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 heard Goodwin talk about this book on NPR, and she sounded like she'd been an eyewitness to the events. Sold me the book.

On June 17th--I've been a hundred pages from the end for ten days. I don't want Abe to die.

July 17th -- Okay, I finally made myself finish. Abe's dead and I'm a wreck.

In this book Goodwin puts Abraham Lincoln in the context of his peers, many of whom ran against him for the first Republican nomination for president (remember they'd just invented that party) and one of whom, Stanton, had treated him with outright contempt in a law case years before. Seward accepted the job of Secretary of State thinking Lincoln would be his puppet, and Chase literally ran his second campaign for president out of the Department of the Treasury. Lincoln understood them all, tolerated them all, put them all to work for the nation that needed them so badly, and jollied, coaxed, cajoled and reasoned them all to victory. A reporter asked him how he could take all these vipers to his bosom and Lincoln replied that these were the best and most able men available and their country needed them, and that he wouldn't be doing his job if he didn't put them to work for it. There can't be anyone who has ever occupied the Oval Office more selfless than Abe.

This book is wonderfully written, accessible even to the most casual reader, full of humor and choler and kindness and vitriol, and wisdom. Goodwin has that ability known only to the best historians (David McCullough does, too) to pluck the exact quote necessary from the record to illuminate the scene she is describing, and make the transition from past to present seamless. Listen to Goodwin on Lincoln in his 1862 state of the union address (pp. 406-7):

...he closed his message with a graceful and irrefutable argument against the continuation of slavery in a democratic society, the very essence of which opened "the way to all," granted "hope to all," and advanced the "condition of all." In this "just, and generous, and prosperous system," he reasoned, "labor is prior to, and independent of, capital." Then, reflecting upon the vicissitudes of his own experience, Lincoln added: "The prudent, penniless beginner in the world, labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself; then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him." Clearly this upward mobility, the possibility of self-realization so central to the idea of America, was closed to the slave unless and until he became a free man.

The American Dream, articulated, in words guaranteed to be understood by everyone.

Impossible, after reading this book, not to wonder what our nation would look like had Lincoln survived his second term. Impossible not to grieve his loss.

When Rod Blagojevich was impeached and hauled off to prison, that made four of the previous seven Illinois governors to have done time. Countless representatives and aldermen have been locked up, too. Then there was my wife’s favorite: a former Secretary of State found after his death to have $800,000 stuffed in shoe boxes. Our reputation for corrupt politicians is, I dare say, unsurpassed. Fortunately, we here in the Land of Lincoln (as we call it on our license plates) have one historical figure capable of tipping the scales back towards respectability.

I’ve taken a real interest in Abe and his legacy in recent months (more on why in a minute). Of the books I’ve read, this one and David Herbert Donald’s Lincoln are my favorites. They both deserve credit for finding unique space within what is arguably the most densely populated expanse of American history. Goodwin focused on Lincoln’s clever leadership in bringing together a group of his former opponents, thinking them to be the most capable cabinet members at a very challenging time. We get thoroughly researched sketches of:

Edwin Stanton – a bitter rival contemptuous of Lincoln when they were both involved in a famous court case. He called Lincoln a long armed ape, but was subsequently recruited by a magnanimous Lincoln to be Secretary of War and grew to love the President.

Salmon Chase – one of the founders of the new Republican Party who felt he was owed the nomination that Lincoln ultimately won, later did laudable work as Lincoln’s Treasury Secretary.

William Seward – a senator and later governor of New York, was certain he was going to win the nomination in 1860. After Lincoln offered him the Secretary of State post, Seward figured on seizing power by essentially running his own government within the cabinet only to discover Lincoln’s skill at bringing different factions together. In Seward’s capacity as the anti-yes man, he became Lincoln’s best ally and friend.

Edward Bates – a senior presence within the party who was coaxed into running against Lincoln in the primaries. After losing that battle he reluctantly took the job as Attorney General for the good of the troubled nation. He initially thought of Lincoln as an incompetent bureaucrat, but ultimately concluded that he was “very near being a ‘perfect man.’”

Naturally, most of the spotlight fell on Lincoln himself. Goodwin showed us the tricky waters that led to the Emancipation Proclamation on 4/1/1863 – a Good Friday in every way – as well as other less famous but still important milestones that required a masterful helmsman. I give her ample credit for underscoring his sound judgment, his political savvy, his wry sense of humor, and his superabundant humanity.

So why my sudden interest in Lincoln? I thought you’d never ask. Aside from the fact that he is probably the most analyzed and lionized figure in American history, it looks like I have a personal connection as well. I was revisiting some genealogical research I’d started years ago, knowing that the internet now reveals more ties than those dusty tomes I used to find in libraries and court houses ever did. One of my ancestors, Joseph Hanks, had a sister named Lucy who I’d never bothered following up on before. Anyway, according to ancestry.com, she was the mother of an illegitimate daughter named Nancy who was, by all known accounts, Abe’s mother. It was one of those can-this-really-be-true moments. But I triple-checked every link and am as sure as anyone can be given existing records that Abe is my second cousin six times removed. I’d originally thought to look into a DNA test like the one they did to explain all those red-haired, brown-skinned kids running around Monticello, but then decided against it. I wouldn’t know who to contact, it would likely be expensive, and I’d rather just assume that it’s true.

