This is a witty elegant enquiry into the art of persuasion. Rhetoric is what gives words power. Its nothing to be afraid of. It isnt the exclusive preserve of politicians: its 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 toward machine guns. In this highly entertaining (and persuasive) book Sam Leith examines how people have taught practiced & thought about rhetoric from its Attic origins to its twenty first century apotheosis. Along the way he tells the stories of its heroes & villain from Cicero & Erasmus to Hitler Obama
- & Gyles Brandreth.