![]() ![]() Seward of New York (who became Lincoln's secretary of state), Gov. In an appealing but awkward new book, "Team of Rivals," Doris Kearns Goodwin tries to look at Lincoln through his relationships with his former political rivals turned cabinet members: Sen. There have even been books about the other books about Abraham Lincoln.Īll of which poses a problem for the historian bent on writing a new biography of Lincoln: how to find a fresh approach to the great man, how to avoid simply regurgitating familiar facts and shopworn theories. Entire books have been devoted to every aspect of his life, from his political philosophy and moral vision to his deprived youth and tumultuous marriage, from his views on race and liberty to his views on tobacco and joke-telling. He's been deified and psychoanalyzed, deconstructed and mythologized, venerated and defenestrated. He's also been assailed as a white supremacist, a calculating egotist and an unstable manic-depressive. He's been hailed as the Great Emancipator, the Savior of the Union and the folksy embodiment of the Common Man. In fact, more words have been written about him, it's been estimated, than about any other figure in the history of the world with the exception of Jesus. More words have been written about him than about any other American. Team of Rivals The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln By Doris Kearns Goodwin Illustrated. ![]()
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