Flyers are circulating announcing Doris Kearns Goodwin's appearances promoting her first post-scandal work, Team of Rivals. Author Richard Miller has been good enough to send me a few paragraphs from one that he encountered; very interesting stuff it is and I am grateful.The flyer text outlines a premise that is remarkably story-driven, even by pop history standards. I have emphasized bits that jumped out at me but otherwise offer the material verbatim and without commet:
In this highly original work, Ms. Goodwin illuminates Lincoln's political genius as he rises from the obscurity of a one-term congressman/prairie lawyer to become president and prevail over three gifted rivals with national reputations.
Throughout the turbulent 1850s, Goodwin demonstrates that Lincoln's success was the result of a character that had been forged by life 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 and 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 presidential 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 point of the White House, as Lincoln copes with incompetent generals, hostile congressmen, and his raucous cabinet. He overcomes the 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 the struggle that was the Civil War.
