Book Review: Team of Rivals

This book took quite a bit of time to get through. It tells the story of the Lincoln administration during his terms as president. It goes through the political and personal histories of those involved and then plots how they worked together during those years. The book is well written. I enjoyed how the chapters were put together. The first few chapters talked about the individual people at the same times in their lives (as the members of the cabinet were of different ages, you could not have the same time period). As we got closer to the time of the presidency though you saw the timeline grow together. Each chapter would contain multiple 2-5 page sections that generally focused on a single issue or individual. This shortness lead to it being relatively easy to read, but at the same point, it didn't really give you a ton of depth.

The story of the Civil War and the time of Lincoln are known by all Americans, but it is well told in this volume. I recommend it just for one of the main points of the book, which is through differences of opinions and open discussions can we achieve the best possible results. Lincoln's cabinet was made up of individuals from both sides of the issues and it was through discussion and disagreement that some of the best policies and execution of those policy existed.