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Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln |  | Author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
List Price: $21.00
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Rating:  496 reviews
Sales Rank: 931
Media: Paperback
Pages: 944
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.7
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.8
ISBN: 0743270754
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.7092
EAN: 9780743270755
ASIN: 0743270754
Publication Date: September 26, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
The life and times of Abraham Lincoln have been analyzed and dissected in countless books. Do we need another Lincoln biography? In Team of Rivals, esteemed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin proves that we do. Though she can't help but cover some familiar territory, her perspective is focused enough to offer fresh insights into Lincoln's leadership style and his deep understanding of human behavior and motivation. Goodwin makes the case for Lincoln's political genius by examining his relationships with three men he selected for his cabinet, all of whom were opponents for the Republican nomination in 1860: William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, and Edward Bates. These men, all accomplished, nationally known, and presidential, originally disdained Lincoln for his backwoods upbringing and lack of experience, and were shocked and humiliated at losing to this relatively obscure Illinois lawyer. Yet Lincoln not only convinced them to join his administration--Seward as secretary of state, Chase as secretary of the treasury, and Bates as attorney general--he ultimately gained their admiration and respect as well. How he soothed egos, turned rivals into allies, and dealt with many challenges to his leadership, all for the sake of the greater good, is largely what Goodwin's fine book is about. Had he not possessed the wisdom and confidence to select and work with the best people, she argues, he could not have led the nation through one of its darkest periods. Ten years in the making, this engaging work reveals why "Lincoln's road to success was longer, more tortuous, and far less likely" than the other men, and why, when opportunity beckoned, Lincoln was "the best prepared to answer the call." This multiple biography further provides valuable background and insights into the contributions and talents of Seward, Chase, and Bates. Lincoln may have been "the indispensable ingredient of the Civil War," but these three men were invaluable to Lincoln and they played key roles in keeping the nation intact. --Shawn Carkonen The Team of Rivals | Team of Rivals doesn't just tell the story of Abraham Lincoln. It is a multiple biography of the entire team of personal and political competitors that he put together to lead the country through its greatest crisis. Here, Doris Kearns Goodwin profiles five of the key players in her book, four of whom contended for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination and all of whom later worked together in Lincoln's cabinet. |  | 1. Edwin M. Stanton
Stanton treated Lincoln with utter contempt at their initial acquaintance when the two men were involved in a celebrated law case in the summer of 1855. Unimaginable as it might seem after Stanton's demeaning behavior, Lincoln offered him "the most powerful civilian post within his gift"--the post of secretary of war--at their next encounter six years later. On his first day in office as Simon Cameron's replacement, the energetic, hardworking Stanton instituted "an entirely new regime" in the War Department. After nearly a year of disappointment with Cameron, Lincoln had found in Stanton the leader the War Department desperately needed. Lincoln's choice of Stanton revealed his singular ability to transcend personal vendetta, humiliation, or bitterness. As for Stanton, despite his initial contempt for the man he once described as a "long armed Ape," he not only accepted the offer but came to respect and love Lincoln more than any person outside of his immediate family. He was beside himself with grief for weeks after the president's death. 2. Salmon P. Chase
Chase, an Ohioan, had been both senator and governor, had played a central role in the formation of the national Republican Party, and had shown an unflagging commitment to the cause of the black man. No individual felt he deserved the presidency as a natural result of his past contributions more than Chase himself, but he refused to engage in the practical methods by which nominations are won. He had virtually no campaign and he failed to conciliate his many enemies in Ohio itself. As a result, he alone among the candidates came to the convention without the united support of his own state. Chase never ceased to underestimate Lincoln, nor to resent the fact that he had lost the presidency to a man he considered his inferior. His frustration with his position as secretary of the treasury was alleviated only by his his dogged hope that he, rather than Lincoln, would be the Republican nominee in 1864, and he steadfastly worked to that end. The president put up with Chase's machinations and haughty yet fundamentally insecure nature because he recognized his superlative accomplishments at treasury. Eventually, however, Chase threatened to split the Republican Party by continuing to fill key positions with partisans who supported his presidential hopes. When Lincoln stepped in, Chase tendered his resignation as he had three times before, but this time Lincoln stunned Chase by calling his bluff and accepting the offer. 3. Abraham Lincoln