Of course I realize this is a watered down relationship, and for all I know hundreds if not thousands of other people can make this same claim. I have to confess, though, that for a while I thought of myself differently. My gaunt face and hollow cheeks were no longer flaws, but indicative family traits. And though I haven’t tried to grow a beard in years, I’m certain if I did, it would be scraggly. I even looked for examples where I could count myself as a cut above in probity, eloquence and fair-mindedness.

Before I got to the point of imagining Daniel Day-Lewis playing me in a biopic of my soon-to-be famous life, I realized that I was still just me – a guy who needs to remember that humility is one of his few attractive traits. Besides, (this is the really weird part) I did more digging into my family roots and discovered that my great-great-grandmother, Cora Claudine Flickinger from Byhalia, Ohio had a sister named Lula Dell Flickinger who the internet shows was the grandmother of one Barbara Pierce Bush. That makes me a somewhat less diluted third cousin once removed of George W. Bush. Suffice it to say I now think of these genealogical ties as less meaningful. I lack the power and initiative to unshackle an oppressed segment of society, but then I don’t feel any compulsion to invade Iraq either.

So please understand I’m not obsessed by my connections, but today of all days, after reviewing this wonderful book, I feel enough of a kinship to quote my famous cousins. As Lincoln said, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Cousin Dubya modified the quote (for real) observing that, “You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on.”

Are any of you picturing Pinocchio in a jester’s hat right now, perhaps in place of a white Rubik’s cube? Any theories on why I feel compelled to do this? I’m curious myself. Am I dissatisfied with reality and need the artifice to spice things up? (No, I’m luckier than most and I know it.) Am I simply attempting to entertain? (Hmm… sounds a little too noble and generous – probably not.) Am I trying to switch the focus away from anything relevant to shine the light on me, myself and I? (That’s probably closest to the mark. Either that or I’ve got a genetic predisposition for n  disnhonesty.) If there’s any good that’s come of this, it’s that I’m now truly eager to read Team of Rivals.

Absolutely phenomenal. I don't think I've ever read a book that does such an astounding job of integrating thorough, detailed research with storytelling. This book is really long, but I found myself wishing it would just keep going, it was that good!

Goodwin does an amazing job of illustrating the lead-up to the Civil War, vividly portraying an impressively wide array of individuals, and incorporating primary sources to provide details that help readers situate themselves in the time and place. I came away knowing and loving Lincoln and Seward more than I already did. And learning so much more about the other cabinet members and high-profile figures from the Civil War era gave me a deep appreciation for the good things people try to do.

Reading this book was actually quite a spiritual experience for me as it enabled me to see so many details brought to life within a big-picture perspective. I really felt that God is in the details while reading this book. Highly recommend.

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin 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.

On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the Republican National Convention in Chicago. When Lincoln emerged as the victor, his rivals were dismayed and angry. Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each had energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and civil war. That Lincoln succeeded, Goodwin demonstrates, was the result of his extraordinary ability to put himself in the place of other men, to experience what they were feeling, to understand their motives and desires. It was this capacity that enabled Lincoln as president to bring his disgruntled opponents together, create the most unusual cabinet in history, and marshal their talents to the task of preserving the Union and winning the war. We view the long, horrifying struggle of the Civil War from the vantage point of the White House as Lincoln copes with incompetent generals, hostile congressmen, and his raucous cabinet. He overcomes these obstacles by winning the respect of his former competitors, and in the case of Seward, finds a loyal and crucial friend to have his back and to see him through. This brilliant biography is centered on Lincoln's mastery of men and how it shaped the most significant presidency in the nation's history.

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.

sorry, she's still plagiarizing. To any one who knows anything about writing, it should be obvious.... the abrupt changes of writing style for certain passages and descriptions that are obviously lifted, almost wholesale, from the books of others, with no in-text attribution. Saw this throughout and this is precisely what she was caught out on before.

If you're an author, you're acutely aware of the trangression. Some other author has put in all the sweat equity to do the research and to wordsmith the writing and someone just steals it to make themselves look smarter and more lucid. It's plain wrong. Its theft.

definition of plagiarism...

https://www.plagiarism.org/article/wh...

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.

I suspect I am now in love with Lincoln.

The book convincingly places him in the context of his peers and rivals for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination, then shows how he cannily and selflessly coaxed masterful performances out of each of these men as cabinet members during the civil war.

Once Goodwin gets to Lincoln's presidency, the book becomes more disciplined, treating major battles and even Booth's assassination conspiracy as peripheral. Rather, she focuses on Lincoln's steadfast leadership, his evolving positions on emancipation and reconstruction, and his singular combination of humor, empathy, melancholy, self-confidence and humbleness that sustained him during the war.

After reading the book, it is hard to conceive that such a great and good man ever lived, much less was elected to the presidency.

