Rhetoric: An Historical Introduction

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.