3 Review(s)

Team of Rivals – The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, is an inspirational biographical account of the former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and some of the men who worked with him in the cabinet. Summary of the Book Team of Rivals focuses on Lincoln’s mostly successful efforts to reunite conflicting personalities and political groups on the path to abolition of slavery and triumph in the American Civil War. Along with Lincoln’s biographical portrayal, three of his cabinet members who had previously run against him in the 1860 election: Edward Bates, Salmon P. Chase and William H. Seward, are also portrayed in this book. This work won the Lincoln Prize in 2006, and the inaugural Book Prize for American History of the New-York Historical Society. U.S. President Barack Obama is said to have been inspired by Team of Rivals in constructing his own cabinet. The book was also adapted into a movie in 2012, directed by Steven Spielberg. About Doris Kearns Goodwin Doris Kearns Goodwin is an American biographer, political commentator, and historian. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author (for No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The American Home Front in World War II) has a Ph.D. from Harvard. She has won several awards and accolades, including the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. She has also authored the book, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream.