Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

A Decade in the Making: Goodwin spent ten years researching and writing Team of Rivals, immersing herself in the 19th century world of Lincoln and his cabinet members through thousands of letters and diaries.

A Treasure Trove of Letters: The book draws on approximately 5,000 letters from William Seward's family alone, while both Salmon Chase and Edward Bates kept detailed diaries spanning decades that allowed Goodwin to capture their daily thoughts and feelings as events unfolded.

Won the Prestigious Lincoln Prize: Team of Rivals won the 2006 Lincoln Prize and the inaugural Book Prize for American History of the New-York Historical Society, earning $50,000 for the latter honor.

Spielberg Claimed It Before Publication: In 1999, while consulting on another Spielberg project, Goodwin mentioned she was planning to write Team of Rivals, and Spielberg immediately told her he wanted the film rights. DreamWorks finalized the deal in 2001, and Goodwin sent Spielberg the book chapter by chapter as she composed it.

Obama's Desert Island Pick: President Barack Obama named Team of Rivals as the one book he would want on a desert island, and the book was said to have influenced his approach to constructing his own cabinet.

The Film Used Only Pages: Critics noted that Steven Spielberg's 2012 film Lincoln, which focused almost entirely on the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, was based on only a few pages of Goodwin's 900-plus page book, with Tony Kushner doing substantial independent research for the screenplay.

Two Parts, Two Perspectives: The book is organized into two distinct parts: Part 1 called "The Rivals" chronicles the rise of Lincoln and his competitors leading to the 1860 inauguration, while Part 2 called "Master Among Men" covers Lincoln's presidency through his assassination in 1865.

Lincoln Found Consolation in Writing: During a plagiarism scandal over her earlier book The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, Goodwin found Lincoln a consolation while writing Team of Rivals, particularly his philosophy "not to waste precious energies on recriminations about the past."

Four Rivals Awaited Results Together: The book opens with a vivid scene on May 18, 1860, when four major contenders for the Republican presidential nomination waited in their separate hometowns for telegraph results from the Chicago convention, with William Seward widely considered the frontrunner.

Lincoln's Emotional Intelligence Shines: Goodwin demonstrates that Lincoln possessed what we might today call emotional intelligence, enabling him to write letters apologizing when he hurt someone's feelings and to use humor to defuse cabinet tensions, ultimately winning over men who initially considered him their inferior.

Seward Became Lincoln's Best Friend: Despite being the frontrunner who lost to Lincoln and initially planning to essentially run his own government within the cabinet, William Seward ultimately became Lincoln's closest friend in Washington, readily admitting he had vastly underestimated the President.