This essay discusses Justice Anthony M. Kennedy's choice to foreground arguments from due process rather than equal protection in the majority opinion in Lawrence v. Texas. Kennedy's choice can realize constitutional legal doctrine that is more consistent with radical queer politics than arguments from equal protection. Unlike some recent…

Does rhetoric have a place in the discourse of human rights? Without certain reply, as the dilemmas of defining, claiming, and promoting human rights appear both to include and exclude the rhetorical gesture, this question invites inquiry into the preface of the contemporary human rights regime, the moment of the aftermath that provokes a struggle…

The "twisted cyber spy" affair began in 2010, when Google was attacked by Chinese cyber-warriors charged with stealing Google's intellectual property, planting viruses in its computers, and hacking the accounts of Chinese human rights activists. In the ensuing international embroglio, the US mainstream press, corporate leaders, and White…

In this essay, the author examines the digital circulations of representations of one Afghan women's rights organization--the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)--to demonstrate the importance of a global and digital field for feminist rhetorical analysis. Specifically, this analysis traces how women's self-representations are…

Discusses the effective rhetoric of Dr. King's "Letter" in terms of his use of refutative logic to address two audiences simultaneously, using one to provide a focus through which the other could be addressed. The "Letter" is adapted to both audiences on structural, logical, and stylistic levels. (JMF)

Identifies and assesses the values displayed in Lyndon Johnson's communication about the riots during his term of office. (PD)

Contributes to rhetorical scholarship by analyzing the life and work of the intellectual, quiet, enigmatic civil rights leader Robert Parris Moses. Analyzes Moses's substantive message, personal persona, and second persona as synergistic and reciprocal elements of reconstitutive identification by understanding his rhetorical goals and the…

Examines Lyndon Johnson's rhetoric in bringing about a shift in the concept of "equal opportunity" from nondiscrimination to affirmative action through the process of dissociation. Defines dissociation as separating a unitary concept into parts, identifying the less valued part, and reformulating the more valued part. (JMF)

Studies the nature and effect of the rhetorical strategies of Sarah Winnemucca, a Paiute Indian (1878-1884), and Bright Eyes, "the Ponca Girl" (1879-1882) who both served as spokeswomen for their tribes' struggles for Indian rights as citizens and human beings in post-Civil War America. (MH)

This monograph examines the way in which ideas emerged and grew in the rhetorical process of creating an American people, and the ways in which the ideas were transformed into fundamental symbols that have exerted their influence throughout United States history. The first chapter analyzes certain discourses of the American Revolution to show the…

Many theoreticians have indicated that a major task of the nonpresumptive rhetor is to gain presumption, thereby shifting the burden of proof to the opposition. Rhetorically, Martin Luther King, Jr., sought to effect this shift in the burden of proof through the use of hierarchies of values. At the top of his value system was the love of God. The…

The historical rhetoric, mythic heroes, and values of the American Revolution have become the justification for many other contemporary "revolutions." Collective movements advocating states' independence, the abolition of slavery, women's rights, civil rights, and so on, have manipulated the concept of heroic equality as it is embodied…

Reexamines Gunnar Myrdal's "An American Dilemma" (1944), which argued race relations in America would improve because the American Creed of democratic liberalism created a dilemma between existing racial prejudice and the national ideology. Describes how Myrdal's deterministic perspective robbed civil rights historiography of its drama…

Radical feminist Andrea Dworkin has been instrumental in efforts to curtail pornography by defining it as a violation of women's civil rights and allowing individual women to sue the distributors for damages. Dworkin's position derives from the tension between "what should be" and "what is." Her conception of the difference…

Noting that the proliferation of discourse by and about the women's movement makes focus imperative in a bibliography dealing with feminism, this annotated bibliography concentrates on rhetorical analysis of American feminist rhetoric. The 42 cited items, most of which appeared in communication journals or were presented at communication…