When Lincoln won the Republican presidential nomination in 1860 he seemed to have come from nowhere--a backwoods lawyer who had served one undistinguished term in the House of Representatives and lost two consecutive contests for the U.S. Senate. Contemporaries attributed his surprising nomination to chance, to his moderate position on slavery, and to the fact that he hailed from the battleground state of Illinois. But Lincoln's triumph, particularly when viewed against the efforts of his rivals, owed much to a remarkable, unsuspected political acuity and an emotional strength forged in the crucible of hardship and defeat. That Lincoln, after winning the presidency, made the unprecedented decision to incorporate his eminent rivals into his political family, the cabinet, was evidence of an uncanny self-confidence and an indication of what would prove to others a most unexpected greatness. 4. William H. Seward
A celebrated senator from New York for more than a decade and governor of his state for two terms before going to Washington, Seward was certain he was going to receive his party's nomination for president in 1860. The weekend before the convention in Chicago opened he had already composed a first draft of the valedictory speech he expected to make to the Senate, assuming that he would resign his position as soon as the decision in Chicago was made. His mortification at not having received the nomination never fully abated, and when he was offered his cabinet post as secretary of state he intended to have a major role in choosing the remaining cabinet members, conferring upon himself a position in the new government more commanding than that of Lincoln himself. He quickly realized the futility of his plan to relegate the president to a figurehead role. Though the feisty New Yorker would continue to debate numerous issues with Lincoln in the years ahead, exactly as Lincoln had hoped and needed him to do, Seward would become his closest friend, advisor, and ally in the administration. More than any other cabinet member Seward appreciated Lincoln's peerless skill in balancing factions both within his administration and in the country at large. 5. Edward Bates
A widely respected elder statesman, a delegate to the convention that framed the Missouri Constitution, and a former Missouri congressman whose opinions on national matters were still widely sought, Bates's ambitions for political success were gradually displaced by love for his wife and large family, and he withdrew from public life in the late 1840s. For the next 20 years he was asked repeatedly to run or once again accept high government posts but he consistently declined. However in early 1860, with letters and newspaper editorials advocating his candidacy crowding in upon him, he decided to try for the highest office in the land. After losing to Lincoln he vowed, in his diary, to decline a cabinet position if one were to be offered, but with the country "in trouble and danger" he felt it was his duty to accept when Lincoln asked him to be attorney general. Though Bates initially viewed Lincoln as a well-meaning but incompetent administrator, he eventually concluded that the president was an unmatched leader, "very near being a 'perfect man.'" | The Essential Doris Kearns Goodwin 
Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir | 
No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II | 
Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream | More New Reading on the Civil War 
Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness by Joshua Wolf Shenk | 
Grant and Sherman: The Friendship That Won the Civil War by Charles Bracelen Flood | 
The March: A Novel by E.L. Doctorow |
Product Description
This brilliant multiple biography is centered on Lincoln's mastery of men and how it shaped the most significant presidency in the nation's history.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 496
 A great read November 13, 2009
K. Collier (Nacogdoches, Texas)
Plenty of people have reviewed this book. Let me just add a couple of reasons why you might enjoy this book:
(1) Through the way it approaches Lincoln's presidency the book provides insights into the US at the time as well as Lincoln's leadership style. So many interesting issues intersect in this book that you end up learning about everything from military tactics to the broad issues of slavery. In addition, Lincoln's days were filled with the great struggle to hold a nation together as well as more personal struggles as he dealt with the loss of his son. As a subject, the Lincoln presidency is hard to beat and this account is hard to beat.
(2) It's a very readable (but long) account of a tremendously important historical figure. I've read a lot of good books on various presidents and this one gave me one of the best views of any single book I've read. Theodore Rex (by Edmund Morris) and John Adams (David McCullough) are the only other volumes I can think of that provided such rich insights and were so enjoyable to read.
