Team of Rivals; The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005. Sixth printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Jeffrey L. Ward (Maps). xix, [1], 916, [4] pages. Illustrations. Maps. Notes. Index. Nice inscription signed by the author on fep. Illustrated endpapers. DJ has slight wear. Doris Helen Kearns Goodwin (born January 4, 1943) is an American biographer, historian, and commentator. Goodwin has written biographies of several U.S. presidents, including Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream; The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga; Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln; and The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism. Goodwin's book No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1995. After Johnson left office in 1969, she assisted Johnson in drafting his memoirs. Her first book Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, which drew upon her conversations with the late president became a New York Times bestseller and provided a launching pad for her literary career. Derived from a Kirkus review: Goodwin, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in history, examines Abraham Lincoln as a practical politician, focusing on his conversion of rivals to allies. It was smart politicking to recruit erstwhile opponents Salmon Chase and William Seward, who had very different ideas on most things but who nonetheless served Lincoln loyally. Goodwin indicates that Lincoln knew that war was coming, and he knew why: He'd been vigorously opposed to slavery for his entire public career. By the end of the first term, enough divisions obtained within and without the White House that it looked as if Lincoln would not be reelected-whereupon he demanded that his secretaries sign a resolution "committing the administration to devote all its powers and energies to help bring the war to a successful conclusion," the idea being that only a Democrat would accept a negotiated peace. Illuminating and well-written; a welcome addition to Lincolniana.