Team of Rivals was a big undertaking for me at over 750 pages. What a treasure of a book. I had the feeling that you get with a good piece of fiction where you hate for the book to end. I felt like I was there, that I knew Lincoln. What a marvelous man, a moral man, a patient man. There were lessons between the covers of this book I would feel comfortable including in a talk in church. I have read other books about Lincoln and other books about the civil war, but to see Lincoln through the eyes of his political rivals for the Presidency - Edward Bates, William Henry Seward, and Salmon Chase - was novel and inciteful. These men all had better educations than Lincoln (that wouldn't take much) and were all Lawyers as was Lincoln, each was politically ambitious and had hopes to be elected president by the newly formed Republican party. Each of these men were given cabinet positions by Lincoln. To begin with, each of these men saw themselves as superior to Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln saw the advantage of surrounding himself with the best minds of his day. Unfortunately, that also meant to surround himself with a multitude of opinions (not a yes man in the bunch) and a variety of personal vanities. Added to these men were others such a Secretary of War Edwin Stanton who also had been somewhat of a rival in court and looked down upon Abraham Lincoln. Seward and Lincoln were polar opposites in dispositions and yet came to respect each other and had a warm friendship. Each life, told in detail was fascinating. The politics of the time were a land mine. It would have been enough to ruin the carreer of a lesser politician. Such a sad time in the history of our country. I'm glad God sends great men at such a time as that. A great read!

Fantastic. Explores the leadership ability of Lincoln as he worked with a sometimes turbulent group of rivals to achieve his goals for the nation.

The team of rivals begins with the other candidates for the Republican nomination in 1860: Seward (State), Bates (Attorney General), and Chase (Treasury).

The group later expands to include other cabinet officers: Stanton (War), Blair (Postmaster General), and Welles (Navy).

I believe the team of rivals expands even further, to include these men's wives: Mary Todd Lincoln, Frances Seward, Julia Bates, and even children like Fanny Seward and Kate Chase.

Lincoln's ability to navigate all of these friends, rivalries, jealousies, and competitions speaks to his brilliant leadership ability. Goodwin highlights wonderful leadership lessons, like sharing credit, owning blame, forgiveness, trust, and patience.

I can't wait for her book on Presidential Leadership (forthcoming, September 2018).

I, like many young people, was often frustrated by history class. No matter what how hard I worked, or how much I studied we always seemed to run out of time to cover the really interesting parts of history, and I always felt short changed.

Few time periods frustrated me as much as the Civil War. We would spend weeks going over Manasses, and Shiloh and Sherman's march and I invariably felt that something was missing. Was it really just General v.s. General? What was Lincoln doing that made him so great? And when it all ended with Lee's sudden surrender at Appomatox, and Lincoln's assassination in the next paragraph, I kept looking around for more details. But I could never find any.

For anyone like me, anyone who wishes they could have figured out the complexities of the great struggle for America's soul, anyone who seeks advice from the past to inform their lives for today and tomorrow there is Team of Rivals.

Kearns Goodwin has created a compelling and comprehensive portrayal of the men who led America through the crucible of the Civil War, she turns the president from the static caricature of "Honest Abe" with the stove pipe hat and chinstrap beard into a dynamic and endearing hero. His wit and charm flow from first hand sources and innumerable anecdotes. His devotion to his wife and young sons, his humor, his faith, all of it makes Lincoln so much more accessible.

But even more engaging than the accounts of the commander in chief are the equally dynamic supporting characters who populate Lincoln's life and times. From his family and the frantic Mary Todd to the armed services and the craven General McClellan, from the titular Team of Rivals [including the corrupt, the pure, the powerful and the power-hungry] to society celebrities the reader is immersed in another America, at once novel and yet familiar.

Any work of this scope, must, by necessity, be long. Very long. [Long enough to preclude me from reading anything else for 5 months] So, while the depth of research is remarkably engaging, it's also remarkable dense. True scholars won't have a problem with it, those of us who seek more knowledge to enhance our understanding, will. Still, any opportunity to encounter and understand a truly great president, a man whose temperament, acumen and eloquence were the perfectly prescribed tonic for a nation in turmoil, is worth an occasionally disconcerting density. It's engrossing, engaging and utterly remarkable, even over five months.

This was excellent. Lincoln was an amazing man. And Doris Kearns Goodwin took a fascinating angle on his life and presidency.

