Rhetoric

Acknowledgments.

List of Abbreviations.

Introducting Rhetoric.

Part I: Classical Rhetorical Traditions.

Introduction.

1 The Rhetorician: Demagogue or Statesman? Plato's Gorgias and
Aristotle's Rhetoric.

2 Eloquence, Persuasion, and Invention: Cicero's De oratore.

3 Rhetoric and the Search for God: Augustine's On Christian
Doctrine and Confessions.

4 Practical Reason or Interested Calculation? Cicero's On Duties
and Machiavelli's The Prince.

Part II: Classical Rhetoric and Literary Interpretation.

Introduction.

5 Tradition and Invention: Bacon's Aphorisms and the Essays.

6 Deception, Strong Speech, and Mild Discourse in Milton's Early
Prose and Paradise Lost.

7 Prudence and Eloquence in Jane Austen's Persuasion.

Part III: Rhetoric and Contemporary Disciplines.

Introduction.

8 Literary Criticism and Rhetorical Invention: Wayne C. Booth's
The Rhetoric of Fiction and Stephen Greenblatt's Marvelous
Possessions.

9 Faction Politics and Rhetorical Invention: Eugene Garver's For
the Sake of Argument and Danielle S. Allen's Talking to
Strangers.

10 Legal Reasoning, Historical Contingency, and Change: Edward
H. Levi's An Introduction to Legal Reasoning.

Index.

"Professor Olmsted has produced a much-needed and unique book: an
account of rhetorical thinking through the ages focused on specific
texts in their cultural contexts. The book does something far more
important than impart mere doctrine: it demonstrates how, and
teaches one, to think like a rhetorician. It will make an
invaluable contribution in and out of the classroom." Walter
Jost, University of Virgina

"Wendy Olmsted gives scholars and teachers in many disciplines a
valuable new kind of historical introduction to rhetoric. In three
interrelated sections she provides a clear overview of classical
rhetoric, incisive case studies of literature and rhetoric, and a
suggestive discussion of rhetorical invention and argument in
literary criticism, politics, and law. This book creatively teaches
us how to think rhetorically through concrete historical examples
of deliberation and judgment." Steven Mailloux, University of
California

Wendy Olmsted is Associate Professor in the New Collegiate Division and in the Humanities Division at the University of Chicago as well as Associated Faculty Member in the Department of Classics (PAMW). Her previous publications include A Companion to Rhetoric and Rhetorical Criticism, co-edited with Walter Jost (Blackwell Publishing, 2004) and Rhetorical Invention and Religious Inquiry, co-edited with Walter Jost (Yale University Press, 2000).

W. Olmsted, University of Chicago