Discusses how speeches delivered at a 1960 dinner by then presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon changed the face of political campaign rhetoric. Argues that both men used comic strategies to create a more inclusive American covenant, and emphasizes the importance of examining pragmatic and cultural implications of presidential…

Claims that Adlai Stevenson adapted the tenets of contemporary civic republicanism as a pragmatic to the response to the obstacles that confronted him in his 1952 presidential campaign. Analyzes his campaign rhetoric to reveal the strengths and limitations of republicanism as a political argument. Explores the complex relationship between…