Here's my main take away:
What do we do with competitors? People who want what we have? We outmaneuver them, right? Then we dismiss them. Not Lincoln. He defeated his political opponents and appointed them to his cabinet, and actually to his inner circle of friends! And many of these competitors were more respected and skilled than Lincoln. But that didn't phase the president. He wasn't going to deprive the country of their services, nor himself of their skill. He knew who he was. And, without insecurity or condescension, he took this team of rivals and transformed them into a band of brothers, all the while, guiding a nation through it's darkest hour.

And as for the story, I honestly felt like I took a journey through this man's life. Goodwin did a great job of bringing Lincoln to life in such a way that he was real and lovable. When she wrote about his body being trained back to Illinois, it felt like you were actually there, experiencing the nation's sorrow. Lincoln acquired epic status the moment he died. Lincoln was not perfect, by any means, and the aftermath of his family life was actually quite sad - as is the case for many towering figures. But, wow, much to digest here. Good on so many levels.

I'd say the one weakness of the book was its length (41 hours on audiobook - that's a long time), but never did I feel like quitting. Goodwin's prose and Suzanne Toren's narration was simply exquisite.

A True Leader and Genius of High Moral Character

If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for other business.... If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference. Pres. Abraham Lincoln, quoted in F. B. Carpenter, The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln: Six Months at the White House (1869).

Truly, I didn't start out reading this book to compare President Donald J. Trump to Abraham Lincoln. Yet, the differences are so Radical, one would have to be marooned on a desert isle for the past year not to notice them. I am so glad I read it now.

One anecdote was most powerful and revealing in illustrating what most would agree is paradigmatic for any LEADER: taking responsiblity and loyalty. In early 1862, Congress made findings of financial mismanagement in the early months of the Civil War by the Secretary of War Simon Cameron, which it followed with a censure of Cameron by which time Lincoln had already replaced him. Instead of letting that be the end of the story and of Cameron's career, Lincoln sent a letter to Congress saying, "not only the President, but all the other heads of departments, were at least equally responsible with him for whatever error, wrong, or fault was committed...."

Now, whether you are a Trump supporter or hater, Republican or Democrat, can you imagine President Donald J. Trump writing such a letter or, Lord help us, "tweet," acknowledging fault, no matter the circumstances ?

Ever?!

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln is an absolutely outstanding and incisive biographical narrative showing Lincoln's road to becoming U.S. President and his Presidency as well as the lives of the most significant among his cabinet members, three of whom ran against him in 1860: William Seward, Secretary of State; Edward Bates, Attorney General; and, Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury. Hence, the name Team of Rivals; no doubt was there ever who was the Captain, my Captain.

Doris Kearns Goodwin is amazing (a term I almost never use) at showing how President Lincoln resolved the numerous conflicts among the egotistical cult of personality and among the radical and conservative factions among his Republican party. A hint: we are all human, all make mistakes and even the President must maintain a sense of humility and (this really should go without saying [see Twitter, 2017]) dignity.

Perhaps it's unfair to compare our MODERN DAY PRESIDENT to Lincoln. Maybe I should offer this as a plea and a hope that Lincoln should serve as the Standard Bearer for ALL PRESIDENTS for demonstrating the meaning of n  Leadershipn. If not, I am assured that "[a]ny people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government...." Lincoln, Speech in House of Representatives, 1848.

I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. President Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Albert G. Hodges, 4 Apr. 1864.


No one can rationally argue that Lincoln was not the greatest leader of the United States and will go down as one of the greatest in history. I love the quote from Tolstoy in the book, a quote I had not before seen:

n  "why was Lincoln so great that he overshadows all other national heroes? He really was not a great general like Napoleon or Washington; he was not such a skillful statesman as Gladstone or Frederick the Great; but his supremacy expresses itself altogether in his peculiar moral power and in the greatness of his character.

Washington was a typical American. Napoleon was a typical Frenchmen, but Lincoln was a humanitarian as broad as the world. He was bigger than his country--- bigger than all the Presidents together. We are still too near to his greatness ... but after a few centuries more our posterity will find him considerably bigger than we do. His genius is still too strong and too powerful for the common understanding, just as the sun is too hot when it's light beams directly on us.”n

Additional Telling Quotes of President Lincoln

You can fool all of the people some of the time; you can fool some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time. Attributed in N.Y. Times, 27 Aug. 1887

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. Attributed in Golden Book, Nov. 1931.

