Rhetoric and Reform in the Progressive Era

Rhetoric and Reform in the Progressive Era
Author: J. Michael Hogan
Publisher: Rhetorical History of the Unit
Total Pages: 552
Release: 2003
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

The Progressive Era witnessed a rhetorical renaissance that changed how Americans talked about politics and society. Marking a clean break from the rhetoric of the Gilded Age, the discourse of progressivism represented a new common language of political and social analysis that was reform-oriented, moralistic, and optimistic about the future. Progressives shared a strong faith in public opinion, and they revitalized the public sphere through a variety of initiatives to encourage public discussion and empower the citizenry. Whatever their differences, Progressives believed that a democratic public, properly educated and deliberating freely, represented the best hope for America in the modern age. Rhetoric and Reform in the Progressive Era presents twelve major studies of the discourse of progressivism, ranging from fresh interpretations of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, to new studies of the "working class eloquence" of Eugene Debs, the debate between W. E. B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey, and the peace advocacy of Jane Addams. Other studies in this volume explore the rhetorical origins of the conservation movement and professional journalism, chart the progress of the woman suffrage crusade, and show how Progressive social thinkers planted the seeds of the Ku Klux Klan's resurgence in the 1920s. Taken together, these essays display the remarkable diversity and vitality of the Progressive rhetorical renaissance. They show how robust democratic speech became a distinguishing characteristic of the Progressive Era.

Bodies of Reform

Bodies of Reform
Author: James B. Salazar
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2010-09-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 0814741320

Part of the American Literatures Initiative Series From the patricians of the early republic to post-Reconstruction racial scientists, from fin de siècle progressivist social reformers to post-war sociologists, character, that curiously formable yet equally formidable “stuff,” has had a long and checkered history giving shape to the American national identity. Bodies of Reform reconceives this pivotal category of nineteenth-century literature and culture by charting the development of the concept of “character” in the fictional genres, social reform movements, and political cultures of the United States from the mid-nineteenth to the early-twentieth century. By reading novelists such as Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Pauline Hopkins, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman alongside a diverse collection of texts concerned with the mission of building character, including child-rearing guides, muscle-building magazines, libel and naturalization law, Scout handbooks, and success manuals, James B. Salazar uncovers how the cultural practices of representing character operated in tandem with the character-building strategies of social reformers. His innovative reading of this archive offers a radical revision of this defining category in U.S. literature and culture, arguing that character was the keystone of a cultural politics of embodiment, a politics that played a critical role in determining-and contesting-the social mobility, political authority, and cultural meaning of the raced and gendered body.

Assigning Blame

Assigning Blame
Author: Mark Hlavacik
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9781612509723

This book, written by a rhetorical scholar, analyzes pivotal moments in thirty-five years of education policy, with a focus on the shifting role of blame in education reform and its implications.--

Reform and the Papacy in the Eleventh Century

Reform and the Papacy in the Eleventh Century
Author: Kathleen G. Cushing
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2005-11-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780719058349

Focusing on how the papacy took an increasing role in shaping the direction of its own reform and that of society itself, this text also addresses the role of the Latin Church in Western Europe and how reformist writings sought to change the behaviour and expectations of the aristocracy.

Prophetic Tradition and Radical Rhetoric in America

Prophetic Tradition and Radical Rhetoric in America
Author: James Darsey
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 291
Release: 1999-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0814719244

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.

Reforming Women

Reforming Women
Author: Lisa J. Shaver
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2019-02-02
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0822986469

In Reforming Women, Lisa Shaver locates the emergence of a distinct women’s rhetoric and feminist consciousness in the American Female Moral Reform Society. Established in 1834, the society took aim at prostitution, brothels, and the lascivious behavior increasingly visible in America’s industrializing cities. In particular, female moral reformers contested the double standard that overlooked promiscuous behavior in men while harshly condemning women for the same offense. Their ardent rhetoric resonated with women across the country. With its widely-read periodical and auxiliary societies representing more than 50,000 women, the American Female Moral Reform Society became the first national reform movement organized, led, and comprised solely by women. Drawing on an in-depth examination of the group’s periodical, Reforming Women delineates essential rhetorical tactics including women’s strategic use of gender, the periodical press, anger, presence, auxiliary societies, and institutional rhetoric—tactics women’s reform efforts would use throughout the nineteenth century. Almost two centuries later, female moral reformers’ rhetoric resonates today as our society continues to struggle with different moral expectations for men and women.

Nineteenth-Century American Activist Rhetorics

Nineteenth-Century American Activist Rhetorics
Author: Patricia Bizzell
Publisher: Modern Language Association
Total Pages: 422
Release: 2020-12-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1603295224

In the nineteenth century the United States was ablaze with activism and reform: people of all races, creeds, classes, and genders engaged with diverse intellectual, social, and civic issues. This cutting-edge, revelatory book focuses on rhetoric that is overtly political and oriented to social reform. It not only contributes to our historical understanding of the period by covering a wide array of contexts--from letters, preaching, and speeches to labor organizing, protests, journalism, and theater by white and Black women, Indigenous people, and Chinese immigrants--but also relates conflicts over imperialism, colonialism, women's rights, temperance, and slavery to today's struggles over racial justice, sexual freedom, access to multimodal knowledge, and the unjust effects of sociopolitical hierarchies. The editors' introduction traces recent scholarship on activist rhetorics and the turn in rhetorical theory toward the work of marginalized voices calling for radical social change.

The Illusion of Equality

The Illusion of Equality
Author: Martha Fineman
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 268
Release: 1994-06
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780226249575

How do "no-fault," "gender-neutral" divorce reforms actually harm the lives of women and children they are designed to protect? Focusing on the language and symbols of reform, Martha Fineman argues that by advocating measures based on equality of treatment rather than of outcome, liberal feminists disregarded the socioeconomic factors that simultaneously place women at a disadvantage in the market and favor their taking on primary domestic responsibilities. She traces in persuasive detail the detrimental effects of equality rhetoric in shaping divorce law — such as the legal separation of parents' and children's interests; equality replacing need as the prime criterion for settlements; and the increase of state intervention into family life. More than a critique, this book is an incisive argument for adopting outcome-oriented measures and a valuable overview of the pitfalls of uncritically implementing any rhetoric as social policy.

I Do what I Do

I Do what I Do
Author: Raghuram Rajan
Publisher: HarperCollins India
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9789352770144

"On reform, rhetoric and resolve"--Cover page.

Rhetoric of the Reformation

Rhetoric of the Reformation
Author: Peter Matheson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2004-10-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567082385

Peter Matheson has written the first study in English of the Reformation as a literary phenomenon. This book traces the first emergence of a 'public opinion' in European history.Using insights from social history, religion and literature, Professor Matheson explores the connection between the 'communal Reformation' and the outpouring of pamphlets in the early 1520's. These pamphlets helped to create a dynamic and subversive network of communication where language and structure were of equal importance.He also examines the relative strengths of polemical and dialogical approaches in winning adherents, the motivations of the authors and the expectations of audiences.This ground-breaking study will be of interest to scholars and students of the history of the Reformation, theology, and also of communication and literature.