Twentieth-Century Roots of Rhetorical Studies

Kuypers, King, and their contributors explore the conception of rhetoric of eleven key American rhetoricians through analyses of their life's work. Each chapter provides a sense of that scholar's conception of rhetoric, be it through criticism, theory, or teaching. The communication discipline often highlights the work of others outside the discipline; however, it rarely acclaims the work of its own critics, teachers, and theorists. In this collection, the essays explore the innate mode of perception that guided the rhetorical understanding of the early critics. In so doing, this work dispels the myth that the discipline of Speech Communication was spawned from a monolithic and rigid center that came to be called neo-Aristotelianism. Scholars and researchers involved with the history of rhetoric, rhetorical criticism and theory, and American public address uill find this title to be a necessary addition to their collection.

JIM A. KUYPERS is Senior Lecturer and Director of the Office of Speech at Dartmouth College. He has authored Presidential Crisis Rhetoric and the Press in a Post-Cold War World (Praeger, 1997) and Media Manipulation of Controversial Issues (forthcoming). He is a former co-editor for the American Communication Journal. His research interests include political communication, meta-criticism, and the moral/poetic use of language.

ANDREW KING is Professor and Chair of the Department of Speech Communication at Louisiana State University. He is the author of Postmodern Political Communication and Power and Communication. He is the former editor of the Quarterly Journal of Speech and the Southern Communication Journal. Professor King's academic interests lie in the areas of communication and power, and medieval and Renaissance rhetorical theory.