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Required Reading

Customer Rating:
This book should be required reading for every US Citizen. It combines together information on not just Lincoln, but his 4 main rivals, the process by which he came to be elected, the inner workings of his White House, the dynamics going on in every day life in the United States during that period and the overall fight to abolish slavery during that time -- all packaged in a wonderfully easy to read book. I learned more by reading this one book than I did in all of my high school and college history classes combined. I suspect you will too. Happy reading....

Lincoln

Customer Rating:
If you want indepth workings of the trials and tribulations
of an American White House cabinet, look no further than
Team of Rivals, and see how the great Lincoln handled it.
I wonder how other great presidents would have fared
in those terrible times.

Excellent Biography

Customer Rating:
It is simple and easy to follow language. Life of Lincoln is excellently portrayed in a chronology of events.

A brilliant biography with a new point of view

Customer Rating:
Considering the plethora of materials about Abraham Lincoln available, it is with pleasure that I report that this book approaches Abe in a brilliant new way. Delving comparatively into the backgrounds of Abe's rivals for the nomination for President, the author simultaneously draws the reader into the world that Abe inhabited and makes clear what strokes of genius brought him the nomination. Many of the brilliant moments leading up to it and from it therefore make total sense. What a wonderful book.

Most Insightful Lincoln Book I've Read

Customer Rating:
Whenever I read about Lincoln and his time I'm always amazed at how much information historians are able to gather in the finest detail through letters and records and quotations, etc. Books like Team of Rivals are so special for lovers of history like me because they go beyond the textbook achievements of the likes of our presidents, scientists, inventors or war heroes and examine who they are as people. Their personalities, their weaknesses and strengths, their philosophies. Having read Team of Rivals has given me new insight into why Lincoln is considered one of our greatest presidents if not the greatest.

Part of his genius and selflessness was that he surrounded himself with his political rivals to not only heal the wounds of a bitter political race, but so that Whigs and Democrats could reach common ground on the essential issues. And after having read this book I now have such a deep respect and reverence for Edwin Stanton (Lincoln's secretary of war) and William Seward (Lincoln's secretary of state whom I feel deserves the same amount of credit for the fight against and abolition of slavery as Lincoln as does Stanton for the Union's victory of the Civil War).

Team of Rivals also provides a great wealth of information into the private lives of the Lincolns, the Sewards, and the Chases in particular with tragic stories of personal loss. And it is clear that one of the major things to be admired about these people of the mid nineteenth century was their incredible ability to go on living and carry on with the responsibilities of life in the wake of losing children, wives, brothers and sisters so easily to diseases and certain conditions modern day people take for granted. Those who love Lincoln and American history will undoubtedly love this book.