That [man] can compress the most words in the fewest ideas of any man I ever knew. Quoted in Henry Clay Whitney, Life on the Circuit with Lincoln (1892).

As usual, I seem to be pushing against the river. All the reviews on this tome are positively stellar -- to the 5th degree. My poor offering is a meagre 3.

Goodwin is an exceptional historian. Research should have been her middle name. But -- and it's quite a big one --

The book would have been vastly improved if a good editor had taken charge.

This book reads like ... you asked someone for a recipe on how to bake a cake, and she starts by telling you how to grow wheat; then walks you through milling the grain into flour, down the line to raising chickens and collecting the eggs. My god, by the time you get to the cake, you've starved yourself and three subsequent generations.

A good editor would have sliced at least 200 pages and given more substance to the importance of this team of rivals. The relevance of the momentous symphony created by this team is almost drowned by the irrelevant preamble.

All the minutiae that Goodwin gathers on the respective players is interesting, perhaps, but doesn't add to the central argument. The trivialities of childhood toe-stubbings and early disappointments in love of one and all do not belong in such a work. They belong in a biography dedicated solely to that individual: therein, one could expand to heart's content and would in that case be appreciated by the reader. Herein, it made me forget what/who the book was about, almost.

After sifting through the mound (sorry, can't seem to get that cake imagery out of my head) of froth and frivolity, the book is excellent and I appreciated learning a few things about Lincoln that made clear his exceptional contribution to the building of the United States of America. I appreciated, perhaps for the first time, the political astuteness of the man, stripped clean of his "aw shucks" image that has often been portrayed in other biographies. When Goodwin finally gets down to it, she is immensely capable of delivering good solid writing, with a purpose.

“Looking once more to broaden the appeal of the Whig Party, Seward advocated measures to attract the Irish and German Catholic immigrants who formed the backbone of the state Democratic Party. He called on his fellow Americans to welcome them with “all the sympathy which their misfortunes at home, their condition as strangers here, and their devotion to liberty, ought to excite.” He argued that America owed all the benefits of citizenship to these new arrivals, who helped power the engine of Northern expansion. In particular, he proposed to reform the school system, where the virulently anti-Catholic curriculum frightened immigrants away, dooming vast numbers to illiteracy, poverty, and vice. To get these children off the streets and provide them with opportunities to advance, Seward hoped to divert some part of the public school funds to support parochial schools where children could receive instruction from members of their own faith.”

“Johnson believed that “in dealing with the public, Lincoln’s heart was greater than his head, while Stanton’s head was greater than his heart.” The antithetical styles are typified in the story of a congressman who had received Lincoln’s authorization for the War Department’s aid in a project. When Stanton refused to honor the order, the disappointed petitioner returned to Lincoln, telling him that Stanton had not only countermanded the order but had called the president a damned fool for issuing it. “Did Stanton say I was a d——d fool?” Lincoln asked. “He did, sir,” the congressman replied, “and repeated it.” Smiling, the president remarked: “If Stanton said I was a d——d fool, then I must be one, for he is nearly always right, and generally says what he means. I will step over and see him.”...[...]..”

‘Few war ministers have had such real personal affection and respect for their king or president as Mr. Stanton had for Mr. Lincoln,” a contemporary observed. Both had suffered great personal losses, and both were haunted all their days by thoughts of mortality and death. When Stanton was eighteen, a cholera epidemic had spread through the Midwest. Victims were buried as quickly as possible in an effort to contain the plague. Learning that a young friend had been buried within hours of falling ill, Stanton panicked, fearing that “she had been buried alive while in a faint.” He raced to the grave, where, with the help of a medical student friend, he exhumed her body to determine if she was truly dead. Contact with the body led to his own infection and near death from cholera. When his beloved wife, Mary, died ten years later, he insisted on including her wedding ring, valuable pieces of her jewelry, and some of his correspondence in her casket. He spent hours at her gravesite, and when he could not be there, he sent an employee to stand guard.
That Lincoln was also preoccupied with death is clear from the themes of many of his favorite poems that addressed the ephemeral nature of life and reflected his own painful acquaintance with death. He particularly cherished “Mortality,” by William Knox, and transcribed a copy for the Stantons.

Oh! Why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud,
A flash of lightning, a break of the wave,
He passeth from life to his rest in the grave.

He could recite from memory “The Last Leaf,” by Oliver Wendell Holmes, and once claimed to the painter Francis Carpenter that “for pure pathos” there was “nothing finer . . . in the English language” than the six-line stanza:

The mossy marbles rest
On lips that he has prest
In their bloom,
And the names he loved to hear Have been carved for many a year
On the tomb.

