World-renowned presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin will appear at Fresno State on Oct. 10 for a free public lecture.

“How Did We Get Here? A Historical Perspective on Our Wild 2016 Election” is the title of her speech, which will be at 6:30 p.m. in the Save Mart Center. She will sign books following the speech.

Goodwin is the second national figure to speak at Fresno State this year at the invitation of President Joseph I. Castro. In May, New York Times columnist and political and cultural commentator David Brooks spoke at the University.

“I am thrilled that Doris Kearns Goodwin will be speaking to us about the upcoming elections as well as examining civility in politics and throughout our society,” said Castro. “I urge all of us to listen to what’s going on in our world and strive to be a community where free speech, inclusiveness, respect and empathy can thrive. Ms. Goodwin will bring a unique and valuable historical perspective to these important topics.”

Co-sponsors are The Fresno Bee and KSEE24.

Goodwin is the author of six critically acclaimed and New York Times best-selling books, including her most recent, “The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism” (November, 2013). Winner of the Carnegie Medal, “The Bully Pulpit” is a dynamic history of the first decade of the Progressive era, that tumultuous time when the nation was coming unseamed and reform was in the air. Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks Studios has acquired the film and television rights to the book.

Spielberg and Goodwin previously worked together on “Lincoln,” based in part on Goodwin’s award-winning “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,” an epic tome that illuminates Lincoln’s political genius, as the one-term congressman and prairie lawyer rises from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals of national reputation to become president. “Team of Rivals” was awarded the prestigious Lincoln Prize and the inaugural Book Prize for American History.

Goodwin was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in history for “No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II,” and is the author of the best sellers “Wait Till Next Year,” “Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream” and “The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys,” which was adapted into an award-winning five-part TV miniseries.

Well known for her appearances and commentary on television, Goodwin is seen frequently on television networks NBC, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, CNN, as well as “The Charlie Rose Show” and “Meet the Press.” Goodwin has served as a consultant and has been interviewed extensively for PBS and the History Channel’s documentaries on President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Kennedy family, Franklin Roosevelt, Abraham and Mary Lincoln, and Ken Burns’ “The History of Baseball” and most recently Burns’ “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History.”

Goodwin graduated magna cum laude from Colby College, and was a Woodrow Wilson fellow. She earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Government from Harvard University. At the age of 24, Goodwin became a White House Fellow, working directly with President Lyndon B. Johnson. Goodwin served as an assistant to President Johnson in his last year in the White House, and later assisted him in the preparation of his memoirs.

Among her many honors and awards, Goodwin was awarded the Charles Frankel Prize, given by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Sarah Josepha Hale Medal, the New England Book Award, and most recently the Carl Sandburg Literary Award and the Ohioana Book Award.

Goodwin lives in Concord, Mass., with her husband, the writer, presidential advisor, speechwriter and playwright Richard N. Goodwin. She was the first woman to enter the Boston Red Sox locker room, and is a devoted fan of the World Series-winning team.

Doors open for the speech at 5:30 p.m. Parking in the Save Mart Center lot is free.

More information is available at 559.278.2324.