The prophetic tradition and radical rhetoric in America
By: James Darsey.
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 279
Subjects: Political oratory -- Social aspects -- United States; English language -- United States -- Rhetoric; Rhetoric -- Social aspects -- United States; Radicalism -- United States; Prophecy -- Social aspects -- United States; Social problems -- United States; United States -- Social conditions -- 1980-
Description: 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, play a central role in American politics, Darsey emphasizes the need for more productive ways of talking about contemporary radicalism than current dichotomies between civility and incivility and reason and unreason afford. In so doing, he sheds new light on the American radical tradition by connecting it with its prophetic roots.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-267) and index.
Table of contents: title: Radical rhetoric and American community : threnody for Sophrosyne; title: Old Testament prophecy as radical ursprach; title: Prophecy as sacred truth : self-evidence and righteousness in the American Revolution; title: Prophecy as krisis : Wendell Phillips and the sin of slavery; title: The prophet's call and his burden : the passion of Eugene V. Debs; title: The word in darkness; title: A vision of the apocalypse : Joe McCarthy's rhetoric of the fantastic; title: Prophecy as poetry : the romantic vision of Robert Welch; title: Secular argument and the language of commodity : gay liberation and merely civil rights; title: The seraph and the snake.