Yet, beyond sharing a romantic and philosophical preoccupation with death, the commander in chief and the secretary of war shared the harrowing knowledge that their choices resulted in sending hundreds of thousands of young men to their graves. Stanton’s Quaker background made the strain particularly unbearable. As a young man, he had written a passionate essay decrying society’s exaltation of war. “Why is it,” he asked, that military generals “are praised and honored instead of being punished as malefactors?” After all, the work of war is “the making of widows and orphans—the plundering of towns and villages—the exterminating & spoiling of all, making the earth a slaughterhouse.” Though governments might argue war’s necessity to achieve certain objectives, “how much better might they accomplish their ends by some other means? But if generals are useful so are butchers, and who will say that because a butcher is useful he should be honored?”
Three decades after writing this, Stanton found himself responsible for an army of more than 2 million men. “There could be no greater madness,” he reasoned, “than for a man to encounter what I do for anything less than motives that overleap time and look forward to eternity.” Lincoln, too, found the horrific scope of the burden hard to fathom. “Doesn’t it strike you as queer that I, who couldn’t cut the head off of a chicken, and who was sick at the sight of blood, should be cast into the middle of a great war, with blood flowing all about me?”
Like Stanton, the president tried to console himself that the Civil War, however terrible, represented a divine will at work in human affairs. The previous year, he had granted an audience to a group of Quakers, including Eliza Gurney. “If I had had my way,” he reportedly said during the meeting, “this war would never have been commenced; if I had been allowed my way this war would have been ended before this, but we find it still continues; and we must believe that He permits it for some wise purpose of his own, mysterious and unknown to us; and though with our limited understandings we may not be able to comprehend it, yet we cannot but believe, that He who made the world still governs it.”

Whew! What an education! My son and I read this tome over several weeks as a buddy read. (I listened to the 41 hours of unabridged audio.) We learned much about Lincoln and his leadership - but both felt that Goodwin included details we didn't need. Like a history course taught by a brilliant scholar who sometimes rambled on too much... yet the experience was well worth it!

5 Stars. This is well researched. I hope to do a review before this year ends.

I loved this book. Although it was a beast of a book, and could probably have been a lot shorter. I had not read a Lincoln biography before, so was firstly blown away by how he rose up from nothing, self-taught himself a college degree, and then somehow rode the middle line and got himself elected President. Nobody seemed to have expected that, nor expected much from him, and he continued to surprise them all.

I am always curious about the motivations of successful people. In Lincolns case, he just literally seemed to want to have the respect of his peers, and of the American people. “Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition,” he wrote. “I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.”

Lincoln's tactic to make his enemies his cabinet was also interesting and ultimately brilliant. Especially because he was so unknown, but also because they were the strongest options, and would be hard for him to manage. The confidence he had was impressive. Lincoln constantly showed this higher level of trust in people that many wouldn't have given because it didn't make themselves look good. Hiring people who are smarter than you, and giving them credit when things go right, is very hard to do.

But Lincoln could afford to trust his people and even hire people like Chase, who was on his staff yet coveted his job, because he was a masterful tactician. He seemed to have a knack for how to position things to the public at the right times to achieve the right outcomes. The main example of this is of course holding back the proclamation of emancipation so the border states didn't slip into the war on the side of south - but there were many more examples.

One thing that surprised me was how lax access to the white house and president were back then. You could literally just walk into the White House and get in line to see the President. And he seemed to only have one security guard - who happened to be "off-duty" the night he was killed.

I think Lincolns main strength was his empathy. He spent a lot of time trying to understand the people of different states, and putting himself in their shoes and imagining how they felt given what they knew about the situation. A tough, tough thing to do as his whole presidency was during a civil war during which over 600,000 soldiers died. I can't imagine having that on your conscience and trying to internalize that. But a very valuable skill to have as a leader.

