40th President of the United States 1911 – 2001 Ronald Reagan was a persuasive speaker. He had a genuine relationship with his audiences as is shown in his audiences’ responses. Although this chapter emphasises largely the positive aspects of Reagan’s communication style, this positive approach should not be taken as an agreement on the author’s […]
Solon: the art of knowing
“Athens, unlike Sparta, was a money-mad commercial city. The constitution framed by Solon mitigated the class struggle between rich and poor, and allowed for the growth of democratic society” (Plutarch) One of the most positive factors of American democracy is the Twenty–second Amendment to the US Constitution. After the Roosevelt years (1933 to 1945), the […]
Symbolism, Identification and Kenneth Burke
When Martin Luther King rose to speak at the ‘Lincoln Memorial ‘ in August, 1963, he knew well that the long term success of his speech would be determined by his audience’s identification with his underlying message. He succeeded in making this connection, and his speech goes down in history as one of those electrifying […]