Words on Fire: Eloquence and Its Conditions [Paperback]

Ranging from Cicero's Rome to contemporary politics, Words on Fire is a provocative rethinking of political eloquence for our time.Why is political rhetoric brokenand how can it be fixed? Ranging from Cicero's Rome to modern polarization, Words on Fire is a new history of eloquence from political theorist and speechwriter Rob Goodman. It offers a powerful critique of today's political languageand shows how the struggle over the meaning of eloquence has shaped our world.Why is political rhetoric brokenand how can it be fixed? Ranging from Cicero's Rome to modern polarization, Words on Fire is a new history of eloquence from political theorist and speechwriter Rob Goodman. It offers a powerful critique of today's political languageand shows how the struggle over the meaning of eloquence has shaped our world.Why is political rhetoric broken  and how can it be fixed? Words on Fire returns to the origins of rhetoric to recover the central place of eloquence in political thought. Eloquence, for the orators of classical antiquity, emerged from rhetorical relationships that exposed both speaker and audience to risk. Through close readings of Cicero  and his predecessors, rivals, and successors  political theorist and former speechwriter Rob Goodman tracks the development of this ideal, in which speech is both spontaneous and stylized, and in which the pursuit of eloquence mitigates political inequalities. He goes on to trace the fierce disputes over Ciceronian speech in the modern world through the work of such figures as Burke, Macaulay, Tocqueville, and Schmitt, explaining how rhetorical risk-sharing has broken down. Words on Fire offers a powerful critique of today's political language  and shows how the struggle over the meaning of eloquence has shaped our world.Introduction: 'Just Words'; Part 1. Eloquence and the Ancients: 1. 'I Tremble with My Whole Heart': Cicero on the Anxieties of Eloquence; 2. The Parthenon and the Outhouse: Cicero's Demosthenes and the UlÃd