Description

Rhetoric gives our words the power to inspire. But it’s not just for politicians: it’s all around us, whether you’re buttering up a key client or persuading your children to eat their greens. You have been using rhetoric yourself, all your life. After all, you know what a rhetorical question is, don’t you?

In this updated edition of his classic guide, Sam Leith traces the art of argument from ancient Greece down to its many modern mutations. He introduces verbal villains from Hitler to Donald Trump – and the three musketeers: ethos, pathos and logos. He explains how rhetoric works in speeches from Cicero to Richard Nixon, and pays tribute to the rhetorical brilliance of AC/DC’s “Back In Black”. Before you know it, you’ll be confident in chiasmus and proud of your panegyrics – because rhetoric is useful, relevant and absolutely nothing to be afraid of.

Publisher Review

Reading this book is the equivalent of lounging in a leather club armchair, wreathed in cigar smoke and a couple of whiskies down, alongside a companion who's being funny and clever about Homer and Hello! magazine by turns. -- Charlotte Higgins * Guardian * Entertaining ... You finish this book more than ready to rock a first in rhetoric. -- Hermione Eyre * Evening Standard * This is the best available analysis -- Boris Johnson Witty and revealing ... the chapter on Arrangement alone would probably bump up most student degrees by a class, not to mention the average oration -- James McConnachie * Sunday Times * Leith gives modern relevance to an ancient practice. Read this entertaining and instructive book and you will never again mistake an occultatio for an occupatio. -- Ian Finlayson * The Times *