It's the supporting cast...
09/01/2010 12:06
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
2005
916 pages, including notes and index (757 of text). This was not central to my interests, so I went through it quickly. I was much more interested in the rivals than in Lincoln. I was much more interested in the period before Lincoln’s presidency and the Civil War, and the period after (which isn’t there at all, as the book pretty much ends with Lincoln’s death). I was primarily interested in William H. Seward, and I got a lot of interesting information about him. This doesn’t replace a biography of Seward, which is probably still needed. But it’s a really good start, and puts him in an interesting national context. There’s a lot less about his local and regional roles, of course.
In the introduction, Goodwin says “By widening the lens to include Lincoln’s colleagues and their families, my story benefited from a treasure trove of primary sources that have not generally been used in Lincoln biographies.” (xviii) This is the downside of doing a biography of someone so well documented, I suppose (warning to potential Seward biographers: there are apparently about 5,000 pages of manuscript letters, diaries, etc. in the main archive alone). For regular people, getting the folks around them seems like more of a no-brainer. On the other hand, Goodwin’s observation suggests that even the “great man” biographies might benefit from a little more context in the social surroundings. And, interestingly for me, maybe it also suggests that biographies or histories of smaller, more local people and events would gain from being connected to larger people and events. Where they naturally fit. Like William Seward in my upstate New York story. Or William Jennings Bryan in the Michigan chapters.
In general, I will say that I felt weighed down by the amount of detail in Goodwin’s story. I did not need to know what Lincoln and Seward had for breakfast on their first day together in Washington DC. On the other hand, lots of people bought, read, and loved this book. So, there’s a market for detailed description, especially when it helps the reader enter the subject’s world. I need to keep that in mind as I write. I can’t assume the setting, and focus only on my interest, the action.
And details are useful, like the fact that Seward moved to Auburn after finishing his degree at Union College in Schenectady, and married the daughter of Judge Elijah Miller, the “leading citizen of Cayuga County.” Another name and western NY social network for me to explore...
Goodwin identifies the beginning of the Republican Party (at least by that name) at an 1854 meeting in Ripon, Wisconsin. (181) The whole history of the transition from Liberty to Free Soil (and Salmon P. Chase’s influence on it) to Republican is fascinating, and I should find something more substantial to read about it. Team of Rivals provides teaser-glimpses of it, and then moves on. Also, the Greeley-Seward estrangement is worth looking into. (242) As are Seward’s campaign visits to Kalamazoo on Lincoln’s behalf (268). And Lincoln’s “short address” at the Astor House in NYC on his way to Washington (about Feb. 20, 1861). (310)
