Rhetoric: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Well worth the time to read and the money to buy it. Opened my eyes to many things. Engineers need rhetoric too.

The author concludes with an apt quote from Henry James: ‘All life […] comes back to the question of our speech, the medium through which we communicate with each other; for all life comes back to the question of our relations with one another.’While it includes some of the features of a handbook it also explores the history and development of rhetoric as a study and discipline including the current day. It also includes an interesting section on rhetorical analysis.

I realized several important points as a result of this book. First, use of the term "rhetoric" has a dismissive, prejudicial tone in our culture (as in "that's just rhetoric") but in fact is really just about the presentation of arguments or facts to persuade somebody. Second, as though I had been in some sort of bad mind-warp, I had always dismissed the argumentative aspects of lawyering as merely the creation of an arbitrary "story" for presentation to a jury. In fact, the "opposing" sides are engaged in a highly formalized rhetorical debate. It is as if the debate is the important thing, perhaps even just the theater of the debate, rather than the vote for guilt or innocence. The form of this debate is at least 2500 years old. Finally, it became clear that the reader (or listener) is an active participant in all rhetorical discussions.I would have liked a glossary of some of the technical rhetorical terms. It would be so cool to be able to say, "Oh, that's just so-and-so using [something technically cool]." But hey, this is a very short introduction...

Toye was enjoyable in his discussion of the history and dynamic nature of rhetoric. The modern uses chapter struggled to keep my attention as fully as the other three chapters. He did a great job communicating that rhetoric does not have a golden set of rules to follow, that it is fully evolving, and that societal contexts must be included to fully analyse a text.

Only in the conclusion does the author clearly identify the focus of his investigation of rhetoric in a coherent way. As a consequence, each chapter reads as an arbitrary and isolated (but hardly self-contained) series of observations and case studies. More effort to include detail and technique, even selectively, and connect the minute to the broad would greatly improve the text.

Wonderful.I'm taking a graduate rhetoric course with no previous coursework, so I needed an overview. This book is beautifully written, crystal clear, deeply insightful, and often pretty funny. The author focuses in particular on political speechmaking, where his own research is focused (he's a historian by training). One of my favorite Very Shorts, and I've read many.

Helpful and informative

This is a solid entry in the VSI series. Toye writes well (as I would hope any professor of rhetoric would!), which make it an easy read. I loved the inclusion of the history of rhetoric. Toye does a good job of covering much of rhetoric, though he could have taken out some of the fluff at the end and actually discussed more rhetorical techniques. But this is certainly enough for a VSI.

Lots of good stuff, lost me near the end with US/International politics though.

It's a wonder why this highly readable little synopsis has taken so long to be commissioned and added to the list of Very Short Introductions. In it, Professor Toye dismisses the sinister and nefarious image rhetoric has acquired and rather frames it as a necessary tool: understanding and control of which is, at its best, enhancing, emboldening and empowering, at its worst, revealing of inadequacy.He uses examples of the development and understanding of rhetoric from the the usual sources of the classical world as well as the Victorian and contemporary political landscapes but also touches on modern cinema and several other places besides.This small book makes for an entertaining and accessible introduction to an, ordinarily, high falutin' subject.

Useful brief overview. Due to plenty of referencing you can find where to continue learning about rhetoric. Also points to a useful website that covers Rhetoric in depth.

Excellent reading for a wider understanding

Basic introduction but other books are more useful