(Please forgive me resorting to a tired trick and leading off with a definition from the dictionary, but there is a point to it.)

pol-i-ti-cian

1: a person experienced in the art or science of government; especially : one actively engaged in conducting the business of a government

2A : a person engaged in party politics as a profession

2B: a person primarily interested in political office for selfish or other narrow usually short-sighted reasons

Americans these days seem to think that 2B is the only definition for the word, and even the first meaning is considered an insult because if you actually know how the government works, then you’re guilty by association. Hell, politicians now deny being politicians as they try to get reelected to political office while screaming about how all politicians suck. (Or the Tea Party just finds the angriest moron around to run.)

It’s weird that it’s become such a dirty word because one of the greatest Americans by almost any sane person’s standard was Abraham Lincoln. While the myth may be that he was just this humble log splitter and backwoods lawyer who bumbled into the White House during one of the country’s darkest hours and fortunately turned out to be the perfect leader for the time, the truth is that Abe was one super bad-ass politician in the sense of definitions #1 and #2A, but luckily 2B didn’t apply at all.

All American kids hear about Abe in school. We learn about the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address and the 13th Amendment, but they never really tell you how Abe managed to win a war that should have permanently split the country and end an evil institution that even the Founding Fathers had just left as some future generation’s problem.

Reading Team of Rivals gives you an understanding of how Lincoln accomplished this, and the simple answer is that he was a politician of uncanny skill. He had a great sense of timing as well as being empathetic enough to see the other side of any argument while never swaying once he had fully committed himself to a course of action he thought right or necessary. The thing that made him unique was the almost inhuman way he could put his own ego and anger aside to find ways to work with people he had every reason to distrust or even hate.

As this book details, Lincoln’s selection and handling of his own cabinet highlight what made him such a great president. He managed to convince some of the biggest power brokers and politicians of his day, many of whom he had beaten out for the presidency, to work for the common good as members of his administration. Even though this meant dealing with constant bickering and political intrigue, Lincoln still got outstanding achievements from all of them, and most of the men who once saw him as an overmatched fool eventually came to regard him as one of the smartest and most honorable men of the age.

Well researched and written in an entertaining style, this book also shows how little has changed in American politics. The tactics of the kind of people who would defend slavery and smear Lincoln seem familiar in many ways. They just used newspapers instead of a cable news channel and talk radio.

One odd thing: I started this after seeing the Spielberg movie, and I knew that only a small part of the book was actually about the passage of the 13th Amendment that the movie centers on. However, there’s not nearly as much as I thought there would be. It seems like only a few pages are spent on it, so it’s a little weird that the movie would cite it so heavily. On the other hand, the details of Lincoln's personality in here are all over Daniel Day-Lewis’s great performance.

Although there are two books squeezed between the covers this remains readable.

The first book is an account of the competition for the Republican candidacy and the beginning of the Lincoln administration. Here is a slightly different story about the developing USA, the changing, growing country and the kinds of political careers and ambitions available to men in it. There is a very serious heavyweight argument I felt lurking in the prose that never comes to the forefront and possible never developed in the author's mind about how one could become a political figure in early nineteenth-century America. Still we're told an entertaining tale about the backgrounds, rivalries and capers that led to Lincoln clinching the candidacy and then going on to win the presidency.

The story that we are then told of Lincoln eventually asserting his authority over his one time political rivalries is ok, but could have been extended to look at his dealing with his generals. The dynamic between Seward or McClellan and Lincoln strikes me as similar. The self-conscious expert looking to assert their authority relative to the titular Chief.

This issue of how a newcomer to a position manages to assert themselves and deals with competing authorities is a fairly basic problem, one which many readers will themselves have had experience of. Certainly a similar book could be written about most political administrations, but the concept of seeing Lincoln's first administration as a team of rivals is still interesting, although underdeveloped. The sources might not allow a thorough understanding of what happened but there has been a lot of work on teams, team building and leadership. I don't mean that I expected to see an analysis in terms of storming, norming and performing, but there are theoretical frameworks which Goodwin chose to ignore in favour of the cosier narrative format. Nor does she put Lincoln's experience of making himself into the president and asserting his authority in context - all the more surprising since the author has written about other US presidents. While this was the first republican administration the need to accommodate different groupings, power bases or ambitious personalities was hardly unique to Lincoln.

The idea however rather runs out of steam once his leadership is established during his first year in office. The author anyway continues the narrative to Lincoln's death. This is where the second book kicks in - it's just a biography of Lincoln with no particular new argument to make. It was no less entertaining to read, but wasn't relevant to the notion of a team of rivals.

This was my first and so far only Lincoln biography, despite it's bulk as a whole it is a nice, moderately fresh political account, cosy, lacking in ambition, unchallenging but thoroughly readable and entertaining. There's probably an essay already written on the subject of President Obama's references to wanting his cabinet to be a team of rivals  as fine a bit of advertising as any author could wish for, perhaps the best that can be said is that there is a charisma to high political office which the successful holder, if sufficiently capable, can use to their advantage to outmanoeuvre or win over potential rivals - irrespective of their presumed or actual power bases.

Abraham Lincoln held the northern states together in part by staffing his cabinet with party rivals. A remarkable study in leadership genius.