Im really enjoying Team of Rivals. As the title suggests it deals with the relationship among Lincoln and the men who competed with him for the Presidential nomination. These were primarily William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase and Edward Bates. It has also touched briefly on Edwin Stanton, future Secretary of War. (I have reached p. 230, at a point leading up to the 1860 Republican National Convention.) The book provides mini-biographies of each of these characters that make nice complements to what I have previously read in the Lincoln biography by David H. Donald. I will continue to read Team of Rivals to the point where the war begins, then switch to one of the bios I just got from Amazon Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis.
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals
Good choice.
Doris Goodwin is a well-known plagiarized her work is not to be trusted.