Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

> Rather than upbraid slaveowners, Lincoln sought to comprehend their position through empathy. More than a decade earlier, he had employed a similar approach when he advised temperance advocates to refrain from denouncing drinkers in “thundering tones of anathema and denunciation,” for denunciation would inevitably be met with denunciation, “crimination with crimination, and anathema with anathema.” In a passage directed at abolitionists as well as temperance reformers, he had observed that it was the nature of man, when told that he should be “shunned and despised,” and condemned as the author “of all the vice and misery and crime in the land,” to “retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and his heart.” Though the cause be “naked truth itself, transformed to the heaviest lance, harder than steel,” the sanctimonious reformer could no more pierce the heart of the drinker or the slaveowner than “penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye straw. Such is man, and so must he be understood by those who would lead him.” In order to “win a man to your cause,” Lincoln explained, you must first reach his heart, “the great high road to his reason.”

> armies of scholars, meticulously investigating every aspect of his life, have failed to find a single act of racial bigotry on his part. Even more telling is the observation of Frederick Douglass, who would become a frequent public critic of Lincoln’s during his presidency, that of all the men he had met, Lincoln was “the first great man that I talked with in the United States freely, who in no single instance reminded me of the difference between himself and myself, of the difference of color.”

> “Do not misunderstand the apparent inaction here,” McClellan wired Lincoln; “not a day, not an hour has been lost, works have been constructed that may almost be called gigantic—roads built through swamps & difficult ravines, material brought up, batteries built.” In another letter to his wife, he rationalized his continuing delay with the dubious contention that the more troops the enemy gathered in Yorktown, “the more decisive the results will be.”

> Chase’s strongest claim to beat Lincoln for the nomination in 1864 lay with the unswerving support he had earned among the growing circle of radical Republicans frustrated by Lincoln’s slowness on the slavery issue. The bold proclamation threatened to undercut Chase’s potential candidacy … [Seward] expressed his worry that the proclamation might provoke a racial war in the South so disruptive to cotton that the ruling classes in England and France would intervene to protect their economic interests. As secretary of state, Seward was particularly sensitive to the threat of European intervention

> A memorable story circulated that when a delegation brought further rumors of Grant’s drinking to the president, Lincoln declared that if he could find the brand of whiskey Grant used, he would promptly distribute it to the rest of his generals!

> He was beginning to think that it was time for a change in the cabinet, he began. “Why I started to go to ‘the front’ the other day, and when I got to City Point they told me it was at Hatcher’s Run, and when I got there I was told it was not there but somewhere else, and when I get back I am told by the Secretary that it is at Petersburg; but before I can realize that, I am told again that it is at Richmond, and west of that. Now I leave you to judge what I ought to think of such a Secretary of War as this.” ( )

This is where I have to admit that I know nothing about the Civil War, so some of the revelations in this book are probably old news. But it really never occurred to me that had Maryland seceded with the other Southern states, Washington DC would have been surrounded by enemy territory. And the fact that you could hear the cannons from Washington cast the whole conflict in a new light for me. ( )

Fascinating insights into Lincoln's cabinet ( )

Stellar work by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Each life is a tapestry full of individual interactions and tiny defining moments and she does her best to illustrate these, while at the same trying to capture and share visions of, not just one, but upwards of 15 or more personalities. The genius of it is that she can portray some that I disliked (such as Seward) and gradually unpack them into a more complex state. She makes you sympathize with gruff, unlikeable personalities (like Stanton). She tries to help the reader understanding the much-maligned Mary Todd Lincoln---though she can't quite manage it with Chase. And she also makes the man "of the ages" human.

The result was that I came away from the experience feeling like I'd glimpsed a slow, but candid, snapshot of what life, what that particular community, was like back then.

Finally, the ending is almost perfect(which is so hard to do). You can see Tolstoy, telling in the simple way that he does best, the tale of a simple man.

This video does a good job of pointing out Lincoln's relevance to today---or, at least, in my opinion, his greatest virtue.

This review definitely deserves to be at the top.

P.S. in this case, I believe, that the book far outranks the film(as good as it is). ( )

This is definitely a good book. My expectations were high - probably a little unfairly - due to Spielberg’s movie Lincoln, but the book certainly meets those expectations. However, I am giving it only a 4 star rating due to the length; I feel like the length is necessary for the subject, but it could have been broken down a lot better than it was. Other than that, I highly recommend this as a read. ( )