The Presidency and Rhetorical Leadership (Presidential Rhetoric and Political Communication)

Successful presidential leadership depends upon words as well as deeds. In this multifaceted look at rhetorical leadership, twelve leading scholars in three different disciplines provide in-depth studies of how words have served -- or failed to serve -- American presidents.From their disparate treatments of a range of presidencies, an underlying agreement emerges among the scholars included in the volume. To be effective, they find, presidents must be able to articulate the common good in a particular situation and they must be credible on the basis of their own character.

Leroy G. Dorsey introduces these themes, and David Zarefsky picks them up in looking at the historical development of rhetorical leadership within the presidency. Each succeeding chapter then examines the rhetorical leadership of a particular president, often within the context of a specific incident that marked his term in office. Chapters deal with George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. This book provides an indispensable addition to the literature on the presidency and to leadership studies.

LEROY G. DORSEY is an associate professor of speech communication at Texas A&M University in College Station.