Doris Kearns Goodwin; Team of rivals: the political genius of
Abraham Lincoln
===============================================================================

Try to imagine a world without cat videos, or without any videos,
actually,  It must have been a very oral and verbal and print
dominated world.  Goodwin stresses over and over Lincoln's ability
to entertain and to communicate through stories and anecdotes,
stories that often had a point or moral, one that would be
understandable and familiar to his audience.  What also comes
through clearly in "Team of rivals" is how important newspapers were
during that time, and how wide readership was spread.  People waited
excitedly for the next edition of their local newspaper, and
publishers rushed to get newspapers printed and delivered into the
hands of readers.

We think now that this mid-19th century time was primitive and that
their technology was old fashioned.  But, really this period and the
U.S.  Civil war that dominates "Team of rivals" was a time of very
rapid technological advance.  Railroads came into wide use, enabling
politicians to campaign much more widely.  The telegraph
dramatically sped up distribution of the news.  They had not quite
gotten to the place where there were telegraph stations inside
government offices, but that was certainly the next step, and
Goodwin's description shows how heavily Lincoln and his cabinet
members leaned on and used the telegraph, at some point keeping a
staff of runners to carry messages to and from the telegraph office.
And, of course the military made heavy use of new advances using
trains to move large numbers of troops and supplies, building and
using metal clad steam ships, and many other advances.  Remember,
for example, that blockading the shipping from and to the South was
extremely important, both along the seaboard and up and down the
Mississippi River, which was one reason that the fall of Vicksburg
was so significant.

Lincoln, apparently was a master at understanding what political
influence was needed at a given time, who needed to be influenced
and persuaded, and how to deliver that influence.  Goodwin does good
work at explaining how he let out news at just the right time and to
whom, for example, to the right newspaper editor.  For even more on
that see "Lincoln and the power of the press", by Harold Holzer.
And, in Lincoln's time, the use of appointments for political
purposes was rampant.  Lincoln spent a huge amount of time,
especially at the beginning of his first presidential term listening
to job seekers and doling out jobs to petitioners, especially those
whose support he needed.  I'm sure that, given our current
regulations over political corruption, if Lincoln were to do now
what he did then, he'd be in jail.

"Team of rivals" contains lots and lots of details and back story
about Lincoln and the other main characters (Seward, Bates, Chase,
Stanton) and others besides.  This is a historian's book; if you do
not want a story that is almost overwhelmingly rich in details and
context and texture and the history and description of characters,
then you likely should not be reading this book.  But, if you
details and character studies and want to know how and why the U.S.
Civil War happened, then there's a good chance it's for you.  Not to
be too negative here, because Goodwin does a superb job of giving us
fascinating reading.

"Team of rivals" builds toward the U.S. Civil War and gives an
account of the main characters actions during that war and their
response to the major battles.  However, that war is less the center
of the book than it is mover and motivator and reason for the people
and the action in the book.  If you want a detailed account of the
war and its battles and generals, there are better books for that.

What this book *is* very good at is helping us understand the
political conditions in the North/Union that explain why and how it
happened, and also giving us an awareness of some of the
personalities and characters that drove those politics: the
political parties, the factions within those parties, and the
influential individuals within those parties and factions.

"Team of rivals" finishes with Lincoln's death and the immediate
reactions to it.  There is also an "Epilogue" that summarizes the
final years of each of the main "rivals": Seward, Bates, Chase, and
Stanton.

I'm not very strong on getting through a large volume of facts,
details, and history, but Goodwin kept me interested and even
fascinated all the way through.

11/17/2014

.. vim:ft=rst:fo+=a: