Contemporary public speaking remains an important part of our national life and a substantial force in shaping current events. Many of America's most important moments and issues, such as wars, scandals, election campaigns, September 11, 2001, have been defined by oratory. Here, over 50 essays cover a substantial and interesting group of major American social, political, economic, and cultural figures from the 1960s to the present. Each entry explains the biographical forces that shaped a speaker and his or her rhetorical approach, focuses mainly on a discussion of the orator's major speeches...
Contemporary public speaking remains an important part of our national life and a substantial force in shaping current events. Many of America's most ...
Richard M. Weaver (1910-1963) was one of the leading rhetoricians of the 1950s, whose philosophical and pedagogical writings helped revitalize interest in rhetoric. His rhetorical contributions are difficult to separate from his conservative stances on social and political issues; and, indeed, he espoused the cultural role of rhetoric, conceiving of his intellectual task as one of reinventing a philosophical conservatism and employing rhetorical theory to oppose liberalism and modernism. Today, his politics would be viewed as extreme by liberals, feminists, and civil libertarians; on the...
Richard M. Weaver (1910-1963) was one of the leading rhetoricians of the 1950s, whose philosophical and pedagogical writings helped revitalize inte...
