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| Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln | 
 enlarge | Author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $21.00
Buy New: $11.55
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Avg. Customer Rating:  376 reviews
Sales Rank: 14
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 944
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.6
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 2.1
ISBN: 0743270754
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.7092
EAN: 9780743270755
ASIN: 0743270754
Publication Date: September 26, 2006
Availability: Pre-Order (0-0 Business Days)
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| Customer Reviews:
 Another Politcal Study Of Our Civil War President October 28, 2005
28 out of 35 found this review helpful
This is a banner year for presidential biographies : two of Theodore Roosevelt's retirement years ("The River of Doubt" by Candice Millard and "When Trumpets Call" by Patricia O'Toole), one of Andrew Jackson ("His Life and Times" by H.W. Brands) plus Joshua Shenk's study of depression in our 16th President ("Lincoln's Melancholy"). Now Doris Goodwin leaps back a century from her Kennedy and Johnson books with a view of the politics of the Civil War.
Though it is a long narrative (it is over 900+ with the footnotes), she is less interested in his role as commander-in-chief and more interested in Lincoln the master politician in a nation torn apart by seccession and slavery. His decision to keep his friends close and his political enemies closer by putting his rivals in his Cabinet was a crucial move in coopting his Republican rivals and keeping the party firmly in his control. Ms. Goodwin is a master storyteller, an excellent researcher who knows what to omit and her narrative is fun to read on a cold winter's night.
Well done!! November 5, 2005
28 out of 33 found this review helpful
More words have been written about Abraham Lincoln than about any other figure in the history of the world with the exception of Jesus. One reason for this is that Lincoln is the best story in American history and deserves the efforts of so many historians and writers. He rose from nothing through his own talent and efforts, gave all he had to his country, and was stuck down by an assassin. Now Doris Kearns Goodwin has thrown her hat into the Lincoln arena. It has taken the author about ten years to write this monumental study of Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet. The focus in the book on the president's relationships with rivals-turned-colleagues makes for a somewhat trying start as the first quarter of the book cuts back and forth between Lincoln's life and the lives of William Seward, Salmon Chase and Edward Bates, the three men who vied with Lincoln for the presidential nomination in 1860. By placing these men in key cabinet positions, Lincoln, rose above emotional and personal grievances while still retaining complete control of administrative decisions at the height of the Civil War. His relationship with Edwin Stanton also highlights how Lincoln could rise above petty sleights for the betterment of the country. Goodwin is such a good writer that even this sluggish beginning is interesting and makes for good reading. Overall, the book illustrates just how difficult a job Lincoln had and exactly why he is widely considered our best president.
Just Brilliant! December 6, 2005
24 out of 28 found this review helpful
Doris Kearns Goodwin has the unique ability to get inside her subjects and make her subjects come alive. I thought she could never top her work on No Ordinary Time but with Team of Rivals I believe she has.
I've read quite a number of biographies on Lincoln. Some of them quite excellent. But I've never read any that showed the entire landscape of Lincoln's life more vividly and with more understanding then what she has done. Sometimes biographies seem like a bunch of facts strung together. By letting us get to know Seward, Chase, and Bates as she has allows for the reader to have a much greater understanding of the times and challenges Lincoln faced. It also allows for a greater understanding of how truly amazing a human being he was.
His life saw many dark times. He wasn't perfect. The forces that he had to deal with would have compromised most men or women. The pressures were that intense. But he was a brilliant man who had the unique ability to understand other human beings. He also had the unique ability to understand the political forces he was dealing with. But most of all he was a caring human being and it was his understanding of and compassion for people that made him the great person that he was. No book better brings this out then this one.
This book is unique. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Lincoln or just in the complexities that make human beings what they are. Thank you Doris Kearns Goodwin for writing it.
 You MUST be kidding! November 28, 2005
22 out of 207 found this review helpful
This is simply another white wash from the Lincoln cultists of the most despicable man to ever be President. In her typical fashion Goodwin once again ignores the truth, as she has in all of her previous books, and elevates a tyrant to god-like levels. This has become her method of operation that now serves to produce nothing more than propaganda. I found this book to be nothing more than a "How to be a Dictator" manual. Goodwin should be ashamed of herself for attempting to beatify America's first emperor! Why anyone would admire the man who destroyed our republic is beyond me!
 Unfortunately, this book is very poorly written May 22, 2006
22 out of 57 found this review helpful
The book suffers from two flaws that in my opinion are ultimately fatal.
1.) The writing suffers from the over-use of indefinite pronouns. Before the end of the second chapter, you will be annoyed by the number of sentences which are impenetrable because there are three or four actors ... all of whom are referred to in the sentence as "he". Which he did what is left as an exercise to the reader.
2.) Equally unfortunately, some of the most important developments in Lincoln's thinking are presented as fact but inadequately defended or not defended at all. It becomes unclear whether Lincoln's ultimate motivation was, for instance, to free slaves or to create a place for himself in history.
The first failure is merely annoying; the second effort dooms the book. By the end of the book, I was convinced that the only difference between Lincoln and Bush II was that Lincoln had picked a cause that he could actually win.
This book was for me ultimately depressing, and more so because I had to work so hard to understand it. Here's an easy example I picked simply by opening the book and reading until I found one. I opened to late on page 567, and in the first full paragraph of page 568, the last two sentences are as follows (actors in the first part of the paragraph are Bates, Gamble, and Chase.)
"Gamble replied that Bates should hardly be shocked by Chase's willingness to entertain "these persons," for "Mr. Chase is the author of our troubles here." His "criminal ambition" for the presidency had led him to incite the struggle, and he would undoubtedly have the support of every radical paper in the state if he were to decide to run against Lincoln"
To understand the book you have to determine who the "he" is here (if, as appears to be the case in this instance, "he" only refers to one person, which is rarely the case in the book) and whether or not the statement "undoubtedly have the support of every radical paper in the state" is:
1.) the opinion of Gamble
2.) supported by other facts
3.) referring to a specific state, and if so what state
The author wasn't quoting Gamble, so why not just insert the name of the state? Gah! And this was an easy example.
Perhaps I am overburdening the author with a need to write clearly. But unclear writing often follows from unclear thinking. Therefore the writing undermines the credibility of the book ... especially since the writing is supposed to be showing the state of Lincoln's mind, and Lincoln had an unusual ability to show his thinking in clear, concise speeches.
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