The Handbook of Rhetoric and Public Address

The Handbook of Rhetoric and Public Address is a state–of–the–art companion to the field that showcases both the historical traditions and the future possibilities for public address scholarship in the twenty–first century. Focusing on public address as both a subject matter and a critical perspective, and mindful of the connections between the study of public address and the history of ideas, the volume provides an historical overview of public address research and pedagogy, as well as a reassessment of contemporary public address scholarship by those most engaged in its practice. Including in–depth discussions of basic issues and controversies public address scholarship, this collection of newly–commissioned works also explores the relationship between the study of public address and contemporary issues of civic engagement and democratic citizenship. The Handbook also reflects the diversity of views among public address scholars, advancing on–going discussions and debates over the goals and character of rhetorical scholarship.With its emphasis on the state–of–the–art and its guidance on many of the most basic theoretical and methodological questions relating to the subject, the Handbook of Rhetoric and Public Address promises to become the definitive statement on the purposes and character of research and teaching in public address at the beginning of the twenty–first century, and will have a major impact on the discipline for years to come.

Notes on Contributors. Acknowledgments. Introduction: The Study of Rhetoric and Public Address ( Shawn J. Parry–Giles and J. Michael Hogan ). Part I The History and Prospects of Rhetoric and Public Address. 1 The History of Public Address as an Academic Study ( Martin J. Medhurst ). 2 Public Address Scholarship in the New Century: Achievements and Challenges ( David Zarefsky ). 3 Rhetorical Criticism 2009: A Study in Method ( Karlyn Kohrs Campbell ). Part II Basic Research in Rhetoric and Public Address. 4 Textual Recovery, Textual Discovery: Returning to Our Past, Imagining Our Future ( Davis W. Houck ). 5 The Processes and Challenges of Textual Authentication ( Robert N. Gaines ). 6 Archival Research and the American Presidency: The Political and Rhetorical Complexities of Presidential Records ( Shawn J. Parry–Giles ). 7 From Recovering Women’s Words to Documenting Gender Constructs: Archival Research in the Twenty–First Century ( Susan Zaeske and Sarah Jedd ). Part III Text and Context in Rhetoric and Public Address. 8 The Racial Contexts of Public Address: Interpreting Violence During the Reconstruction Era ( Kirt H. Wilson ). 9 Lilies and Lavatory Paper: The Public and the Private in British Suffrage Archives ( Cheryl R. Jorgensen–Earp ). 10 Studying Visual Modes of Public Address: Lewis Hine’s Progressive–Era Child Labor Rhetoric ( Cara A. Finnegan ). 11 Theory and Public Address: The Allusive Mr. Bush ( John M. Murphy ). Part IV Questions of Effect in Rhetoric and Public Address. 12 Jimmy Carter, Human Rights, and Instrumental Effects of Presidential Rhetoric ( Mary E. Stuckey ). 13 Analyzing Constitutive Rhetorics: The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions and the “Principles of ’ 98” ( James Jasinski and Jennifer R. Mercieca ). Part V The Politics of Rhetoric and Public Address. 14 Feminism and Public Address Research: Television News and the Constitution of Women’s Liberation ( Bonnie J. Dow ). 15 The Problem of Race in Public Address Research: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Confl icted Aesthetics of Race ( Eric King Watts ). 16 Sexuality and Public Address: Rhetorical Pasts, Queer Theory, and Abraham Lincoln ( Charles E. Morris III ). 17 Public Address and the Revival of American Civic Culture ( J. Michael Hogan ). Select Bibliography. Index.

Shawn J. Parry–Giles is Professor of Communication and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Maryland.  She is also the Director of the Center for Political Communication and Civic Leadership, and the author of The Rhetorical Presidency, Propaganda, and the Cold War, 1945–1955 (2001), and co–author of Constructing Clinton: Hyper–Reality and Presidential Image–Making in Postmodern Politics (2002). J. Michael Hogan is Professor of Communication at Penn State University. He is the author of many books, including The Panama Canal in American Politics (1986), The Nuclear Freeze Campaign (1994), and Woodrow Wilson′s Western Tour (2006), along with two edited books, Rhetoric and Community (1998), and Rhetoric and Reform in the Progressive Era (2003).

"On the whole, an indispensable volume for those interested in the history and future of the field. Highly recommended. Upper–division undergraduates and above." (Choice, 1 May 2011)