This book suddenly entered the cultural zeitgeist in a major way during the 2008 Presidential Elections when it was revealed that then Candidate Obama (a lawyer from Illinois) was reading the multiple biography of Abraham Lincoln (also a lawyer from Illinois, though technically Kentucky) and his cabinet. People flipped out, tried to draw comparisons between Obama and Lincoln (especially their oratorical skills) and generally speaking, I seem to remember sales of the book shooting skywards. (When President Obama took one of his rivals as Vice-President and put his chief rival in as Secretary of State- and made a play for a third to get a cabinet post, the media practically tripped over themselves with comparisons between Lincoln and Obama.)
All of this might make me extremely leery of tackling such a doorstop of a book (after all, President O has been less than thrilling thus far and I wasn't sure this doorstop was worth the risk of disappointment) but I should have known better. Because Doris Kearns Goodwin delivers a majestic, encompassing, engrossing volume of Lincoln and the men that formed the core of his cabinet that should be a must-read for anyone who has even a passing interesting in American history.
I don't even know where to begin with this book. I honestly think I learned more about the Civil War reading this than I ever did in school- Goodwin digs and digs and tries to get at the nitty gritty of what made Lincoln and his Cabinet tick and by and large succeeds. The portrait of Lincoln as some hayseed lawyer that rose to the occasion gets thrown out the window in a big hurry, because as Goodwin reveals, Lincoln was a genius at politics. He could take big ideas and put them into words that the general public could relate to at a personal level, a talent which allowed him to connect to the electorate in a more personal, real way than any of his rivals. Although powerful figures in the Republican Party at the time went into his cabinet, he quickly and firmly made it clear that he was in charge- and eventually won the loyalty of the men, many of whom's ambitions he had crushed by winning the nomination.
All in all, Abraham Lincoln was a damn genius. That quintessentially Churchillian phrase 'cometh the hour, cometh the man' springs to mind and I really believe that it's totally true. Some people are just in the right place at the right time and everything clicks perfectly and maybe it was luck, fate or even divine providence, but Lincoln was the right guy for the most critical moment in our nation's history and he got the job done.
And what a team backed him up! (This is where I really learned a lot... the shortcomings of my American history curriculum are on fine display here) Seward, Bates, Chase, Stanton-- all of whom brought their unique talents to Lincoln's cabinet and proved to be critical to the overall effort to keep America whole. Time, brevity and the desire to get some of you to actually go out there and read this book forbids me from delving into each of these guys in details, but their stories and what makes them tick are in here. And that, to me, proves to be the real achievement with this book. Trying to write a biography of someone like Lincoln would be intimidating enough, but trying to write a biography of his whole damn cabinet? That seems like a multi-volume epic waiting to happen, yet somehow Goodwin pulls it off in fine style.
The backdrop to the stories of these men, is, of course, the Civil War. And I gotta say, I really mean it when I say I learned more about the Civil War from reading this book than anything I had ever learned up to this point. Maybe it's a certain amount of intellectual snobbery on my part, but I had never cared too much for the more hagiographic elements of the average American history class. America rocks and we make the world better. World War II began on December 7th, 1941 (to be fair: they do mention the previous two years, in about a page or so) and things of that nature. It was irritating, provincial and generally speaking annoyed me from time to time.
I'd like to take a minute to take a lot of that attitude back. Having read this book, I see the Civil War in a whole new light- what a close run thing it was, in parts- how Seward had to do a diplomatic dance to keep Britain and France from recognizing the Confederacy. How Lincoln maintained morale in the face of Union defeat after Union defeat and how Stanton, by some feat of human endurance organized, mobilized and successfully go enough troops from Washington to Nashville so that the Union could hold the territory they had won in Tennessee. It was a crucial, critical moment in our national history which could have easily swung either way. And somehow, Lincoln and company managed to save it. The sheer scale of the task was made clear to me by reading this book and the monumental achievement all of these men, but especially Lincoln deserve credit for is placed in its proper context.
Overall: and it's not often I say this, but reading this book actually made me a better American. If you have even the slightest interest in the Civil War, find this book and read it. If you're looking for an engrossing historical tome to devour, don't be scared by it's size. Read it. In general, find this book- and read it!
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