Team of Rivals

Recently added to GOOD READS page...

Team of Rivals
 
Genres: Non-fiction, History, American History

Doris Kearns Goodwin

Date read: October, 2014
 
Author: Doris Kearns Goodwin, b. January 4, 1943
 
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, New York (2005)
 
Awards: 2006 Lincoln Prize; Inaugural Book Prize for American History, New York Historical Society
 
Quote: We need the strongest men of the party in the Cabinet. We need to hold our own people together. I had looked the party over and concluded these were the very strongest men. Then I had no right to deprive the country of their services. ~ Abraham Lincoln
 
Opinion: Doris Kearns Goodwin's exploration of Lincoln's political savvy in our time of greatest national crisis won the awards noted above quite deservedly. In her book, she adheres tightly to her thesis and does not wander off into other circumstances or subjects related to the American Civil War. Does she succeed in making her case? That it was Lincoln's political brilliance that saved the Union? Her argument is compelling. As she polls Lincoln's cabinet members she adduces what seems millions of data points to support her. But is it evidence or anecdote?
 
 I am not a professional historian and cannot credibly review her scholarship. And I have heard no grumbling from her peers. Nevertheless, I am a critical reader, and I am not sure I am inclined to swallow her whole, without her servings being passed through a poison-tester first. The Union was saved. With that hindsight, isn't it easy, tempting to ascribe it to Lincoln's godlike wisdom? Maybe there was a lot of good luck involved too; not to mention the superior economic and military strength of the Union side. Or maybe she's right: things came out right because Lincoln was a political genius.

Her study is excellent and is certainly recommended reading. I give it four stars (I don't read bad books, and neither should you.)

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