Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

“Speaking only eleven years after Lincoln’s death, [Frederick] Douglass was too close to assess the fascination that this plain and complex, shrewd and transparent, tender and iron-willed leader would hold for generations of Americans. In the nearly two hundred years since his [Lincoln’s] birth, countless historians and writers have uncovered new documents, provided fresh insights, and developed an ever-deepening understanding of our sixteenth president.” 

This passage from the Introduction to Team of Rivals lays out the foundation for trying to understand the depth and scope that was Abraham Lincoln. Lionized by his contemporaries, especially after his death, Lincoln, having seen the country successfully through the Civil War, was viewed in almost god-like terms by some. The massive accomplishments in the shortness of his tenure have given rise to countless studies on the man and has offered a plethora of resources from which scholars have to pull; however, it still appears that the scholarship on Lincoln is incomplete because there is so much texture and depth to the man that cannot be captured by a single theory or text. 

“The years following the Revolution fostered the belief that the only barriers to success were discipline and the extent of one’s talents. ‘When both the privileges and the disqualifications of class have been abolished and men have shattered the bonds which once held them immobile’ marveled the French visitor Alexis de Tocqueville, ‘the idea of progress comes naturally into each man’s mind; the desire to rise swells in every heart at once, and all men want to quit their former social position. Ambition becomes a universal feeling.’” 

Modern readers of Team of Rivals must remember that the time period leading up to the American Civil War was extremely close to the end of the American Revolution and the founding of the country, such that the spirit aroused by the Revolution still imbued many Americans with a sense of awe and wonder of what they might be able to accomplish in this new era. The world in which Lincoln and many of his contemporaries grew up was marked by a spirit of industry that saw many a man rise from humble origins to become great.