"Lincoln had internalized the pain of those around him—the wounded soldiers, the captured prisoners, the defeated Southerners. Little wonder that he was overwhelmed at times by a profound sadness that even his own resilient temperament could not dispel."

n  n
According to Oxford Dictionary: Team=Two or more people working together and Rival=A person or thing competing with another for the same objective or for superiority in the same field of activity.
So this oxymoron title caught my attention when I was in the final semester of my college. I bought this book out of whim with slight consideration what is written inside because I am one of those people who are crazy in love with Great Honest Abe.
Having said that let me come to the commentary on the book what can I say about a book written on the as vast a subject as civil war,slavery, abolition and quest for integrity of greatest nation on Earth!
The book "Team of Rivals" as the title suggests is the story of uneasy alliance of brilliant minds of era forged by the greatest leader of the time. Story begins with the earlier struggles of abolitionists and pro slavery legislators to maintain their position at that time Seward was the apple of eye for the abolitionists and his fiery speeches roused the spirits of the camp, at that time lawyers like Stanton and Lincoln were not that significant in politics and could not imagine at the time their subsequent rise in the ranks of government. A western backwoodsman and rail splitter and prairie lawyer who seemed to enjoy his country side stories more than intricacies of the politics of capital was abruptly convinced and nominated as candidate for presidency; at that time the ambitions of then to-be president Seward were destroyed when he came to know that an obscure Prairie Layers has been nominated as the candidate for presidency by newly formed republican party instead of him(most likely).Also another ambitious man Salmon chase could not find support to be candidate from his own state Ohio which if am not mistaken is considered the state which decides president for every election.
When Lincoln assumed presidency country plunged into war with seceding southern Confederacy, this entire book is dedicated to the saga of managing country during the testing times some historians think that Lincoln was the god sent man for American union I also hold the opinion as in my view there was no any man as astute in running the affairs as Lincoln and as magnanimous as him to allow his crucial cabinet position to his bitter rivals like, Chase and Stanton. In the end chase was to be the one lasting villain with his never ending ambition for presidency and i am equally startled to know he never got much respect outside the sphere of Lincoln by himself as he was regularly snubbed for the candidacy long after the death of Lincoln.
This book is definitely worth reading not only for the purpose of understanding history, politics and government of the era but also for the sake of a lesson in management. I think modern leaders belonging to any region can get valuable lessons reading this book and gaining immense insight on what it means to be statesman and how to manage in crisis situations.
Coming towards some characters in the book, throughout the book Kate Chase appears to be the most charming and sought after lady in the book in her peak years she was the center of attention but when I am finishing the book I have found that her last years were pure testing times as she cheated her husband and due to alleged affair she ultimately divorced her husband and lived her last years in abject poverty Alas! this reminds me Bob Dylan song Like a Rolling Stone. Secretary Seward(Abraham Lincoln lovingly called him Governor) was one of the most faithful member of cabinet and he was intellectually most towering personality among cabinet members due to his unfortunate accident during the last days of Lincoln which made him bedridden for many days he could not celebrate the success of Union victory or could see and mourn his best friend death this made me cry! this whole drama perhaps has shadowed the greatness of a lady who inspired me in the book was Frances Seward a lady of love of Great Seward she was the architect behind her husband's firm views against slavery and she served as ideological guide to cement the support for the cause today African Americans should pay tribute to this great lady for her unwavering support for the cause of their liberty. Her demise and immediate death of daughter Fanny was perhaps most tragic events following the death of his beloved leader, Seward has another feather in his crown he purchase Alaska for US too as mentioned in book. In my opinion after Lincoln, the true heir and ablest man in US at that time was Seward he should have been the US president but fate gave Johnson to American people. Stanton as always was to be the most stiff of the persons in the cabinet he could not get along with Johnson. Welles continued to be loyal to next president. At the conclusion of my review i would like to mention the most important person in the life of Honest Abe, his love and wife Marry, It strikes me she was a bit out of mind always, my this proposition is supported by argument that his own son admitted her in mental hospital. Mary was westerner and not suitable for high life of Washington but she managed nonetheless good time at capital,Finally i would say Lincoln was a center of gravity of government who held many distinct elements like capricious, ambitious and intriguing Chase, always skeptical and gruff Stanton, suspicious and indecisive Welles and intellectual and gregarious Seward all of them were in one way or other rivals but this great man turned them into team and rallied their strength for the cause of Union. If history do not exhaust to count the great achievements of Honest Abe in Managing country, Abolition of slavery,Emancipation Proclamation, Magnanimous behavior to enemies one last thing to credit Lincoln is his befriending his enemies and thus destroying them.

Thoroughly researched but incredibly dry. There are too many characters and a deluge of unnecessary details included in this book which makes it drudgery to read. Nonfiction can still be entertaining and this is not. It is the first book I’ve read by Doris Kearns Goodwin and I don’t know if there will be a second.