The Prophetic Tradition and Radical Rhetoric in America

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NYU Press, 1997 - 279 páginas

This expansive volume traces the rhetoric of reform across American history, examining such pivotal periods as the American Revolution, slavery, McCarthyism, and today's gay liberation movement. At a time when social movements led by religious leaders, from Louis Farrakhan to Pat Buchanan, are playing a central role in American politics, James Darsey connects this radical tradition with its prophetic roots.
Public discourse in the West is derived from the Greek principles of civility, diplomacy, compromise, and negotiation. On this model, radical speech is often taken to be a sympton of social disorder. Not so, contends Darsey, who argues that the rhetoric of reform in America represents the continuation of a tradition separate from the commonly accepted principles of the Greeks. Though the links have gone unrecognized, the American radical tradition stems not from Aristotle, he maintains, but from the prophets of the Hebrew Bible.

Dentro del libro

Contenido

Part I
10
SelfEvidence
35
Wendell Phillips and
61
The Passion
85
The Word in Darkness III
111
Joe McCarthys Rhetoric
128
The Romantic Vision
151
IO The Seraph and the Snake
199
Index
269
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Acerca del autor (1997)

James Darsey is Assistant Professor of Communication at Northern Illinois University.

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