Why is political rhetoric broken – and how can it be fixed? Words on Fire returns to the origins of rhetoric to recover the central place of eloquence in political thought. Eloquence, for the orators of classical antiquity, emerged from rhetorical relationships that exposed both speaker and audience to risk. Through close readings of Cicero – and his predecessors, rivals, and successors – political theorist and former speechwriter Rob Goodman tracks the development of this ideal, in which speech is both spontaneous and stylized, and in which the pursuit of eloquence mitigates political inequalities. He goes on to trace the fierce disputes over Ciceronian speech in the modern world through the work of such figures as Burke, Macaulay, Tocqueville, and Schmitt, explaining how rhetorical risk-sharing has broken down. Words on Fire offers a powerful critique of today's political language – and shows how the struggle over the meaning of eloquence has shaped our world.
Author(s): Rob Goodman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 233
City: Cambridge
03.0_pp_iv_iv_Copyright_page
04.0_pp_v_v_Dedication
05.0_pp_vi_vi_Epigraph
06.0_pp_vii_viii_Contents
07.0_pp_ix_x_Acknowledgments
08.0_pp_1_20_Introduction_Just_Words
09.0_pp_21_84_Eloquence_and_the_Ancients
09.1_pp_23_50_I_Tremble_with_My_Whole_Heart
09.2_pp_51_77_The_Parthenon_and_the_Outhouse
09.3_pp_78_84_Postscript_Quintilian_Tacitus_and_the_Problem_of_Large-Scale_Decorum
10.0_pp_85_194_Eloquence_and_the_Moderns
10.1_pp_87_117_Edmund_Burke_and_the_Deliberative_Sublime
10.2_pp_118_157_Debatable_Land
10.3_pp_158_183_Speaking_As_If
10.4_pp_184_194_Conclusion
11.0_pp_195_214_Bibliography
12.0_pp_215_224_Index
