The particular way in which songs (and especially the songs of social movements) accumulate persuasive force has been the subject of much scholarly inquiry. This paper investigates the rhetorical power of the popular musical text, "We Shall Overcome," arguing that the song endures as an almost expected rhetorical feature of any social…

Discusses Theodore Weld's "American Slavery As It Is," the largest selling antislavery text prior to "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Argues that it signaled a key moment in the abolitionist's efforts to represent slavery. Maintains that it helped to set in place a vocabulary of images that has implications for race relations today. (SR)

Examines the process of "spin control" (in which partisans provide commentary on campaign events) and presents a taxonomy of it. Illustrates how both campaigns used the process in relation to the first 1988 presidential debate. Concludes that the Bush commentary was coordinated with the overall Republican campaign strategy, whereas the…

Analyzes Alexander Richardson's clothing metaphors which connected Ramist precepts to social values and philosophic assumptions drawn from the fields of fashion, psychology, and Puritan theology. Describes how these metaphors presented the Puritan community with an orientation toward listening and inculcated the Puritan speech community with…

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…

Defines and contrasts the rhetorical status (individual's and groups' potential influence in society through symbols) of some Blacks and Whites under slavery, and analyzes the more powerful forms of persuasion employed by many Blacks during and after Reconstruction. (SR)

Analyzes how John Dickinson's "Letter from a Farmer in Pennsylvania" appropriates pastoral design and convention for rhetorical ends. Explores how literary idiom lends its force of expression to meet the needs of public controversy and how rhetorical judgment is both insubstantiated in the argument and is its chief mode of appeal. (KEH)

Applies the concepts of persuasive definition, ideograph, and ideological history in an analysis of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s, discourse. Uses this analysis to enhance understanding of how the strategic definition of terms such as "liberal" can influence the ongoing struggle to set presumptions in American political life. (SR)

Offers a brief history of the teaching of expository discourse. Defines explanatory speaking, identifying its relation to informative speech. Presents a pedagogy for explanatory speaking, built on the classical rhetorical tradition and contemporary research. Describes implications for teacher training, student study skills, and assessment of…

This paper maintains that American thinking on propaganda revolves around five approaches--progressive propaganda critics, media practitioners, textual rationalists, communication scientists, and political polemicists--that all have deep roots in the twentieth century social and intellectual history of the United States. The paper examines the…

Examines how, in the 1920s and 1930s, birth control advertisements (prolific and illegal) conflicted with the arguments for birth-control legalization. Applies M. Bakhtin's grotesque and classical categories and M. Douglas's pollution metaphors to analyze the language birth-control advocates used to distinguish between medical and nonmedical…

Examines how the timing of Virginia's Ratification Convention twisted the principles of presumption and burden of proof in favor of the Federalists. Applies Richard Whately's rhetorical constructs to actual debates to analyze rhetorical strategies and voting behavior. Argues the need to modify the meaning of presumption and burden of proof. (KEH)

This paper examines past media research on presidential campaign debates, reviewing literature from the fields of mass communication, political science, and speech communication, and considering regulatory changes (e.g., debate sponsorship and equal time provisions) and the growth of primary and general debates as an institution. Beginning with…

Studies the development of a political ideology that draws on the resources of myth. Analyzes how Pat Robertson's concepts of apocalyptic fulfillment provided an ideological basis for his 1988 presidential campaign, but resulted in significant rhetorical problems. Finds that the transformation in Robertson's apocalyptic vision stemmed from his…

Discusses the post-presidential writings of Richard Nixon. Finds an overarching concern for the "will," which permitted Nixon to transform the standards of higher moral principle into the politics of expediency. Views Nixon's writings as a symptom of the ailing health of public morality in liberal society. (SR)