The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin

I approached the reading of this book with a great deal of anticipation because I was looking forward to a study of Lincoln written from a different perspective, a study on the persons he chose to be around him in his Administration.  The book fulfilled that promise but, unfortunately, didn’t do much else.

I found myself plowing through it rather than enjoying the read.  I think this was because much of the material was extensively extracted from various journals and, while these passages were enlightening as to the activities and thoughts of their authors, they quickly became tedious.  Also, the author seemed to mold a character for each of the primary figures in the book and then reference each of their characteristics quite frequently.  At times the emphasis on these minor or trivial characteristics and facts to make her point seemed quite pedantic.

All in all, I didn’t get the feeling that the author was nearly as close to her subjects as I have experienced in other cases such as Carl Sandburg writing about Lincoln or Doris Kearns Goodwin in her other books about Eleanor Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.  I got the feeling that in Team of Rivals she had set herself a goal to write the book and checked it off as a task completed rather than undertaking it as a labor of love.