Evolutionary Rhetorical Presidency

Ryan Lee Teten is Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Assistant Professor in Political Science at the University of Louisiana. He received his BA in political science and English from Clemson University in South Carolina, and his PhD in political science, with a specialization in American politics and political institutions, from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He has had work published on the political learnings and socialization of children, negative and positive advertising, public opinion, popular culture, and the use of non-traditional texts in the teaching of political science.

«Twenty-five years ago Gary King issued a call to presidency scholars, urging them to collect systematic data about the operation of our chief executive. Many have answered this call. Ryan Lee Teten is the latest to do so with ‘The Evolutionary Rhetorical Presidency’. He has collected an amazing array of data that tells an important story about the presidency and how the institution has changed. This book is a welcome and valuable addition to the field.» (John Geer, Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science, and Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee)«All the conclusions Ryan Lee Teten draws are based on literally thousands of primary documents; he cites the pertinent scholarship in connection with new findings and then presents convincing arguments for leaving the unnatural divide of traditional/modern presidential rhetoric behind. With this study Teten proves that scholars have in fact worked on presidential rhetoric with a certain set of preconceived notions. The time has surely come to correct this misconception, and there is no doubt that scholars of presidential rhetoric and history will have to revise their traditional views.» (Wolfgang Mieder, Department of German and Russian, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont)«Are ‘modern’ presidents really so different from their ‘traditional’ predecessors regarding rhetoric? In his new book, Ryan Lee Teten argues that they are more similar than conventional wisdom suggests. Clearly written, insightful, and backed by a wealth of data, Teten’s ‘The Evolutionary Rhetorical Presidency’ is an important contribution to the body of literature on presidential rhetoric.» (Jeffrey Crouch, Assistant Professor of American Politics, American University; Author of ‘The Presidential Pardon Power’)