People can quibble over the details and a few southern apologists will reject any positive Lincoln biography. However, Team of Rivals is one of best books of its type and should be near the top of any reading list on US history.
Team of Rivals, President Lincoln's greatness shines forth! November 1, 2009
Robert Goldman (Portland, ME)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Abraham Lincoln was perhaps the greatest man who has ever graced the United States of America. When America needed a great and wise man most, during our terrible civil war, President Lincoln was there to see us through. His down to earth honesty, tremendous wisdom, generous humanity, wonderful humor, personal tragedies and struggles and always tender heart are here revealed in a most thorough and captivating way. Doris Kearns Goodwin is a national treasure herself. She has once again illuminated a major part of the American story, with intelligence, clarity and smooth as silk writing. Living was tough in the 19th century. Illness and early death were part of many families lives. Lincoln and almost every member of his administration faced terrible heart ache and losses that seemed too much to bear. To read how many of them grew to love and respect each other and rely on each other was very touching and real. And then there were the schemers and manipulators that Lincoln gave every chance for redemption and change. Failing generals and ineffective or jealous key administration officials were given many second chances (too many for some of them!) by the understanding, patient and magnanimous Mr. Lincoln. Alas, no one was as big a man as Abraham Lincoln and as we learn in this book of the greater and lesser people who surrounded our sixteenth president, the greater Lincoln becomes before our eyes and before history. Thank you Doris and may you forever rest in peace, Abraham Lincoln, a most magnificent human being and our greatest president.
Incredibly detailed and incredibly real October 5, 2009
Atheen M. Wilson (Mpls, MN United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Team of Rivals is a fantastic book. Although by training I am an ancient historian, I have recently taken an interest in the American Civil War era and its effects on the postwar society of the time. A friend from the OR was reading it and recommended it, so I purchased it. It took a while for the book to emerge from the pile of books by my bed, but I finally read it. It was so fascinating I completed it in about 3 days, all 757 pages.
While I have read books on the Civil War and on Lincoln before, I find that many of them come to see the assassination of Lincoln as the central drama played out against the backdrop of the war. While much is made of the man, especially at his end, less is made of him as a politician and a person placed at the crossroads of history. He is more myth than man in these accounts. The focus on every detail of his last hours and upon his assassins motives and ends reflects more on the modern fascination with death and murder in all its vivid detail than on history and those that made it.
Writer Doris Goodwin's (PhD in Government) book is a marvelous look at Lincoln as a political force. She discusses his remarkable growth as a young man, his law practice and political aspirations. More than any other writer on Lincoln, Dr. Goodwin presents the man as a person of intelligence, incredible ambition, and a sense of his own place in history. His desire to be worthy of remembrance by doing something remarkable for mankind marks him as a man of note, even before Lincoln the president takes the stage.
In order to place Lincoln in context, the author discusses his rivals and their political development and personal history along with those of Lincoln himself. If I had read the book for no other reason, this would still have made it more worthwhile than any other. She has pulled so many primary sources together that each man, and even those who supported him, becomes a vivid personality in the mind of the reader. In fact, I knew so little previously about any of them beyond their names, they had hardly entered into my concept of the Civil War era. I had heard some of their names in other contexts, specifically Seward as the purchaser of Alaska--"Seward's Folly" as it was labeled at the time--but nothing much else. Dr. Goodwin's biographical sketch of each made me realize how narrowly the country came to having had some other politician at the helm at this point in time. Each had so much to recommend him for the presidency and such history of political contributions in their past that I realize now how totally extraordinary Lincoln`s election really was.
