Rhetoric – An Historical Introduction

The author provides an intellectual frame for understanding the history and conceptual foundations of rhetoric and gives a strong sense of the ways classic rhetorical texts continue to influence us by providing contexts and resources for contemporary debates. The texts, which range from Aristotle's Rhetoric to Edward H. Levi's An Introduction to Legal Reasoning and Danielle S. Allen's Talking to Strangers serve simultaneously as models of persuasion and as thoughtful considerations of how rhetoric works. Earlier texts serve as contexts for later ones.