PRESIDENT LINCOLN The Duty of a Statesman

This important work of scholarship is a companion to Miller's acclaimed LINCOLN'S VIRTUES. The emphasis of this work is on Lincoln as "politician"--not in the contemporary pejorative meaning, but in the sense of how the sixteenth president was able to work with, and through, people--as a statesman. Lincoln is seen as a man with the ability to get people, even those who despised or opposed him, to do what he wanted. He also possessed that rare trait of not caring who got the credit or glory. Unfortunately, the narration of this work is not up to task. Lloyd James has a soft, usually unvoiced, delivery style. Here his voice seems, at least to this reviewer, "small"--and the performance bland. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2008]