Product Description

In this manifesto, distinguished critic Wayne Booth claims that communication in every corner of life can be improved if we study rhetoric closely.

• Written by Wayne Booth, author of the seminal book, The Rhetoric of Fiction (1961).


• Explores the consequences of bad rhetoric in education, in politics, and in the media.


• Investigates the possibility of reducing harmful conflict by practising a rhetoric that depends on deep listening by both sides.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #249227 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
"In The Rhetoric of RHETORIC Wayne C. Booth passionately and persuasively demonstrates the centrality of rhetoric to human inquiry and human interaction. Taking Booth’s manifesto seriously -- responding to it in the spirit of what he calls ‘listening rhetoric’ -- can improve the quality of our thought, our interactions, and, thus, our lives." James Phelan, Ohio State University

From the Back Cover
The Rhetoric of RHETORIC is a manifesto addressed to a broad audience, dramatizing the importance of rhetorical studies and lamenting their widespread neglect. In it, distinguished critic Wayne C. Booth claims that communication in every corner of life can be improved if only we study rhetoric more closely.

After exploring and combating the various pejorative definitions of “rhetoric” and briefly tracing its history, Booth explores the consequences of bad rhetoric in education, in politics, and in the media. A few cures for bad rhetoric are offered, and a final chapter investigates the possibility of reducing harmful conflict by practicing a rhetoric that depends on deep listening by both sides. The key example used is the warfare between science and religion.

About the Author
Wayne C. Booth is Distinguished Service Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Chicago. His previous publications include The Rhetoric of Fiction (1961), A Rhetoric of Irony (1974), Critical Understanding (1979), The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction (1988), The Craft of Research (with Williams and Colomb, 1994), and For the Love of It: Amateuring and Its Rivals (1999). Like most of his publications, his teaching has concentrated on diverse ways of improving human communication.

Customer Reviews

Are You Talking to Me? Are You Talking to Me?
This is the first book I've read by Wayne Booth, and it makes me want to read all of his other well-known and oft-quoted works. I am not a fan of literary criticism, since it is generally poorly written and about as interesting and well-produced as cheap sausage, but The Rhetoric of Rhetoric is the real thing. I actually *enjoyed* reading it -- a page-turner. I learned a great deal about the history and meaning of rhetoric, which I wish I'd known before. But this isn't simply history (though that in itself is worth the book): I was buoyed by his idea of "listening rhetoric" in a world that has become trapped in the futile and belligerent cycle of "win rhetoric," particularly, as he notes, in a global/cyberculture where the whole world is listening--sort of. He is right to note that this global net culture has eliminated the niche audience: no more speaking exclusively to the choir (or at least not without global eavesdroppers).

Buy this book and then, let's talk: I promise to listen.

A guidebook by �minent grise Wayne C. Booth
The latest work by Wayne C. Booth, distinguished critic and author of the seminal book, The Rhetoric of Fiction (1961), claims to be nothing less than a manifesto. The book is addressed to a broad audience and dramatizes the importance of rhetorical studies. In it Booth asserts that communication in every corner of live as well as complex conflict situations can be improved by the study of rhetoric. The book opens with the characteristic problem of the study of rhetoric: the issue of its definition and its inevitable misinterpretations. But whereas conventional contemporary rhetorical study often limit the relevance of this study to insight in the disseminating work of language, Booth becomes somewhat of an optimist. Booth develops a pragmatic idea of rhetoric as a means for, surprisingly, `better' communications. He investigates the possibility of reducing harmful conflict by practising a rhetoric that depends on deep listening by both sides. This makes the book both a compelling read in its relevance for current affairs (politics, media and education), and a small but noticeable leap away from theoretical occupations. The latter shows however that the book's insights depend on an internal contradiction - can rhetoric find positive appreciation outside of theoretic circles -, a conflict that the book itself cannot solve; it needs a benevolent reader to do this.