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WORDS LIKE LOADED PISTOLS
By: Sam Leith
Basic Books
May 2012
On Sale: May 1, 2012
320 pages
ISBN: 0465031056
EAN: 9780465031054
Kindle: B007UPDD48
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction Political
Rhetoric is all around us. Itโs what inspires armies, convicts criminals, and makes or breaks presidential candidates. And it isnโt just the preserve of politicians. Itโs in the presentation to a key client, the half-time talk in the locker room, and the plea to your children to eat their vegetables. Rhetoric gives words power: it persuades and cajoles, inspires and bamboozles, thrills and misdirects. You have been using rhetoric yourself, all your life. After all, you know what a rhetorical question is, donโt you? In Words Like Loaded Pistols, Sam Leith traces the art of persuasion, beginning in ancient Syracuse and taking us on detours as varied and fascinating as Elizabethan England, Miltonโs Satanic realm, the Springfield of Abraham Lincoln and the Springfield of Homer Simpson. He explains how language has been used by the great heroes of rhetoric (such as Cicero and Martin Luther King Jr.), as well as some villains (like Adolf Hitler and Richard Nixon.)Leith provides a primer to rhetoricโs key techniques. In Words Like Loaded Pistols, youโll find out how to build your own memory-palace; youโll be introduced to the Three Musketeers: Ethos, Pathos and Logos; and youโll learn how to use chiasmus with confidence and occultation without thinking about it. Most importantly of all, you will discover that rhetoric is useful, relevant, and absolutely nothing to be afraid of.
 Media BuzzMarketplace - PRI - May 8, 2012
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