When he heard about the insult, Lincoln smiled and said, “If Stanton said I was a damned fool, then I must be one, for he is nearly always right, and generally says what he means.” Once, War Secretary Edwin Stanton ignored a direct order from Lincoln and called him a “damned fool” behind his back. He was secure enough to pack his Cabinet with the rivals he had defeated in the presidential campaign, and he was able to ignore or absorb their backstabbing. Team of Rivals also gives you a deep appreciation for several other traits that made Lincoln so special. “I am satisfied now that he is doing all that circumstances will permit him to do.” “The president is a most remarkable man,” Douglass told a friend. Although Douglass had previously criticized Lincoln’s slowness to act on behalf of enslaved people, Goodwin reports that he was impressed by their long meeting. Lincoln called Douglass “one of the most meritorious men in America” and treated him that way, inviting him to the White House to get his advice. Take for example his conversations with the formerly enslaved leader Frederick Douglass. Lincoln’s private persona was exactly what he conveyed in public. And then he was willing to invest everything he had to end slavery when he was elected president. As he said in one of his famous debates with Senator Stephen Douglas, someday “all this quibbling about … this race and that race and the other race being inferior” would disappear. He opposed slavery even as a child growing up in the slave state of Kentucky. Although Lincoln does not have a clean record on race-some modern critics in fact label him a racist because of some positions he held-I came away from Team of Rivals more convinced than ever that Lincoln was a profoundly moral man who ranks as America’s greatest president. It is amazing for example to read about how Lincoln was able to push the Thirteenth Amendment through a Congress made up exclusively of white men.

Team of Rivals has a lot of insights about Lincoln that leaders can learn from today.

There are significant parallels between the current moment and the 1860s, when the nation was dealing with violent insurrection, difficult questions about race, and ideological divides between states and regions. Lately I’ve been thinking about Goodwin’s book because it feels very relevant in 2022.

Of all the books I’ve read about the 16 th president of the U.S., Team of Rivals is the best. Years ago, I read Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln and was blown away. I’ve read a ton about him, and I’ve collected Lincoln-related materials, including a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation and his handwritten copy of the victory speech he gave after being re-elected president.

A team of rivals