Rhetoric is what gives words power It's nothing to be afraid of It isn't the exclusive preserve of politicians it's everywhere from your argument with the insurance company to your plea to the waitress for a table near the window It convicts criminals (and then frees them on appeal) It causes governments to rise & fall best men to be shunned by brides & people to march with steady purpose towards machine guns In this highly entertaining (and persuasive) book Sam Leith examines how people have taught practised & thought about rhetoric from its Attic origins to its twenty-first century apotheosis Along the way he tells the stories of its heroes & villains from Cicero & Erasmus to Hitler Obama
- & Gyles Brandreth