Rhetoric & Democracy: Pedagogical and Political Practices

In his excellent chapter "William Norwood Brigance and the Democracy of the Dead," Martin Medhurst divides the history of the field of rhetorical studies into six eras, demonstrating with archival research and multiple charts that Professor Brigance dominated the early history of our field and that "the contemporary state of rhetorical studies owes as much to W. Norwood Brigance as to any other single scholar of the founding" (4). The editors, Todd F. McDorman and David M. Timmerman, position the purpose of the volume in the following terms: "this volume is intended to be a resource for students and scholars of rhetoric in making the best use of the past of the discipline, setting forth some of the best work and thinking on rhetoric and democracy in the present, and challenging rhetorical studies in terms of what it can become and contribute in the future" (xii).