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Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln is a 2005 book by Pulitzer Prize-winning American historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, published by Simon & Schuster. The book is a biographical portrait of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and some of the men who served with him in his cabinet from 1861 to 1865. Three of his Cabinet members had previously run against Lincoln in the 1860 election: Attorney General Edward Bates, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase and Secretary of State William H. Seward. The book focuses on Lincoln's mostly successful attempts to reconcile conflicting personalities and political factions on the path to abolition and victory in the American Civil War. Goodwin's sixth book, Team of Rivals was well received by critics and won the 2006 Lincoln Prize and the inaugural Book Prize for American History of the New-York Historical Society. US President Barack Obama cited it as one of his favorite books and was said to have used it as a model for constructing his own cabinet, although he later wrote this was not the reason he chose Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State. In 2012, a Steven Spielberg film based on the book was released to critical acclaim. Background Team of Rivals is the sixth book by American historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. In 1995, Goodwin was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History for her book No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II, a similar study of personalities in the Roosevelt White House. Goodwin spent ten years on the research and writing of Team of Rivals. She stated that she had been inspired to tell the stories of the four men (Seward, Chase, Bates, and Lincoln) together when realizing that the cabinet members had written extensive diaries and letters that might provide a "new angle" in Lincoln studies. During Goodwin's work on Team of Rivals, a plagiarism scandal erupted over unmarked quotations in Goodwin's 1987 book The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys. Goodwin stated that in dealing with the scandal, during which she had to apologize and make an out-of-court settlement to author Lynne McTaggart, she found Lincoln a consolation, particularly his philosophy "not to waste precious energies on recriminations about the past". In a 2012 interview, Goodwin cited early 20th-century muckraker Ida Tarbell on the pleasures of writing about Lincoln: "Somebody asked her, why do so many people write about Lincoln? And she said, because he's so companionable. And I think somehow that's been true for me." Contents The book begins with an introduction where Goodwin explains how she plans to illuminate Lincoln's life: "In my own effort to illuminate the character and career of Abraham Lincoln, I have coupled the account of his life with the stories of the remarkable men who were his rivals for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination—New York senator William H. Seward, Ohio governor Salmon P. Chase, and Missouri's distinguished elder statesman Edward Bates." The book is organised in two parts: Part 1 called "The Rivals" and Part 2 called "Master Among Men". The first part of the book chronicles the rise of Lincoln and each of his political rivals' journeys and how Lincoln ended up with the Presidency and ends with the inauguration of Lincoln in 1861. In the second part, Goodwin describes Lincoln's years as President of the Union through the civil war and until his eventual assassination in 1865. The first chapter of Team of Rivals portrays four major contenders for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination on May 18, 1860, awaiting the results of the national convention by telegraph: New York Senator and former governor William H. Seward, widely considered the frontrunner; Ohio Governor Salmon P. Chase, a favorite of the party's more radical wing; former Missouri Attorney General Edward Bates, preferred by more conservative elements of the party; and Abraham Lincoln, a former U.S. Representative from Illinois. Goodwin then describes how each candidate rose to national political prominence: Seward through a long alliance with New York political boss Thurlow Weed, Chase through his early advocacy of the abolition of slavery, Bates through a speech opposing President James K. Polk at the 1847 River and Harbor Convention, and Lincoln through a series of debates with Democratic rival Stephen A. Douglas in the 1858 Illinois Senate election. At the Chicago Republican Convention of 1860, Seward was the favourite, as he was the most widely recognised political figure and almost had a majority of pledges. Seward's detractors who thought that he was too radical on slavery and too liberal on immigration, were worried that if the opposition could not be united behind one man, he would be elected as the candidate - "Murat Halstead of the Cincinnati Commercial telegraphed the same message to his paper at the same time, reporting that "every one of the forty thousand men in attendance upon the Chicago Convention will testify that at midnight of Thursday–Friday night, the universal impression was that Seward's success was certain." However, it was a concern that even if Seward was elected as candidate, he would not be able to carry all the Northern States in the elections because of his abolitionist views against slavery and that would mean a Democratic win in the election. Similarly, Edward Bates could not represent the middle-line of the Republican party: "He was much too conservative for liberal Republicans, who might welcome him into their party but would never accord him chief command of an army in which he had never officially enlisted. At the same time, the letter he had written to prove his credentials to the Republicans had diminished the previous enthusiasm of conservatives and former Know Nothings" Salmon Chase's candidature was hampered by attacks from Ohio politicians like Judge McLean or Ben Wade and could not mount a serious challenge. Lincoln emerged as the more palatable choice for these important delegates. Lincoln was ultimately the victor at the 1860 convention through a superior political operation and by making himself the unobjectionable second choice of all Republican factions, and proceeded to win the presidency. Determined both to hold the party together and to recruit the ablest men for his cabinet, Lincoln then persuaded each of his former rivals to join his cabinet. Seward assumed the post of Secretary of State, Chase that of Secretary of the Treasury, and Bates that of United States Attorney General. The South secedes following Lincoln's election, and the country falls into the American Civil War. Goodwin describes in detail some cabinet decisions, such as the debate over provisioning Fort Sumter in South Carolina, the first state that had seceded (in December 1860), and the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves of secession states. She also traces the home life of the book's main figures, including the marriage of Chase's dau.... Discover the Sanford D Horwitt popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Sanford D Horwitt books.