A real democracy would be a meritocracy where those born in the lower ranks could rise as far as their natural talents and discipline might take them.

Presidents including Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream; The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga; No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt (which won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1995); and her most recent book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. S. She is the author of biographies of several U.