Erik Doxtader – författare

Over the course of a distinguished and celebrated career, Thomas Farrell held that rhetoric is a rich source of creative reason and a vital element of contemporary public life. In his award-winning 1995 book, ""Norms of Rhetorical Culture"", Farrell took this position a step further, arguing that 'Rhetoric is the primary - indeed the only - humane manner for an argumentative culture to sustain public institutions that reflect on themselves, that learn, so to speak, from their own history'. In the midst of violence and social fragmentation, according to Farrell, the renewal of rhetoric's difficult art offers an opportunity to invigorate critique, cultivate the grounds for mutual understanding, and foster the practical wisdom that sustains democracy's politics. ""Inventing the Potential of Rhetorical Culture"" sheds new light on Thomas Farrell's provocative defense of rhetoric and makes an innovative case for the contemporary importance of rhetorical theory and practice. Featuring two previously unpublished works by Thomas Farrell himself, including one that plots a path beyond Norms of Rhetorical Culture, the volume's original contributions offer timely reflections on the aesthetic, vernacular, and deliberative functions of rhetoric and draw significant connections among classical, modern, and postmodern accounts of public discourse. At a moment when many fields of study have found cause to reconsider the question of rhetoric's potential, this collection will engage those seeking a fuller understanding of rhetoric's role in politics, ethics, and public culture. With an introduction by Erik Doxtader, the volume includes essays by James Arnt Aune, Maurice Charland, G. Thomas Goodnight, Gerard A. Hauser, Carol Poster, and Philippe-Joseph Salazar.

The African Renaissance and the Afro-Arab Spring addresses the often unspoken connection between the powerful call for a political-cultural renaissance that emerged with the end of South African apartheid and the popular revolts of 2011 that dramatically remade the landscape in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. Looking between southern and northern Africa, the transcontinental line from Cape to Cairo that for so long supported colonialism, its chapters explore the deep roots of these two decisive events and demonstrate how they are linked by shared opposition to legacies of political, economic, and cultural subjugation. As they work from African, Islamic, and Western perspectives, the book's contributors shed important light on a continent's difficult history and undertake a critical conversation about whether and how the desire for radical change holds the possibility of a new beginning for Africa, a beginning that may well reshape the contours of global affairs.