Book Review: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

I recently took a solo trip to Kansas from my home in South Dakota and so an audiobook was in high order. Being in the mood for some non-fiction about history, I found a book about Abraham Lincoln called Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.

I’ve long been an admirer of Lincoln and his leadership through perhaps the most harrowing time in U.S. history which began before he was even inaugurated as president. He was not a perfect man but he seems to have had a rare gifting of leadership that, upon reflecting on our current moment, we could certainly learn from.

Team of Rivals, written by Doris Kearns Goodwin, focuses on Lincoln’s confounding and audacious move to appoint all three of his Republican presidential rivals to top posts in his cabinet. To run for president requires a rare combination and capacity, ambition and ego and while there are political reasons to appoint one’s rival to a cabinet position, something Lincoln understood only too well, it seems he appointed them for a far more important reason. Later, as the war raged on, he would appoint Edwin M. Stanton, one of his harshest public critics, to the post of Secretary of War. It seems that beyond the politics, Lincoln believed that in order to lead well, he would need to welcome and depend on the debate of ideas within his cabinet to ensure that he came to the very best decisions for the country.

Lincoln did not want yes men. He wanted the best men.

The book highlights as well the deft touch with which Lincoln was able to work with each of these men’s egos, finding their strengths and depending on them while earning their trust and admiration. William H. Seward was devastated by his 1860 loss to Lincoln but jumped at the chance to serve as Secretary of State, assuming wrongly that he would be able to guide other cabinet choices and lead the country with Lincoln as a sort of figurehead president. His disdain for Lincoln slowly but surly changed to deep admiration and respect and in the end he became one of Lincoln’s staunchest supporters even as he continued to offer fierce debate in all major decision – just as Lincoln wanted.

First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln by Francis Bicknell Carpenter (1864)

Of the others appointed to his cabinet, only Salmon P. Chase never came around to loyalty and respect for the president. He continued to harbor a deep sense of superiority as well as a deep ambition to be the Republican nominee in 1964. As another example of Lincoln’s tremendous leadership, he kept Chase in his position as Secretary of the Treasury, a position he excelled at, far longer than anyone else would have put up with the secretary’s shenanigans. He chose to endure the thorn in his side in order to capitalize on Chase’s unique skills with managing and finding ways to raise money for the Union cause. It was a fitting end to Chase when, in June of 1864, he sent Lincoln a letter of resignation over some perceived slight – something he’d done three times prior – with the smug confidence that Lincoln would beg him to stay. Lincoln, much to Chase’s surprise, did not respond but rather replaced him with a new Secretary of the Treasurer and allowed Chase to find out through the grapevine of gossip and news.

Goodwin does a masterful job of winding through the story of the primary and into those first heady days of the new cabinet, the new presidency and the new and terrible war. She writes with deep attention to historical detail, an insight into the character of Lincoln and these men and with a strong storytelling ability that makes this book intriguing, insightful and easy to read.

It is helpful to read history when wading through the turmoil of our current experience. The rancor, doomsaying and fear mongering of today’s politicians and pundits trying to convince us that democracy as we know it will end if their opponent wins, seems laughable in light of all that Lincoln faced in 1860. This book brings a kind of levity to our current partisan atmosphere but also gives us an example of what true leadership really looks like. We would all do well to read Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln for it’s lessons on leadership and grounding in reality.

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A New Tradition: Jólabókaflóðið

My wife sent me a text yesterday with a link in it – a thing she only does when she is really excited about something new she has discovered. She’s a bit of a luddite, one of the reasons I love her so much, and so I knew that whatever it was she was wanting me to read online, was going to be interesting.

Jólabókaflóðið. She sent me an article about Jólabókaflóðið.

It seems that Jólabókaflóðið (pronounced YO-la-bok-a-flothe) is an Icelandic word meaning something akin to ‘the Christmas book flood.’ It’s a tradition in Iceland that goes back to the days right after the second world war when, because of depression and war era challenges and economic trade restrictions, the one plentiful resource that could be found in Iceland was paper. And because books are made of paper, books quickly became a gift of choice during the holidays. The Icelandic publishing industry began to release all new books in November, a tradition that continues to this day. The yearly publication of a nation wide book catalog, Bókatíðindi, helps everyone there know what’s coming out.

This seems to have led to a nation of bibliophiles where a good book is the gift of choice and the greatest Christmas pastime is laying in bed, drinking hot chocolate and reading a good book all day long.

So this year, if yours is a household or readers, what if you chose one day in which all family members agreed to brew a giant caldron of hot chocolate, load up on healthy snacks and spend the entire day reading.

Find a way to celebrate Jólabókaflóðið together.

You can listen to how Jólabókaflóðið is pronounced at Google Translate. And you can read a few articles about this amazing Icelandic tradition here and here.

And if you need a good book suggestion, check out our family’s top ten lists for youth fiction at Boo Radley Book Reviews.

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The Screwtape Letters: A Reflection

The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis, is a collection of letters between two fictitious devils, “Uncle Screwtape” and his nephew “Wormwood”. This insightful little book follows the letters of advice from Screwtape, higher up in the satanic ranks, to Wormwood, a tempter on earth, on the methods and tricks to steer his patient away from the enemy “God and his kingdom”. This book, like no other, lays out all our tendencies and failings as human beings, while at the same time giving you, as a reader, incentive to rise above them. It opens your mind so vividly to the exponential power and light of Christ, that it can not help but bring you into the ever so real struggle between the kingdoms of Good and Evil, even if only in little ways. As a review in the New York Times put it, “Somewhere in the inferno there must be a considerable annoyance.”

