1900: The Last President

I’ll admit: I approached *1900: The Last President* expecting a quaint, over-the-top period piece—something to file alongside *Looking Backward* as a curiosity. Instead, I found myself pausing the audiobook to double-check the publication date. Lockwood’s vision of a fractured America, where ‘the people’ rise up only to plunge the nation into lawlessness, hits differently in 2024. That’s the audiobook’s greatest asset and its biggest flaw: it’s so *loud* in its convictions that it borders on caricature. Joseph Kant’s narration amplifies this. His deep, measured tone suits the material—think a less theatrical Orson Welles—but he occasionally over-eggs the dramatic pauses, turning what should feel like a cautionary tale into a melodrama. The production itself is clean, though the lack of ambient scoring or dynamic range makes the listening experience feel a bit flat, like a lecture hall recording. The story’s structure is essentially a series of vignettes: a president’s last stand, a banker’s suicide, a general’s betrayal. There’s no character development to speak of—Lockwood isn’t interested in individuals, only ideologies. That makes the audiobook feel more like a manifesto than a novel, which will frustrate listeners craving narrative depth. The pacing, too, is relentless; at 63 minutes, there’s no room to breathe, no moment of reflection. Yet that’s also what makes it compelling. This isn’t a book to *enjoy*—it’s one to argue with, to dissect, to use as a lens for today’s headlines. If you’re fascinated by how political fears recycle across centuries, Kant’s performance ensures the material lands with weight. But if you’re looking for subtlety or literary craft, you’ll leave disappointed. Three and a half stars feels right: essential for history buffs, but not for the faint of heart.