Monday, August 24, 2015

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln




Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln certainly lives up to its hype.  By examining the cabinet Lincoln compiled in his first term, Kern shows readers a side of Lincoln that is all too lost in accounts which stress his kindness and sagacity.

Instead, Kern show how Lincoln was able to juggle the competing political agendas of the men around him, harnessing their ambitions both for his own good and the good of the nation during a Civil War.

The Lincoln in Kern’s book is a man who gets people to do what he wants by a combination of patience, excellent timing, and a kind of forbearance of the shortcoming of those around him that seems, at times, nearly superhuman.

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