One of the biggest reasons I think The Screwtape Letters is such an effective and powerful book is because it is written from the devil’s perspective. In this form the book captivated me in an entirely original way. It gave me the powerful feeling of understanding, it was like a breeze in the fog, temporarily forcing me to face the distance. I really believe it is one of the most brilliant books written. The whole idea of Screwtape writing letters on the finer points of temptation to his nephew Wormwood, combined with an opportunity of sitting down with the edited thoughts of one of the greatest Christian thinkers, had an amazing effect on me. The result was, an opportunity for me to clearly face my faults and to see my potential. By having the stereotypical perspective on Christianity reversed, I had the wholehearted satisfaction of feeling I was in some way outwitting the devil. This in particular had such an effect on me, that in recent weeks when had I found myself frustrated and about to lose my temper or discontent and snappy I would suddenly realize the benefit this would be to Screwtape, which would instantly cause me to check my behavior, and than to smugly feel I had outmaneuvered his trap, muttering under my breath a gleeful cry of “Not today Uncle Screwtape.”

There were so many sections of this book that either introduced me to a completely new thought or concept, or phrased in clear English a foggy picture I might have otherwise never clearly understood. For example one of the points which hit me as a literal prescription to one of my biggest problems, which is me constantly over analyzing of the past, is the part where Screwtape says of God that, “His ideal is a man who, having worked all day for the good of posterity (if that is his vocation), washes his mind of the whole subject, commits the issue to heaven, and returns at once to the patience or gratitude demanded by the moment that is passing over him.” Too often I completely miss out on the present by indulging myself in a degrading self critique of every instance where I messed up in the day. I don’t commit these instances of failure, that I was probably the only one to notice, to heaven, then wash myself of them like God wisely says to do. Instead I dig through them all and let them define me. I dont give myself the love or grace God offers me. I unfairly give the past the power to cheat the present.

Another passage that stuck out to me is where Screwtape says God, (the enemy in the book’s context) “wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another.” This passage is by far my favorite. Everytime I read it, it creates wonder in me, adding glorious details to my painting of what hope looks like. It speaks to me of a wonderful invitation, to begin a journey, a journey towards a kingdom that is full, but always has room for one more. Where people build cathedrals and know they are just right. As the passage goes on, it adds that, “The enemy wants him, in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favor that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbors talents or in a sunrise, an elephant, or a waterfall. He wants each man to recognize all creatures ( even himself) as glorious and excellent things.” I love the fact that we were created to create and to someday have the kind of perfect love for our neighbors and ourselves, that we can say of what we have done, that, “It is good.”

I think The Screwtape Letters is an important book to read. It has equipped me with answers to so many questions I have had and given me no choice but to confront myself honestly and begin to intentionally seek out my problems. It has opened my eyes to so many temptations I fall into daily but at the same time I see the incredible grace and love God has for me more than ever before, so rather than being discouraged I feel grace. Being reminded that if I fall I will be caught has filled me with the courage to keep on leaping forward. As C.S.Lewis says so well in his book,“He wants them to learn how to walk . . . and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles.”

Today’s article is a guest post written by Sonora Myers. She is my daughter and quite the writer – among many things – in her own right.

The Transformative, Shaping Power of Books

This last year I read significantly more than years past. Too much perhaps, but reading has become a sort of hobby for me, an activity away from work that allows me to unwind and relax. I’ve heard that hobbies are important. A few years ago tried to take up fishing but never caught anything and so, whenever someone asked me what my hobby was I’d reply, “casting.” It seemed right to name it what it was.

While I”ve always been a reader, last year I read more books than any previous year. The final count came in at sixty six books. I read widely too: youth fiction, biography, Christian non-fiction, personal development, history and increasingly, those books who find their way into the category of classic literature. A good two thirds of the books I read were audiobooks and I regularly have two to three books going at any one time. I never read more than one book of fiction at a time but I’ll often have several works of non-fiction that I am working through.

C.S. Lewis said, “Those of us who have been true readers all our lives seldom fully realize the enormous extension of our own being which we owe to authors.” When I think about who I’ve become, my own journey of discipleship and how I think about the world this rings true. Books are perhaps the single most constant source of my own personal formation. They’ve shaped me both directly and indirectly. Besides good friends, books continue to fire my imagination, challenge my thinking and shape the narrative, the worldview of my thinking.

Dorothy Sayers said that, “the sole true end of education is simply this: to teach men how to learn for themselves.” There is little in life that allows me to continue to educate myself beyond books. Youtube can give me the information I need to fix a faucet but little more. Books however, and good books for sure, cause the mind to work at the task of cultivation, tilling the soil of the mind and the soul, planting seeds of old ideas made new, waiting in patient anticipation for new growth and, if all goes well, a harvest. Speaking of reading history, John Lewis Gaddis said, “Standing in the past is no sure guide to predicting the future. What it does do, though, is to prepare you for the future by expanding experience, so that you can increase your skills, your stamina, and, if all goes well, your wisdom.”

A good book is more than just paper and ink. It is a vehicle for formation and as Gaddis hopes, for the gaining of wisdom. And so I continue to read. Perhaps not at the same rate as last year but I’ll read on nonetheless.

How about you? What good books have you read lately?

Cobbled Together

Thoughts on faith, the great commission and our cobbled together life.

Tag: Books