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Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of \u201cTeam of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,\u201d paints a captivating picture of Lincoln\u2019s life and the lives of his three rivals for the Republican nomination for the presidency of the United States, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase and Edward Bates.\u00a0 This thorough and detailed book shares the separate and shared lives of these four men.\u00a0 The author includes colorful images with her descriptions of their lives.\u00a0 William H. Seward and his wife Frances found a home in Auburn, New York where he enjoyed his gardens, theater, novels, cigars, port, and playing cards.\u00a0 Salmon P. Chase was a widower who lost three young wives.\u00a0 He was a religious man who lived a life free from smoking and drinking.\u00a0 His daughter, Kate, was close to his heart and a great helper in his political life.\u00a0 Edward Bates considered himself a \u201chome-family man\u201d who had numerous children, lived an orderly life on an estate, wore Quaker-style clothing, and was married to Julia.\u00a0 And finally, Abraham Lincoln, did not grow up on an estate but was from much more humble beginnings.\u00a0 He was a voracious reader and was known to always have a book in his hands as a child.\u00a0 He was a good storyteller, kind, loyal, and known for his honesty and character.\u00a0 He was married to Mary Todd and became known as the poet-president.\u00a0 Although this \u201cteam of rivals\u201d grew up different, they all studied law.\u00a0 And each man was a staunch opponent of the spread of slavery.\u00a0 Goodwin shares fascinating tales from the lives of each of these men.<\/p>\n
This book interweaves their lives, ideas, family incidents, etc. and follows them before and after Lincoln\u2019s election to presidency.\u00a0 Of interest to me was the strategies of Lincoln and the costly errors of the others leading up to the nomination.\u00a0 Lincoln, according to this book, did not appear hasty but steadfast in his message and mission.\u00a0 One thing he did was have his debates with Stephen Douglas, the Democratic leader, published so that more people could get to know him and his message.\u00a0 And after Lincoln was elected he hired his three rivals as part of his presidential team.<\/p>\n
Abraham Lincoln was the final nail in the coffin of legal slavery in the United States.\u00a0 His reputation spread across the world.\u00a0 The writer Leo Tolstoy recounts a story of when he was in North Caucasus that a chief asked him to talk about Lincoln.\u00a0 The man, the chief explained, who \u201c\u2026spoke with a voice of thunder; he laughed like the sunrise and his deeds were strong as the rock.\u201d (747)\u00a0 Tolstoy told the chief and his group what he knew about Lincoln\u2019s life.\u00a0 On pondering why Lincoln\u2019s greatness overshadowed other national heroes, he concludes, \u201cWashington was a typical American.\u00a0 Napoleon was a typical Frenchman, but Lincoln was a humanitarian as broad as the world.\u00a0 He was bigger than his country \u2013 bigger than all the Presidents together.\u201d (748)<\/p>\n
My biggest takeaway from this book is \u2013 to be a great leader one must know the true heart of humanity; and this goes deeper than just the needs of those one leads.\u00a0 A great leader is able to see to the core of humanity, to the being of the being. I believe that Lincoln knew that the convenience and greed surrounding slavery was obstructing the deepest knowledge of its evils for those who engaged in it.\u00a0 He was able to use honest strategies to get elected, and once elected he was able to fulfill his mission.\u00a0 And the good in humanity once again overcame evil through his leadership.<\/p>\n
Goodwin, Doris Kearns. \u201cTeam of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.\u201d New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 2005.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of \u201cTeam of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,\u201d paints a captivating picture of Lincoln\u2019s life and the lives of his three rivals for the Republican nomination for the presidency of the United States, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase and Edward Bates.\u00a0 This thorough and detailed book shares the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,27],"class_list":["post-69","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-goodwin","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1384,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions\/1384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}