An introduction to style and rhetoric (the art of persuasion) in American literature and oratory. The core of this book consists of catalogues of terms from stylistics, rhetoric, and Speech Communication (oratory), with examples illustrating the various devices taken almost exclusively from American sources--novels, plays, poetry, nonfiction, television programs. This book is essential reading for academics and nonacademics interested in U.S. culture, history, literary history, literature, and oratory--but it will be valued by anyone, scholarly or otherwise, who simply loves language and the...

The term "Pensees" is appropriated from a book of the same name (it translates from the French as "Thoughts") by the philosopher Blaise Pascal. Pascal argues that a universe without God is terrifying and meaningless; he goes on to offer his famous-perhaps infamous is a better word-"wager," whereby he argues that belief in God is a good bet, an expedient decision. In lively and accessible prose, shot through and through with humour and satirical wit, Professor Zimmerman demolishes the choice for Christian faith by exploring some powerful moral and intellectual objections to religion. He does...