I'm a big fan of Steven Spielberg's 2012 film "Lincoln" and when I learned that it was partly based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, I knew I had to read her book. My grandmother begrudgingly leant me her copy last month and I'm most of the way through it. I've enjoyed it immensely. I've always appreciated history but this is no dry textbook; almost every page features some interesting or eloquent quote from our sixteenth president. A few of the events depicted in the book have scary parallels to the present. For example, there was a real fear that secessionists would disrupt the certification of electoral ballots after his election in 1861. The atmosphere of intense animosity and division in 1850's America reminds me of the current mood of our country. Here are a few thoughts bouncing around in my head as I read this book:
Life was harrowing and short in the 1800's. In the early chapters of her book, Goodwin describes the upbringings of Lincoln and several members of his cabinet. Their biographies are all marred by heartbreaking tragedy: death from disease, death from childbirth, death by infection and accident. I wonder how these constant and inexorable reminders of mortality affected the perspectives and choices of people living at that time.
Lincoln's good humor and willingness to forgive were his secret weapons. Again and again, he smoothed over disputes, secured allies for the future, and charmed both voters and politicians. He had an intensely empathetic nature and constantly imagined himself in other people's skins. When he did offend somebody, he addressed it head-on and with humor and humility.
Lincoln understood other people's strengths and was willing to look past previous disagreements in order to harness their skills for his purposes. Even those who haven't read this book have probably heard the title phrase, used here to describe Lincoln's diverse and often contentious cabinet. Over and over, Lincoln was happy to bring previous adversaries into his orbit when he sensed that he needed them.
Lincoln never blamed others when things did not fall his way. If someone in his cabinet or government was under attack, he did not waver in their defense and accepted responsibility for their failings. Almost every member of Lincoln's cabinet faced the specter of public outrage and ouster at some point only to be rescued by their president.
America in the 1850's and 1860's was a thoroughly racist place. It doesn't seem like an overstatement to say that slavery shaped almost every political debate and calculation during those decades. Although groups of abolitionists did decry slavery and fought for the humanity of all races, even those that argued against slavery still held deep prejudices against blacks. Any politician hoping to assemble a coalition of voters had to take this into account. Lincoln skirted the issue of slavery whenever possible and his early positions, while anti-slavery, still did not acknowledge the humanity of black Americans. His famous Emancipation Proclamation was a careful calculation that he recognized could have perilous consequences. For example, a major fear was that the populace of the North would interpret the Proclamation as a reframing of the goals of the Civil War from preserving the Union to abolishing slavery. Although Lincoln's evolving beliefs around race could rightly be called bigoted by modern standards, he was also endlessly practical. He had a genius for embracing small steps towards racial equality, especially when they were in accord with his central goal of preserving the Union.
The media landscape and the nature of public discourse in Lincoln's time had some interesting parallels with today as well as some striking differences. Newspapers were unapologetically political and biased towards one party or another. Press objectivity didn't exist: if you wanted to understand the arguments for or against an issue, you simply had to read a variety of newspapers and draw your own conclusions. The power of the spoken word (in the form of political speeches and debates) surprised me. For example, the famous Lincoln-Douglas series of debates were media events that lasted for about three hours each. Senators and politicians routinely gave speeches stretching as long as five hours in length. Several times, a speech or letter printed in the press shifted public opinion in an important way. Again and again, I read anecdotes depicting politics as an unabashed bloodsport only to find out later that a politician had managed to shift public opinion in a major way. This is harder to imagine today.
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