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The fourth is an extended review of presidential leadership in a time of terrible suffering and mortal threat: Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.

LOL, that's just what I need for Christmas. A book by a plagarist on a man that worked to destroy the Constitution. Maybe for April Fools perhaps but even then it wouldn't warrant much more than being a doorstop.

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln barely won the Republican nomination in 1860, barely won the presidency, suffered a near total defeat in the elections of 1862, and presided over a Civil War that claimed the lives of 600,000 men out of a population of approximately 40 million, while leaving another 2 million wounded and large swathes of the country devastated. Copperheads openly demanded peace, and as the war dragged on, millions in the north began to wonder whether the country was worth the cost in carnage. General after general disappointed him, some turned against him publicly, and one –McClellan—ran against him in 1864.

Team of Rivals is an outstanding book. Unfortunately Lincoln is still stigmatized by many Americans, IMO, unfairly. Under his leadership, arguably the most significant emancipation in the history of all mankind took place. Nevertheless, the pain of that war still sends shivers through time across generations. Irrespective of that, champions of controversial causes tend to be stained immediately after their greatest moments. Only a clear appreciation of history and the passage of enough time can wash away the blood that blurs our eyes. My consolation has always been that we, as a nation, know where we've been, know where we are and know where we're going.

Lincoln barely won the Republican nomination in 1860, barely won the presidency,

The election of Lincoln was part of the reason for secession. He was elected without winning a single southern/northern slave state. It was quite evident that the population of the north was now large enough that compromise/consensus was no longer necessary between the two regions.

The South had entered the union in the same state as the north; with slavery legal and in practice. By the time of Lincoln's election most of the north had made slavery illegal, many of these slaves being sold down south that their owners would not lose their investment. That was fairly simple as the number of slaves "up north" was small in comparison to that of the south which had a preponderance of it wealth tied up in chattel slavery.

The South, if just wanting to preserve slavery, could have rejoined the union and helped pass the "Corwin Amendment"; but by that time the gulf between the two regions was to their satisfaction real and undeniable. And to do so would relegate them to be the redheaded step child forever in the shadow of their more numerous and industrializing masters "up north".