Includes bibliographical references (p. 404-413) and index.

Contents: Part I: Critical foundations : The nature of criticism; an overview -- Constituents of the rhetorical act: context and audience -- Constituents of the rhetorical act; the speaker -- Constituents of the rhetorical act: the text -- Part II: Critical readings and commentary: Reading Abraham Lincoln's young men's lyceum address -- Reading W. E. B. Du Bois's "of Mr. Booker T. Washington and others" -- Part III: Alternative readings: Alternative readings of Richard Nixon's address on Vietnam -- Alternative readings of Jesse Jackson's "common ground and common sense" -- Part IV: Critical readings: sample studies: Critical reading of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's "solitude of self" -- Critical reading of Abraham Lincoln's "cooper union address" -- Critical reading of Dwight D. Eisenhower's "atoms for peace" -- Critical reading of Mario Cuomo's "religious belief and public morality" -- Critical reading of John Dickinson's "letter from a farmer in Pennsylvania"