Issued on Playaway, a dedicated audio media player.

One set of earphones and one AAA battery required for listening.

Read by Beau Bridges, David Morse, Jay O. Sanders, Richard Thomas with an introduction and epilogue read by the author.

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? Goodwin 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.