You Talkin' To Me?

This is a witty, elegant enquiry into the art of persuasion. Rhetoric is nothing to be afraid of. It isn't the exclusive preserve of politicians: it's everywhere, from your argument with the insurance company to your plea to the waitress for a table near the window. It convicts criminals (and then frees them on appeal). It causes governments to rise and fall, best men to be shunned by their friends' brides, and perfectly sensible adults to march with steady purpose towards machine guns. In this highly entertaining (and persuasive) book, Sam Leith examines how people have taught, practised and thought about rhetoric from its Attic origins to its twenty-first century apotheosis. Along the way, he tells the stories of its heroes and villains, from Cicero and Erasmus, to Hitler, Obama - and Gyles Brandreth. Knowledge, it has been said, is power. And rhetoric is what gives words power.

ISBN 1846683157   DEWEY edition DC22 ISBN13 9781846683152 (What's this?)   Pages 256 Publisher Profile Books Ltd   Published in London Imprint Profile Books Ltd   Height (mm) 216 Format Hardback   Width (mm) 135 Publication date 20 Oct 2011   Academic level General DEWEY 808

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