I have been listening to Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It is really a good book and the reader is doing a great job. I remember always hearing that (1) the civil war wasn't really about slavery, it was about economics, and (2) Lincoln wasn't really against slaverly. I'm not sure where exactly I've heard these theories. Actually, those are both wrong. Lincoln was very much against slavery and his biological parents were both anti-slavery. And there was much, much contenious debate for decades prior to the civil war over the slavery question. The primary issue of contention was whether slavery could be allowed in the new states.
It is really a great book because she uses a good deal of source material to tell us about Lincoln's path to the White House and about the lives and histories of his cabinet members who had been his political rivals for the White House. I am only on Disk 9 of 36, but I am really enjoying it and learning quite a bit.
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