Team of Rivals

Hardcover, 1279 pages

English language

Published Nov. 19, 2013 by Thorndike Press.

ISBN:
978-1-4104-5790-5
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OCLC Number:
1125821494

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4 stars (4 reviews)

On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln wait- ed in their hometowns for the results from the Re- publican National Convention. Lincoln emerged as the victor, Goodwin demonstrates, because he possessed an extraordinary ability to put himself in the place of other men. It was this same capacity that enabled Lincoln as president to bring his dis- gruntled opponents together, create the most un- usual cabinet in history, and marshal their talents to the task of preserving the union and winning the war. --back cover

13 editions

Review of 'Team of Rivals' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars


As a friend of mine remarked on hearing that I was reading Doris Kearns Goodwins' Team of Rivals, "Goodwin had a good subject." This account does its subject justice. It conveys the emotional power of its great subject while persuasively delineating the qualities that forged an obscure Illinois lawyer into the greatest commander and statesman in the history of the United States. While some have suggested that Team of Rivals is primarily about political compromise, it is really about one man's ability to rise above political compromise — the squabbling of his cabinet members and the factionalism of the Republican Party — to forge an unprecedented war machine, crush the rebellion, and eradicate the greatest institutional evil in American history, Remarkably, he accomplished this in the service not of subverting but of successfully preserving America's system of democratic government (a lesson subsequent leaders might take to heart). Ultimately, it is …