Challenges an ideology hidden within the history of rhetoric that privileges one form of the art over another--one approach moves outward toward the social world of public affairs, the other inward toward the center of the human soul. Recounts several "moments" in the creation, repression, and eventual recovery of a rhetoric of the…

Examines public address in the post-bellum South (focusing on the years 1865 to 1900) as a form of epideictic speaking, in order to illuminate both the genre and the Southern mind. (SR)

Traces the evolution of the enduring rhetorical genre of apologia from the Greek period to the present. Argues that apologia has undergone significant changes in form because its function has changed throughout history, producing five "subgenres." Examines implications for the continued feasibility of apologia, as well as the critical…

Discusses the results of a study concerning the relationship between agent, author, and matters of fact in the doctrine and practice of classical empiricism in the late 17th century. States that the historical study of empiricism provides a critical perspective on positivism and on social constructivism. (PA)

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)

An updated version of a bibliography which appeared in a 1982 edition of "Rhetoric Society Quarterly," this 132-item bibliography is divided into books and articles and book chapters. The selections date from 1933 through 1989. (NKA)

Advances a "rhetoricized" conception of alienation through the work of Mary Wollstonecraft, a British feminist writing in the 1790s. Suggests that alienation is a discursive problem posed by the interpolation of women throughout history and the reification of those interpolations over time. Shows how alienation functions as a critical…

Discusses George Gallup's crusade to establish polling's scientific and cultural legitimacy that mythologized its history of "progress"; deflected doubts about its accuracy and technical procedures with a rhetoric of scientific of mystification; and celebrated the collective wisdom of "the people." Shows how Gallup's…

Analyzes 140 pastoral letters issued by the American Catholic bishops before, during, and after Vatican II (1947 through 1981). Suggests that doctrinal rhetoric has a tremendous capacity to endure accelerated social and institutional change, and that the rhetorical impact of Vatican II was quickly institutionalized in the public communications of…

Critiques prior scholarship that argues Margaret Sanger's magazine "The Woman Rebel" was a failure. Argues that it was a strategic and rhetorical success, offering a coherent description of what is now socialist feminism, and addressing its primary audience of working-class women primarily through simplistic moral reasoning and…

Examines the close formal relationship between the Renaissance rhetoric of letter-writing and the common law system of "writs." Traces a forensic urge reflected in structural and stylistic preferences of two letter-writing exemplars. Compares the graphic form of instructional aids in both systems to illustrate methods for examining their…

Shows why truthfulness, because of its link to spirituality, was the foremost standard for speech in ancient India, and how its practice was defined, emphasizing the consequences of truthfulness and deceit for speakers themselves. Considers possible contributions to current rhetorical and ethical studies. (SR)

Explores how influential works of one culture are adapted to the needs, circumstances and thought patterns of another. Analyzes as a case study Yan Fu's "Heavenly Evolution," a rhetorical translation of Thomas Huxley's "Evolution and Ethics," whose publication resulted in a rapid spread of a version of Darwinism in Confucian…

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)