"Team of Rivals"

One of my goals for 2009 is to keep a written record of all the books that I read this year. That's not hard to do in January, but I need the discipline of starting now. Last night I finished my second book, Doris Kearns Goodwin's Pulitzer Prize winning "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln." Finishing it reminded me of something that DT has pointed out several times recently - the trend towards authors writing a biography or narrative that focuses on specific issues and doesn't get bogged down in detailed academic writing. DT has always been a little cynical about academic writing.

Of course, the key to such writing is choosing the best point or points to focus on. Goodwin has always been good at this kind of thing, but in "Team of Rivals" she takes it to a whole new level. By focusing not just on Lincoln, but his cabinet (some of whom were his rivals for the Republican nomination) the reader learns about these complex characters and how they both helped and hindered the Union war effort. Perhaps more importantly we get a fuller picture of the multiple challenges that Lincoln faced as a minority president.

Of particularly emphasis and importance is how Lincoln was able to ignore the verbal "slings and arrows" of others, including his cabinet, in order to bring their gifts to bear on the Union cause. One of the best examples of this is his bringing Edward Stanton into his cabinet as Secretary of War although years before Stanton had been unconscionably rude to Lincoln when they were ostensibly working together on the Reaper case. One can only imagine what it would have been like if the hypo sensitive Andrew Jackson had been president at this time - regular duels between the president and his cabinet members. This may an illustration of a point I tried to make about Lincoln in another post - that this was a time where the man and the moment met - there were few other people before and since who could have led the country through this struggle.

I am reminded of something I read in Alan Jones' "Journey into Christ." Although I couldn't find the exact quote it is about an image that Jones found in Buddhism - the image of a bowl that holds all of our frustrations, bitterness, hurt from unfair treatment. We hold this bowl in front of us and the question is will we empty it on to the ground or pour it back into ourselves - thereby magnifying those negative feelings even more. Thought about like that the right course is obvious, but it is much easier to say than to do. If Lincoln dealing with such vast matters could do this perhaps there is a lesson for all of us.

It is important to also say that what Lincoln accomplishes in this way is without wavering on his principles. As Goodwin and other writers have shown convincingly, this is not adopting the lowest common denominator or allowing everyone to follow their own course. Lincoln hold firmly to his principles no matter what their cost.

One other thing that I want to praise about this book is how the author writes about the last days of Lincoln's life. If Greek tragedy is watching the main character struggle against a fate that they can't avoid, the last part of "Team of Rivals" dramatically portrays a president, a cabinet and even a nation thinking and hoping that as the war winds down better days are ahead when the audience knows otherwise. This magnifies the ultimate tragedy even more - brilliant writing.