Team of Rivals

I had known little about Lincoln before reading this book, but Goodwins analysis of both him and his ‘team of rivals' has left such a profound impression upon me that I would now personally consider Licoln one of the greatest men to ever exist.

This man in Ted Lasso is in the flesh saving the great experiment of a people's democratic government. Pure class, no judgment, magnanimity against those who despised him, absolute forgiveness. Even going so far as to not only constantly take responsibility for the mistakes of a man in his cabinet who usurped him at every position for his own ambition, but to nominate his as chief justice to the supreme court after being betrayed by him due to his qualifications in spite of their personal relationship.

If everyone could be 10% more like lincoln the world would be a much better place

I have a new appreciation of Lincoln as a shrewd political tactician and a phenomenally self-made man. His singular focus on preserving the union required great skill and tremendous patience–particularly in assembling his cabinet from his outmaneuvered and dismayed rivals for the presidency. Doris Kearns Goodman portrays a man who takes responsibility for his mistakes (and sometimes for those of his cabinet and generals). For the Great Emancipator, freeing the slaves from bondage was a political calculation balancing demands of republicans and radicals and a strategic decision to build the Northern armies from the ranks of freed slaves. Only later does one get the sense that his commitment to honor the emancipation proclamation and the pursuit of the 13th amendment had a strong moral foundation.

The book is a formidable portrait of a complicated man, brought into sharpest contrast with her attention to Seward, Chase, Stanton, McClellan, and others who served, and in some cases, undermined, the efforts of a determined president. This is a remarkable work.