President Lincoln

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. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Starred review from December 17, 2007
Subtle and nuanced, this study is something of a sequel to Miller's Lincoln's Virtues
. Here he examines Honest Abe's moral and intellectual life while in the White House, prosecuting a bloody war. Miller finds that early in his presidency, Lincoln balanced two strong ethical imperatives—his duty to preserve the union and his determination not to fire the first shots. Of course, Miller also addresses that other great moral challenge: slavery. In short, says Miller, Lincoln believed slavery was “not only profoundly wrong but profoundly wrong specifically as measured by this nation's moral essence,” and he used a terrific amount of political savvy to push through emancipation. But more original is Miller's discussion of what Lincoln thought was at stake in the war. Through a close reading of the president's papers, Miller persuasively argues that Lincoln believed secession would not merely “diminish” or “damage” the United States but would destroy it. That, in turn, was an issue of global import, for if the American experiment failed, free government would not be secure anywhere. Miller has given us one of the most insightful accounts of Lincoln published in recent years.

September 1, 2008
This thoughtful and elegantly written sequel to Miller's 2002 biography, "Lincoln's Virtues", focuses on the decisions Lincoln faced as the Civil War threatened to destroy the Unionwell-trodden ground. But Miller's book differs in that it pays closer attention to the moral issues at play, e.g., Lincoln's commuting of the sentences of court-martialed soldiers. Lloyd James's (www.lloydjames.com) narration is competent but lacks energy, and his timing is often off. Really only for dedicated Lincoln aficionados or libraries stocking up on Lincoln biographies to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his February 12 birth. [Audio clip available through www.tantor.com; for a roundup of Lincoln books in this issue, see p. 136; additional reviews of Lincoln audiobooks forthcoming.Ed.]R. Kent Rasmussen, Thousand Oaks, CA

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