Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln is best biographical portrait of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and some of the men who served with him in his cabinet from 1861 to 1865 by Doris Kearns Goodwin, published in 2005.

Author’s sixth book, Team of Rivals received by critics and won the 2006 Lincoln Prize and therefore the inaugural Book Prize for American History of the New-York Historical Society. US President Barack Obama cited it together of his favorite books and said to possess used it as a model for constructing his own cabinet. In 2012, a Spielberg film supported the book was released to critical acclaim. You can download from below and buy from amazon if you want.

Abstract: Winner of the Lincoln Prize Acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin illuminates Lincoln’s political genius in this highly original work, as the one-term congressman and prairie lawyer rises from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals of national reputation to become president. On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the Republican National Convention in Chicago. When Lincoln emerged as the victor, his rivals were dismayed and angry. Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each had energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and civil war. That Lincoln succeeded, Goodwin demonstrates, was the result of a character that had been forged by experiences that raised him above his more privileged and accomplished rivals. He won because he possessed an extraordinary ability to put himself in the place of other men, to experience what they were feeling, to understand their motives and desires. It was this capacity that enabled Lincoln as president to bring his disgruntled opponents together, create the most unusual cabinet in history, and marshal their talents to the task of preserving the Union and winning the war. We view the long, horrifying struggle from the vantage of the White House as Lincoln copes with incompetent generals, hostile congressmen, and his raucous cabinet. He overcomes these obstacles by winning the respect of his former competitors, and in the case of Seward, finds a loyal and crucial friend to see him through. This brilliant multiple biography is centered on Lincoln’s mastery of men and how it shaped the most significant presidency in the nation’s history

Team of Rivals PDF

Author(s): Lincoln, Abraham; Lincoln, Abraham; Goodwin, Doris Kearns

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Year: 2006

ISBN: 1-4165-4983-8,978-1-4165-4983-3