The thirty years prior to the Civil War were flamboyant and fiery times for the South. People had a passion for political issues and an ear for the lusty oratory that could be heard at any gathering, social or political. In Oratory in the Old South, Waldo Braden and his associates looked past the popular myths of that era and uncovered the true nature of the oratory of the times.

In this sequel to that earlier volume, Braden and seven other speech scholars examine the oratory of accommodation that dominated the southern forum in the post-Civil War years. Speakers of this era, they find,...