The Oxford Handbook of Rhetoric and Political Theory

Abstract The resurgence of interest in rhetoric among political theorists is one of the more remarkable developments in the field over the past few decades. Bringing together a multidisciplinary group of leading scholars, The Oxford Handbook of Rhetoric and Political Theory represents the most ambitious effort to date to display the range and vitality of work that constitutes the “rhetorical turn” in political theory. Across thirty-six chapters, the Handbook explores issues that reside at the heart of many of the most vital debates in political theory today: questions about the proper role of affect and emotion in political life, the work of persuasion in political discourse, the relationship between logic and style in political argument, the character and scope of public deliberation, the performative and constitutive elements of language, the play of contingency in political life, and the rhetorical dimensions of political texts. The volume’s contributors examine the shifting status of rhetoric in political theory and philosophy, investigating disputes of both ancient and recent origin. Traversing broad thematic terrain as well as individual thinkers and texts, they analyze different understandings of, and approaches to, rhetoric, providing fresh perspectives on controversies that have fueled the recent renaissance of interest in rhetoric and political thought. Although “rhetoric” has often been maligned since the term was first coined in the classical world, The Oxford Handbook of Rhetoric and Political Theory demonstrates that an adequate understanding of political affairs cannot be attained without taking into account the impact of rhetoric on political thought and conduct.