Rhetoric and Demagoguery

Author:   Patricia Roberts-Miller
Publisher:   Southern Illinois University Press
ISBN:  

9780809337125


Pages:   272
Publication Date:   28 February 2019
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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Rhetoric and Demagoguery


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Overview

In a culture of profit-driven media, demagoguery is a savvy short-term rhetorical strategy. Once it becomes the norm, individuals are more likely to employ it and, in that way, increase its power by making it seem the only way of disagreeing with or about others. When that happens, arguments about policy are replaced by arguments about identity—and criticism is met with accusations that the critic has the wrong identity (weak, treacherous, membership in an out-group) or the wrong feelings (uncaring, heartless). Patricia Roberts-Miller proposes a definition of demagoguery based on her study of groups and cultures that have talked themselves into disastrously bad decisions. She argues for seeing demagoguery as a way for people to participate in public discourse, and not necessarily as populist or heavily emotional. Demagoguery, she contends, depoliticizes political argument by making all issues into questions of identity. She broaches complicated questions about its effectiveness at persuasion, proposes a new set of criteria, and shows how demagoguery plays out in regard to individuals not conventionally seen as demagogues. Roberts-Miller looks at the discursive similarities among the Holocaust in early twentieth-century Germany, the justification of slavery in the antebellum South, the internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II, and the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, among others. She examines demagoguery among powerful politicians and jurists (Earl Warren, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court) as well as more conventional populists (Theodore Bilbo, two-time governor of Mississippi; E. S. Cox, cofounder of the Anglo-Saxon Clubs of America). She also looks at notorious demagogues (Athenian rhetor Cleon, Ann Coulter) and lesser-known public figures (William Hak-Shing Tam, Gene Simmons).

Full Product Details

Author:   Patricia Roberts-Miller
Publisher:   Southern Illinois University Press
Imprint:   Southern Illinois University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.70cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.430kg
ISBN:  

9780809337125


ISBN 10:   0809337126
Pages:   272
Publication Date:   28 February 2019
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

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Reviews

In this timely and important volume, Roberts-Miller provides an accessible yet nuanced framework grounded in rhetorical theory for analyzing the harms of demagoguery. --Choice Roberts-Miller's fascinating case studies on train wrecks in public discourse should be required reading for anyone interested in issues related to public deliberation, the public sphere, and democracy. --Jennifer Mercieca, author of Founding Fictions Too many people who write about politics end up talking over those who most need to understand it. Not so with Roberts-Miller. Demagoguery is immensely complex as a form of rhetoric, yet Roberts-Miller is a patient teacher. Reading her work is profitable for any citizen worried about the future of the republic. --John Stoehr, contributing writer for Washington Monthly Roberts-Miller's Rhetoric and Demagoguery shows that demagoguery succeeds because decisions hinge on group loyalty, not because demagogues have magical powers or because ordinary people are bad at judging arguments. Right now, this book is sobering and necessary. --Susan Wells, author of Our Bodies, Ourselves and the Work of Writing Roberts-Miller situates demagoguery as a matter of public deliberation and argumentative values, and therefore as a crucial rhetorical concern. Her deceptively simple argument is that demagoguery results from exchanging deliberative decision-making for identity-based decision-making in public policy matters. Roberts-Miller reminds us that we all have a stake in demagoguery as well as a role to play in stopping it. --Ryan Skinnell, editor of Faking the News: What Rhetoric Can Teach Us about Donald J. Trump


Roberts-Miller's fascinating case studies on train wrecks in public discourse should be required reading for anyone interested in issues related to public deliberation, the public sphere, and democracy. --Jennifer Mercieca, author of Founding Fictions Too many people who write about politics end up talking over those who most need to understand it. Not so with Roberts-Miller. Demagoguery is immensely complex as a form of rhetoric, yet Roberts-Miller is a patient teacher. Reading her work is profitable for any citizen worried about the future of the republic. --John Stoehr, contributing writer for Washington Monthly Roberts-Miller's Rhetoric and Demagoguery shows that demagoguery succeeds because decisions hinge on group loyalty, not because demagogues have magical powers or because ordinary people are bad at judging arguments. Right now, this book is sobering and necessary. --Susan Wells, author of Our Bodies, Ourselves and the Work of Writing Roberts-Miller situates demagoguery as a matter of public deliberation and argumentative values, and therefore as a crucial rhetorical concern. Her deceptively simple argument is that demagoguery results from exchanging deliberative decision-making for identity-based decision-making in public policy matters. Roberts-Miller reminds us that we all have a stake in demagoguery as well as a role to play in stopping it. --Ryan Skinnell, editor of Faking the News: What Rhetoric Can Teach Us about Donald J. Trump


In this timely and important volume, Roberts-Miller provides an accessible yet nuanced framework grounded in rhetorical theory for analyzing the harms of demagoguery. --Choice Roberts-Miller's fascinating case studies on train wrecks in public discourse should be required reading for anyone interested in issues related to public deliberation, the public sphere, and democracy. --Jennifer Mercieca, author of Founding Fictions Too many people who write about politics end up talking over those who most need to understand it. Not so with Roberts-Miller. Demagoguery is immensely complex as a form of rhetoric, yet Roberts-Miller is a patient teacher. Reading her work is profitable for any citizen worried about the future of the republic. --John Stoehr, contributing writer for Washington Monthly Roberts-Miller's Rhetoric and Demagoguery shows that demagoguery succeeds because decisions hinge on group loyalty, not because demagogues have magical powers or because ordinary people are bad at judging arguments. Right now, this book is sobering and necessary. --Susan Wells, author of Our Bodies, Ourselves and the Work of Writing Roberts-Miller situates demagoguery as a matter of public deliberation and argumentative values, and therefore as a crucial rhetorical concern. Her deceptively simple argument is that demagoguery results from exchanging deliberative decision-making for identity-based decision-making in public policy matters. Roberts-Miller reminds us that we all have a stake in demagoguery as well as a role to play in stopping it. --Ryan Skinnell, editor of Faking the News: What Rhetoric Can Teach Us about Donald J. Trump


Author Information

Patricia Roberts-Miller is a professor of rhetoric and writing and director of the writing center at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Fanatical Schemes: Proslavery Rhetoric and the Tragedy of Consensus; Deliberate Conflict: Argument, Political Theory, and Composition Classes; and Voices in the Wilderness: Public Discourse and the Paradox of Puritan Rhetoric.

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