Team Of Rivals Summary

In Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals, Goodwin details the life of Lincoln and his Cabinet during antebellum United States. Goodwin describes Lincoln’s adverse journey to becoming president by not only portraying Lincoln, but also developing the journeys and strategies of his three rivals.
The book opens with an introduction to the three members of members of his cabinet: William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, and Edward Bates. Prior to Lincoln’s presidency, these three individuals were Lincoln’s primary rivals in the presidential nomination of the Republican party in 1860. Compared to Lincoln, Seward, Chase, and Bates were politcally well-known as were their intentions as president. Goodwin further explains Lincoln’s rivals by providing the reader with each candidate's motivations and journeys to obtain presidency, simultaneously providing the instances that prevented the three from attaining presidency. Chase and Seward both maintained ferocious zeal. Goodwin provides a remark by Seward, “What a demon is this ambition” …show more content…
Lincoln did not come from a wealthy heritage, nor did he have access to a reputable education. “The only schools in rural Kentucky and Indiana were subscription schools, requiring families to pay a tuition” (pg. 50) that Lincoln could not afford and even if he could, “their children did not receive much education” due to “No qualification...required of a teacher” (pg.51). However “Books became his academy, his college” (pg. 51). Lincoln became self taught not only through books, but also through social interactions and stories of family friends. His favor in poetry developed a passion to discover moral lessons and discreet meanings of these stories. Lincoln’s passion to understand complex virtues further developed a caliber of empathy that none of his opponents could contend. His ability to communicate political affairs to parishioners gave him the advantage of reaching out to