Team of Rivals

The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

By Doris Kearns Goodwin

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About the book

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin tells the story of Abraham Lincoln alongside the three men he beat for the 1860 Republican nomination: William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase and Edward Bates. The first part follows each rival's rise and how the former one-term congressman and prairie lawyer came out on top; the second covers his presidency through the Civil War. Goodwin argues that Lincoln prevailed by grasping what other men felt and wanted, a gift that let him bring his former opponents into his cabinet and keep them working to save the Union. She spent ten years on the research, using the cabinet members' diaries and letters. It won the Lincoln Prize and inspired a Steven Spielberg film.

Bill Gates said he loved it, and Kobe Bryant said he loved it and that a later Goodwin book on leadership built on what he had taken from it. It also appears on a roundup of every book Barack Obama recommended during his presidency.

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This book has 6 recommendations

Bill Gates (CEO/Microsoft)

I loved Goodwin’s Team of Rivals and highly recommend this one too.

Recommended by Barack Obama (Former USA President)

Source: Every book Barack Obama has recommended during his presidency

Benjamin Spall (Co-Author/My Morning Routine)

I'm currently reading Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin [...] I've been waiting to read [it] for years, and while I'm only fifty or so pages in I'm already loving it.

Brene Brown (Author & Researcher)

Ten years in the making, Goodwin’s book examines how Lincoln turned rivals into allies for the sake of the greater good. Goodwin argues that Lincoln’s ability to select and work with the best people was one of the key reasons he was able to lead the nation through one of its darkest periods.

Maya Zlatanova (Co-Founder & CEO/FindMeCure)

I personally motivate myself by biographies like the one of Lincoln.

Kobe Bryant (Basketball Player / LA Lakers)

I loved Team of Rivals, and Leadership really built on the things I had taken away from that book. Moving from basketball to building a company, I needed to learn new and different leadership skills, and Goodwin outlines the different skill-sets of Lincoln, both Roosevelts, and Lyndon Johnson, accessibly.

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See more books recommended by

Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Benjamin Spall, Brene Brown, Maya Zlatanova, Kobe Bryant

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Doris Kearns Goodwin

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