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That Lincoln succeeded, Goodwin demonstrates, was the result of a character that had been forged by experiences that raised him above his more privileged and accomplished rivals.

Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each had energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and civil war. When Lincoln emerged as the victor, his rivals were dismayed and angry. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the Republican National Convention in Chicago. Barack Obama (who rightly calls it "wonderful") famously used it as a manual in picking his own cabinet he may now find it also a source of comfort, showing that even Lincoln sometimes chose the wrong guy.Acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin illuminates Lincoln's political genius in this highly original work, as the one-term congressman and prairie lawyer rises from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals of national reputation to become president. What makes Team of Rivals such a rich experience is that it's a team of books, combining an absorbing psychological study, a group biography of the four rivals and their families, a history of the civil war as viewed from the White House, and a vivid, West Wing-like portrayal of two presidential campaigns and Washington infighting.

This Pulitzer prize-winning life does ample justice to the "moral power" the novelist admired, but also reflects the peerlessly eloquent orator the stoical head of a family afflicted by death and depression and, above all, the shrewd manager of men who riskily gave cabinet posts to the better-known trio he beat to the 1860 Republican nomination - William Seward, Salmon Chase and Edward Bates. T olstoy called Lincoln "so great he overshadows all other national heroes".