Only by a delft handling of political situations by a master strategist, which he apparently was, could have placed Lincoln in the right place at the right time to be nominated, and only his genius for recognizing his rivals potential and making use of it got him elected. While the image of "Lincoln the story teller, rail splitter and simple prairie lawyer" that we received in grade school is real, so too is the "Lincoln the skillful and ambitious politician." And we have much to be thankful for this. I feel somehow that the experience of the enormity of the Civil War would have felled most of his rivals long before its end with dire consequences to the country. So far as I can conceive, no other candidate could have withstood the enormous pressures of the presidency at this time except Lincoln, whose unique personal characteristics, particularly his astute assessment of the average person, of his rivals as politicians, and his unbelievable patience could have done the job. That he was assassinated when it was finally done seems almost providential. In observing his actual physical decline in successive photographs through his occupation of the White House, one wonders if he would have survived long after the war anyway. Stress takes its toll. Certainly if he had Marfan's Syndrome, as some believe, his days were probably numbered from birth. One of my own patients died of it at 35, as had his father and one brother before him, and Lincoln was nearly 54 when he died, which is really pushing it.
More than any other book, this one discusses the Civil War as a defining event with roots. The basis of the confrontation was in the struggle to prevent the spread of slavery (Northern) or to promote it (Southern) and in the Great Paradox: that the first democracy in the world was also one of the only western nations to espouse slavery as a viable and acceptable economic foundation for a society. The founding fathers had understood this at the beginning of the nation. Jefferson, who struggled with it as he wrote the constitution, also feared that challenging it would lead to early division of the nascent country, leaving each state to be snapped up by overseas powers. He and the other patriots of his time consciously left it to a later generation to deal with, and understood both that it would ultimately have to do so and that it would be a blood bath when that finally happened. That it took 16 presidencies before push finally came to shove is a sign of the compromises to which people were willing to resort to avoid dealing with it. It also shows how well everyone at the time understood to what it would lead.
Interesting too is the author's presentation of the various generals on both sides. She gives a short biography of each and makes it clear to what extent the entire war was a political stage. No general, north or south--with the possible exception of Lee, who didn't approve of the war in the first place--would risk defeat in the field--indeed Lincoln's main problem during the first years of it was his various general's inactivity. While winning a battle might make a hero of a man, defeat would certainly render his political ambitions for presidency null, and few were willing to risk it. This kept armies of men in the field. Almost as many men if not more were lost to the conditions of the camp as were lost to combat fatality. Dysentery, malnutrition, and exposure was rampant on both sides of the conflict, thus prolonging the war by avoiding the conflict actually lost more men.
While there is no formal bibliography, the author has given copious notes for each chapter with citations which will give the interested reader sources for further investigation on a variety of subtopics. Certainly anyone looking to do a term paper will find this a wonderful source of ideas for topics and resources.
For THOSE WRITING PAPERS in: history of the Civil War; Civil War politics; Civil War period culture; individual personalities of the period; women's studies, etc.:
TO WHAT extent was the election of Lincoln due to his own political abilities or to the efforts of others? What characteristics of his cabinet members played key roles during the conflict between the states, and do you think that much would have changed if they had not played the part they did; defend your answer? Do you think that slavery would have died on its own had the Civil War not occurred as it did; defend your position. What part did women play in politics during this period; give examples and discuss them to defend your position. To what extent did Mary Lincoln help or hinder her husband in his search for office and during his presidency. What part did the death of Willie Lincoln play in the drama of the civil war? What part did Robert Lincoln play? What happened to Lincoln's cabinet members after the war and how did this shape the post-war politics? How did the return of Civil War veterans effect society? Compare and contrast the Civil War and other War Veteran's experiences, ie. WWI, WWII, Korean, Viet Nam, Persian Gulf, etc.
A truly complex and marvelous tale. I recommend it to anyone interested in this era.
What I expected September 30, 2009
D. Rivas (K town)
I give it five stars because I got exactly what I expected from the description of the book by the seller. I like that. When you get what you expect I believe that is worth 5 stars. My expectations are always high.
Team of Rivals Review September 30, 2009
D. Hazard (Providence, RI)
Even though I have not finished reading this book, so far it is what I expected from this author. Everything she writes is very good and easy to read. It is not just a list of facts, but a story behind the characters. You learn more than what you read in history books. Highly recommended.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 496
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