of Rivals Author to Help Rider University Kick Off 150th Anniversary Celebration

The author of the award winning book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln will help Rider University kick off its 150th anniversary celebration this week.

World-renowned presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winner Doris Kearns Goodwin will speak on Tuesday evening, 5 p.m., in the Student Recreation Center (SRC). The event is free and open to the public.

“Your hope is that people looking back into the past can see the contours of the present and feel a sense of depth to their own lives and the lives of their countrymen so they don’t feel like they’re confronting problems totally alone,” Goodwin said.

Team of Rivals is an epic tome that illuminates Lincoln’s political genius and rise to become president.

Goodwin was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in history for No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II. She is also the author of the bestsellers Wait Till Next Year, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream and The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys.

She earned a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University, and served as assistant to President Lyndon Johnson in his last year in the White House.

Advance registration to attend Goodwin’s presentation is required. Register online at www.rider.edu/dkg or call 609-896-5001.

Goodwin’s presentation is the first in many events planned to honor Rider’s sesquicentennial. The year-long celebration will begin in September, and will commemorate the past, celebrate the present and look forward to the future. More information can be found at www.rider.edu/150.