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Title: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Genre: History (American Civil War)
Thingummies: 5
Synopsis: A history of Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet, including a bit of biography of the members and Lincoln himself.
Thoughts: This is history writing near its best, I think. The politics, both within the cabinet itself and throughout the country as a whole, are incredibly complex and in some cases, still controversial. Following the events requires a fairly detailed knowledge of the history of abolition and the Civil War itself. There are hundreds of people involved, including multiple families, so there’s a lot of overlapping of both first and last names. Everyone thinks they already know much of the story, and everyone already has their opinions on it. And we all know how it ends. But Goodwin manages to explain, distill, and illustrate her story well enough to make events and people clear, balance multiple viewpoints, and still keep the entire thing on a human scale that makes the events suspenseful and fascinating.
She starts her narrative at the convention at which Lincoln was nominated as a presidential candidate, then loops back to explain the personal histories of each of the potential candidates, all of whom Lincoln appointed to his cabinet after election. She then follows through the election and its impact, and then Lincoln’s full, brilliant, tragic presidency.
Like a good history should, this book helped connect disparate events and made various timelines suddenly make sense to me. (For example, you have a rather tragic foreshadowing of Johnson’s later troubles when he shows up drunk and incoherent to his own inauguration.) It left me with a sad wish to know how different Reconstruction would have been, and how different we would have been, if Lincoln had survived his full second term. And it makes me desperately curious to read biographies of some of our recent presidents, written at least 50 years from now when we have a better idea of what their legacies actually were. (That will have to wait, I’m afraid.)
My one reservation is the near-worship she shows Lincoln (and to a lesser extent, Seward). He was, without a doubt, a brilliant, great-hearted man. But she gives evidence that nearly every “mistake” he made actually turned out to be the right decision in the end. It’s convincing evidence, to be sure. One of the big criticisms of Lincoln was his tendency to move at a glacial pace on some issues that she insists was necessary to get public opinion to catch up enough to accept tough calls like emancipation; perhaps she is right, but I think she may have gone overboard. Likewise, his keeping Chase in the cabinet despite the Secretary’s repeated betrayals is portrayed as wisdom and great patience, when it starts to look a little insanely saintly. I will admit, I’m no Lincoln expert. I’m just a little skeptical that anyone is as wise as she says.
So perhaps a small grain of salt is necessary. But then, at least a small grain of salt is necessary with any nonfiction—everyone has a spin, and multiple points of view are always necessary to get the clearest view. This is an exhaustive, yet still entertaining, excellent point of view to consider.
Author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Genre: History (American Civil War)
Thingummies: 5
Synopsis: A history of Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet, including a bit of biography of the members and Lincoln himself.
Thoughts: This is history writing near its best, I think. The politics, both within the cabinet itself and throughout the country as a whole, are incredibly complex and in some cases, still controversial. Following the events requires a fairly detailed knowledge of the history of abolition and the Civil War itself. There are hundreds of people involved, including multiple families, so there’s a lot of overlapping of both first and last names. Everyone thinks they already know much of the story, and everyone already has their opinions on it. And we all know how it ends. But Goodwin manages to explain, distill, and illustrate her story well enough to make events and people clear, balance multiple viewpoints, and still keep the entire thing on a human scale that makes the events suspenseful and fascinating.
She starts her narrative at the convention at which Lincoln was nominated as a presidential candidate, then loops back to explain the personal histories of each of the potential candidates, all of whom Lincoln appointed to his cabinet after election. She then follows through the election and its impact, and then Lincoln’s full, brilliant, tragic presidency.
Like a good history should, this book helped connect disparate events and made various timelines suddenly make sense to me. (For example, you have a rather tragic foreshadowing of Johnson’s later troubles when he shows up drunk and incoherent to his own inauguration.) It left me with a sad wish to know how different Reconstruction would have been, and how different we would have been, if Lincoln had survived his full second term. And it makes me desperately curious to read biographies of some of our recent presidents, written at least 50 years from now when we have a better idea of what their legacies actually were. (That will have to wait, I’m afraid.)
My one reservation is the near-worship she shows Lincoln (and to a lesser extent, Seward). He was, without a doubt, a brilliant, great-hearted man. But she gives evidence that nearly every “mistake” he made actually turned out to be the right decision in the end. It’s convincing evidence, to be sure. One of the big criticisms of Lincoln was his tendency to move at a glacial pace on some issues that she insists was necessary to get public opinion to catch up enough to accept tough calls like emancipation; perhaps she is right, but I think she may have gone overboard. Likewise, his keeping Chase in the cabinet despite the Secretary’s repeated betrayals is portrayed as wisdom and great patience, when it starts to look a little insanely saintly. I will admit, I’m no Lincoln expert. I’m just a little skeptical that anyone is as wise as she says.
So perhaps a small grain of salt is necessary. But then, at least a small grain of salt is necessary with any nonfiction—everyone has a spin, and multiple points of view are always necessary to get the clearest view. This is an exhaustive, yet still entertaining, excellent point of view to consider.
