Joe Roda’s book Abraham Lincoln and Making a Case: The Story of a Master is available for purchase
Joe Roda's book Abraham Lincoln and Making a Case: The Story of a Master is published and now available for purchase. The book is available in hardcover, softcover, or digital form from Amazon Books.
From Dennis Suplee:
At our meeting at the Equinox in Vermont several years ago, Fellow Joe Roda gave a presentation entitled Abraham Lincoln and Making a Case, which looked at Lincoln's talent for persuasion, especially public persuasion, as courtroom lawyer, then as rising politician in the 1850's, and then as President. When Joe finished, the audience gave him a standing ovation, not easy to get from such a discriminating group.
I have seen Joe give the same presentation, with the same audience response, on two other occasions, at the Penn Law American Inns of Court, and at the "Roundtable" of the Philadelphia Union League, where Joe's presentation reportedly drew the largest crowd (more than a hundred) in the Roundtable's history.
At each of the presentations, audience members said the Joe should write a book, and when told that Joe was doing just that, there was great interest in when it would be finished and available. Well, it now is: Abraham Lincoln and Making a Case. The Story of a Master. Part I traces Lincoln's history at persuasion, from the boy who jumped on tree stumps and repeated the sermon he had just heard, to the adult author of the speeches and writings for which he is so famous. Part II then looks at what made him so good at persuasion: his personality and intellect, and his masterful blend of credibility, clarity, fact, logic, and emotion.
It is, as Joe notes early on, a remarkable story, and the book tells it well. It is one-stop shopping for anyone interested in Lincoln's ability at persuasion, or persuasion itself, in the courtroom and beyond. I have told Joe that I think it should be required reading for any lawyer intending to set foot in a courtroom.