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Classical Rhetorics and Rhetoricians Critical Studies and Sources
Michelle Ballif, ed., Michael G. Moran, ed.
ISBN: 0-313-32178-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-32178-8
414 pages
Greenwood Press
Publication: 3/30/2005
List Price: $209.95 (UK Sterling Price: £144.95)
Availability: Print on demand
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Ebook
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • This handsomely bound volume of studies supplies a much-needed resource for teachers and students of classical rhetoric: concise stand-alone summaries of ancient Greek and Roman writers who wrote about the practiced art of rhetoric....[t]his overview is bound to supply teachers, students, and libraries with one of the most accessible, useful, and diverse treatments of its subject currently available.
    —The Classical Outlook
    Winter 2007
  • The current consensus among scholars is that rhetoric and its histories are culturally constructed rhetorical acts. This supposition has stimulated research that revises the history of rhetoric--history established by such venerable scholars as James Murphy and George Kennedy--into a more inclusive history of rhetorics. Although this book could not exist without the codified historical narrative it challenges by deemphasizing the universal in favor of the particular, clearly its time has come. Ballif and Moran provide an excellent and succinct introduction that surveys the current state of historical scholarship and establishes three goals: to encourage readers to think of rhetoric as including figures who challenge the established canon (the book includes nontraditional as well as traditional figures--women, poets, pre-Socratic philosophers, etc.); to reshuffle the deck of future influence by spotlighting less traditional figures; and to open readers' eyes to the contemporary application and significance of rhetoric....Although this volume will not displace the revised histories, it will supplement them and cannot be ignored. Essential. All collections; all levels.
    —Choice
    10/1/2005
Description: The engaging political speeches and persuasive writing of today are carefully crafted instances of rhetoric. The governing theories behind contemporary speakers and writers are deeply rooted in the classical world, where such great thinkers as Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintillian formulated strategies for effective discourse. This book includes alphabetically arranged entries on some 60 leading rhetoricians of antiquity, with each entry providing biographical information, a discussion of the rhetorician's works and theories, and primary and secondary bibliographies. Because of the lasting influence of these thinkers, this book is an essential guide to the foundations of modern expression.

Political speeches and persuasive writing are central to our modern democratic society and are carefully crafted to influence our thoughts and opinions. But what many people do not realize is that the theories behind such works are deeply rooted in the classical world. The great philosophers and statesmen of Greece and Rome formulated rules and strategies for effective argumentation, and their writings shaped the history of Western civilization for centuries. Because citizens of the modern world are exposed to so many attempts to influence their views, the theories of the ancient rhetoricians are as relevant today as in antiquity. This book is a guide to the lives and works of these influential classical figures.

Each entry is written by an expert contributor and provides a biography, a discussion of the rhetorician's works, and primary and secondary bibliographies. While some of the figures are relatively minor, others are among the most important names from classical civilization. The volume gives special attention to the contributions of women to ancient rhetoric. An introductory essay sketches the rough outline of classical rhetoric and its influence, while a bibliographical essay identifies the most important general works for further reading.
Table of Contents:
  • Introduction by Michelle Ballif and Michael G. Moran
    Alcidamas by Neil O'Sullivan
    Anaximenes, Rhetorica ad Alexandrum by Sean Patrick O'Rourke
    Antiphon by Michael Gagarin
    Anonymous Seguerianus by Parker Luchte
    Apsines of Gadara by Sean Patrick O'Rourke
    Aristides, Aelius by Jeffrey Walker
    Aristotle by Janet Atwill
    Aspasia of Miletus by Kathleen Ethel Welch and Karen D. Jobe
    Attic Orators: Demosthenes, Aeschines, and Lysias by David Christopher Ryan
    Augustinus, Aurelius (Saint) by Roxanne Mountford
    Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus by Beth S. Bennett
    Chrysostom, John by Justin Killian and David M. Timmerman
    Cicero, Marcus Tullius by Richard Leo Enos
    Corax and Tisias by Wilfred E. Major
    Cornelia by D. Alexis Hart
    Demetrius of Phaleron by Lara O'Sullivan
    Demetrius, On Style by Scott G. Reed
    Dio (Chrysostom) Cocceianus by George Pullman
    Diogenes of Sinope by Victor J. Vitanza and D. Diane Davis
    Dionysius of Halicarnassus by Jeffrey Walker
    Diotima of Mantinea by C. Jan Swearingen
    Dissoi Logoi by Edward Schiappa
    Favorinus by Victor J. Vitanza
    Fronto, M. Cornelius by Gary Hatch
    Gorgias by John Poulakos
    Gregory of Nazianzus by Roxanne Mountford
    Heraclitus by John T. Kirby
    Hermagoras of Temnos by Beth S. Bennett
    Hermogenes of Tarsus by Janet B. Davis
    Herodes Atticus by Angela Mitchell
    Himerius by Charles Platter
    Hippias of Elis by Jane Sutton
    Homer by Patrick O'Sullivan
    Hortensia by D. Alexis Hart
    Hypatia by Elizabeth Ervin
    Socrates by Takis Poulakos
    Libanius by George Pullman
    "Longinus," On the Sublime by Hans Kellner
    Menander of Laodicea by Martin M. Jacobsen
    Pericles by David M. Timmerman
    Philodemus by Robert N. Gaines
    Philostratus by Jerry L. Miller and Raymie McKerrow
    Plato by Yun Lee Too
    Pliny the Younger by Joy Connolly
    Plutarch by Hans Kellner
    Polemo, Marcus Antonius by Grant Boswell
    Prodicus of Ceos by Neil O'Sullivan
    Progymnasmata by Christy Desmet
    Protagoras by Edward Schiappa
    Pythagorean Women by Ekaterina Haskins
    Quintilianus, Fabius by Joy Connolly
    Rhetorica ad Herennium by Richard Leo Enos
    Sappho by David M. Timmerman
    Seneca the Elder by Beth S. Bennett
    Seneca the Younger by Michael G. Moran
    Sextus Empiricus by Robert N. Gaines
    Socrates by Christopher Lyle Johnstone
    Tacitus, Cornelius by Eizabeth Ervin
    Theophrastus by Christy Desmet
    Thrasymachus by Patrick O'Sullivan
    Verginius Flavus by Daniel R. Frederick
    Bibliographic Essay by Michelle Ballif and Michael G. Moran
About the Author: MICHELLE BALLIF is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Franklin College Writing Intensive Program at the University of Georgia. Her work has appeared in such journals as Rhetoric Review, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, and JAC, and she is the co-editor of Twentieth-Century Rhetoric and Rhetoricians (Greenwood, 2000).

MICHAEL G. MORAN is Graduate Coordinator and Associate Professor of English at the University of Georgia. His many books include Research in Composition and Rhetoric (1984), Research in Technical Communication (1985), Research in Basic Writing (1990), Eighteenth-Century British and American Rhetorics and Rhetoricians (1994), and Twentieth-Century Rhetoric and Rhetoricians (2000), all available from Greenwood Press.
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