Book Review by Kirkus Reviews

A debut scholarly work explores Abraham Lincoln’s remarkable talent for rhetorical persuasion.

Lincoln’s meteoric rise to political prominence was an unlikely one—he was born to uneducated farmers; his political accomplishments prior to the presidency were modest; and he was an uncommonly awkward, even unattractive man. But Roda argues he was also a brilliant wordsmith, preternaturally capable of changing the opinions of others through the eloquence of his speeches and writings. The author diligently tracks Lincoln’s evolution as a public speaker, beginning with an impromptu debate he had at age 21 with an itinerant preacher in 1830. A year later, Lincoln moved to New Salem, Illinois, and joined a debating society. He honed his skills not only as a politician, but also as a lawyer—over the course of his legal career, he was involved in more than 5,000 extraordinarily diverse cases.

Despite the brevity of the book, Roda provides an impressively synoptic account of Lincoln’s rhetorical career, spanning his courtroom experiences, chief speeches including his inaugural addresses, and his famous debates with Stephen Douglas. In addition, the author charts the transformation of Lincoln’s style from flowery flourishes to one more restrained and elegant. Roda ably makes the case that Lincoln’s achievement as a persuader of others is historically unmatched: “Abraham Lincoln may be the most accomplished advocate the country has ever produced. There have been many Americans adept at making a case, to be sure, but who has accomplished more at this than Abraham Lincoln?” The author’s research is painstakingly meticulous and the conclusions he draws are cautiously judicious. And while he concedes that the work’s “facts are not new” and “can be found in any number of books and articles about Lincoln,” he supplies an analysis of the president’s oratorical prowess as astute as any other single-volume treatment. Moreover, Roda also helpfully anatomizes Lincoln’s rhetorical success into five distinct virtues: “credibility, clarity, fact, logic, and emotion.” The author’s study is a valuable resource for historians and rhetoric scholars alike.

An incisive Lincoln survey accessible to amateur historians.

Kirkus Indie, Kirkus Media LLC, 2600 Via Fortuna Suite 130 Austin, TX 78746
indie@kirkusreviews.com

Book Review by M. Kelly Tillery

You might know that the author of this slim but important work is a legendary Lancaster trial lawyer. Harvard College and Penn Law grad Joe Roda, now retired, had a long and distinguished legal career as one of the most prominent and successful personal injury lawyers in eastern and central Pennsylvania in the last 40+ years. Over the past almost decade he has used his passion for the law and Lincoln to build a second ‘career’ giving presentations on Lincoln’s talent for persuasion, which forms the basis for this volume.

At least thirteen books have been written on Lincoln’s 24-year law practice, and in 2000, the University of Illinois published online 96,386 documents from Lincoln’s practice. Roda draws on these and more, but focuses on explaining how Lincoln persuaded in cases in courtrooms and in politics in public. He, relies however, on only a handful of Lincoln’s cases, speeches, public letters, and official documents to carefully and persuasively prove his case that Lincoln was a master of persuasion in courts of law as well as the court of public opinion. This book is not only an important, if modest, addition to Lincoln scholarship, but also a very important and useful work for lawyers, especially trial lawyers. As my (and the author’s) friend, stellar Philadelphia litigator Dennis Suplee, perceptively observes, “… this is an extraordinary book that ought to be read by every young lawyer before he/she tries that all-important first case.”

Almost every American town North and South, has at least one lawyer who fancies him/herself an amateur Lincoln scholar, who is prepared to expound at the drop of a stovepipe hat about The Great Emancipator and who sometimes gives speeches and has either written or is writing one or more pieces about him. Roda fits that bill well and may know more about our 16th president than any Lancastrian since Thaddeus Stevens (1792-1868). It probably did not hurt that Doris Kearns (later Goodwin and then not yet famous) was his senior thesis adviser at Harvard.

As one of these “Lincoln Lawyers” myself, and a tough audience for any Lincoln work, I was skeptical when I read the title, the author, and the stated premise. I knew Mr. Roda only by reputation as a litigator, and I was until now unfamiliar with his passion for Lincoln and, particularly, for Lincoln the litigator. I frankly did not expect this highly successful trial lawyer, albeit retired from active practice, to divulge his own secrets of jury persuasion, as any careful analysis of Lincoln’s talents in that regard would necessarily do. It reminded me of a CLE lecture years ago attended by almost a thousand eager lawyers. Though billed as something like “Famed Trial Lawyer Jim Beasley Tells All His Trial Secrets,” Mr. Beasley disclosed not a one. Since he was then still an active practitioner, we should have known better.

Roda, however, delivers in this regard, from the comfort of retirement. As Lincoln always focused on what he called ”the nub of the case,” masterfully reducing complex facts and law to one or two simple themes, so, too, does Roda when analyzing and explaining the principles and values held and practiced by Lincoln when persuading either a jury in court or the public in politics.

For any Lincoln buff, “Part I” (86 pp.) will seem an unnecessary summary of the basic facts of Lincoln’s lifetime of persuading others and a story told better in other works, but for the Lincoln neophyte, it lays a good and sufficient groundwork for the excellent analysis which follows. In the heart of the book – “Part II (77 pp.),” Roda separately discusses seven fundamentals which made Lincoln The Great Persuader – personality and intellect, knowledge of people, preparation and timing, credibility, facts, logic and emotion. Roda concludes with 13 key “lessons” learned from Lincoln the litigator. While an excellent summary, it felt a bit as if the author had run out of steam near the end. As an engaged reader, I wanted more and thus was somewhat unsatisfied. However, it did make me want to sign up for his next presentation.

In Lincolnia, nitpickers abound, so any author in this realm must venture carefully. Roda’s scholarship is excellent, though one error was noticed. He says, “The Emancipation Proclamation would remain the only emancipation measure that would go into effect until the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery on January 31, 1865.” (p. 50). Perhaps he forgot that Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Emancipation Act on April 16, 1862 freeing 3,185 slaves in Washington City at a cost of almost $1 million to the Federal Government.

Nevertheless, Roda’s work nicely presents a cogent analysis of what made Lincoln an effective persuader and provides valuable guidance to anyone, lawyer or not, who seeks to make a case.