Political Rhetoric in Theory and Practice: A Reader

Political Rhetoric in Theory and Practice introduces the theory and practice of rhetoric. Its collection of primary sources combines classic statements of the theory of political rhetoric (Aristotle, Isocrates, Demosthenes, Cicero) with an extraordinarily rich array of political speeches, ancient as well as modern. From Socrates to Martin Luther King Jr., Pericles to Richard Nixon, Sojourner Truth to Phyllis Schlafly. These speeches exemplify not only the three principal kinds of rhetoric-judicial, deliberative, and epideictic-but also the main kinds of rhetorical proofs. Grouped thematically, this volume boasts a diversity of speakers that inclines toward (but is not for all that limited to) things American. At a time when the practice of democracy and democratic deliberation are much in question, this book seeks to encourage the serious study of political rhetoric by making available important examples of political rhetoric, in both its noblest manifestations and its most scurrilous forms.