Publisher's Synopsis
This work brings a sustained rhetorical critique to bear on central texts of the Cold War. The rhetorical texts that are the subject of this book include speeches by Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, the Murrow-McCarthy confrontation on CBS, the speeches and writings of peace advocates, and the recurring theme of UnAmericanism as it has been expressed in various media throughout the Cold War years.;Each of the authors brings to his texts a particular approach to rhetorical criticism - strategic, metaphorical, or ideological. Each provides an introductory chapter on methodology that explains the assumptions and strengths of his particular approach. Martin J.Medhurst describes the assumptions and working hypotheses of strategic analysis and then illustrates them with two critical case studies, one focusing on Eisnehower's "Atoms for Peace" speech, and the other on Kennedy's address on the resumption of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. Robert L.Ivie first introduces the intricacies and presuppositions of metaphorical analysis, then applies it to the Murrow-McCarthy prominent Cold War critics.;Philip Wander rounds out this tripartite approach by first describing the parameters of an ideological approach to Cold War discourse and then providing two applications of the ideological perspective. In the concluding chapter, Ivie demonstrates how all three approaches might contribute to a broadened understanding of how Cold War discourse functions for both its practitioners and its consumers. A special feature of the book is an introductory essay on epistemological issues in Cold War rhetoric by Robert L.Scott, a specialist in exemplar of how to think rhetorically about the Cold War and how to understand it as a battle of persuasive symbologies.
