The epic struggle between traditional, agrarian society and modern industrial capitalism was played out on the national stage as the War between the States. The same struggle between traditional and modern values split Illinois between "Egypt"--the southern region populated by yeoman farmers who came to Illinois from Kentucky, Virginia, Missouri, and other southern states--and the Yankee-dominated, urban north. Richard J. Jensen treats Illinois as a microcosm of the nation, arguing that its history exhibits basic conflicts that had much to do with shaping American society in general. Northern reformers in Illinois were intent on remaking the state in their image: middle-class, egalitarian, urban, and progressive. These values clashed with the patriarchal supremacy and intense loyalty to kin and ken by which the people of southern Illinois, and the South, organized their lives. When the Civil War broke out, sympathy for the Confederacy ran high in southern Illinois. Although the region officially supported the Union, guerrilla bands terrorized Unionists, and in Charleston a full-scale riot against Federal troops erupted in 1864. The Union victory decisively shifted both the nation and Illinois toward faster modernization. Violence became more bureaucratized, and localism eroded with the onslaught of chain franchises, consolidated schools, and homogenized suburbs. Jensen extends his discussion to the emergence of newer, postmodern conflicts that continue to occupy the people of Illinois. Without neglecting the high-profile individuals and events that put the Prairie State on the map, Jensen offers an innovative, wide-angle view that expands our perspective on Illinois history.

Illinois: A History

History

Jensen, Richard J.

Americas

University of Illinois Press

The authors analyze the rhetorical discourse characteristic of the Chicano protest movement of the sixties and seventies, focusing on four prominent activists, Cesar Chavez, Rodolfo Corky Gonzalez, Jose Angel Gutierrez, and Reies Lopez Tijerina. How these militant spokesmen employed their extensive skill with words is closely examined and analyzed. In the process, much about the nature, function, and meaning of the Chicano protest movement becomes clear. Similarities and differences in their rhetorical styles are discussed, as are their different backgrounds, personalities, goals, audiences, and the issues they addressed. Included is an analysis of the themes, appeals, and symbols they popularized in ther personal vision of what America ought to be for Chicanos. The volume also contains an essay by Jose Angel Gutierrez, an essay on the counter-rhetoric and ideology of other Mexican-American leaders of the time, and a bibliographic essay.

A War of Words: Chicano Protest in the 1960s and 1970s (Contributions in Ethnic Studies)

Hammerback, John C.

Guiterrez, Jose A.

Praeger

He reviled the rich for their cupidity and they found his rhetoric repulsive. Plebians believed him their champion and patricians knew he was their bete noire, remarks Halford Ryan in his eloquent foreword to this definitive survey of Clarence Darrow's development as orator and unique American myth. As a writer, lecturer, debater, and trial lawyer Darrow spoke for the have-nots and cultivated an image of mythic proportions as the underdog's advocate. Many of the more than 2,000 trials in which he was active reflected the major social and philosophical issues of the last quarter of the nineteenth and first third of the twentieth centuries in America. Read today, Darrow's speeches still ring true both as political statements and as models of persuasive pleading and pathos--reason enough to study the work of this uncommon advocate who stood perpetually opposed to the great and powerful of the earth. Richard J. Jensen has written a clearsighted volume that documents how Darrow created and then enlarged his personal myth through speeches, writings, and actions. Each chapter focuses on particular segments of that creation. Half of the book consists of authoritative texts of several of Darrow's most influential and rhetorically brilliant speeches, and a speech chronology simplifies the work of researchers.
The study opens with a brief biography, an overview of Darrow's rhetoric, along with the forces that affected it, and some initial comments on the elements that make up the myth. The next chapter, Schoolmaster of the Courtroom, chronicles the origins of Darrow's image as a defender of the downtrodden and his early trials in defense of labor unions and their leaders. What is considered to be one of the most famous speeches in American legal history, that given by Darrow at the conclusion of the 1924 Leopold and Loeb trial, is the focus of Chapter Three. Chapter Four centers on the Scopes Trial, perhaps the most famous trial in recent American history, during which the dramatic confrontation with William Jennings Bryan occurred. The penultimate chapter explains the arguments Darrow used to defend the poor, radicals, Blacks, and other less fortunate members of society. Finally, Darrow's rhetoric as a writer and as an active speaker and debater on the lecture circuit is examined. Part II contains the authoritative texts of seven speeches including those given during the Leopold and Loeb Trial and the Scopes Trial, among others. The Chronology of Speeches, Bibliography, and Index close the volume. The speeches along with Jensen's intelligent, readable analysis and criticism will be an important resource for those teaching and studying Legal Rhetoric and the History of Public Address.

Clarence Darrow: The Creation of an American Myth (Great American Orators)

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

Greenwood

Discusses the character and contributions of the various groups of people who have settled in and helped develop Illinois since the early nineteenth century

Illinois: A History (States and the Nation)

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

This insightful volume continues to provide readers with the basis for understanding the instrumental and symbolic acts underlying agitation and control. Scientific and humanistic methods of analysis have been combined to present the authors' original themes and to analyze case studies. Readers will assimilate a frame of reference that will sharpen their analytic skills and help them to specify the rhetorical ingredients used by agitators and establishments in their recipes for social change and social control.

The Rhetoric of Agitation and Control

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Ochs, Donovan J.

Bowers, John Waite

Psychology & Counseling

Waveland Pr Inc.

Chavez was an indefatigable speaker, writer, and non-discursive communicator who developed a well-thought-out approach to his rhetorical discourse and placed his speaking and writing at the center of his career. Hammerback and Jensen reveal that Chavez's worldview motivated him to work so tirelessly and directed him to the particular rhetorical qualities and techniques that characterized his discourse. The authors also demonstrate Chavez's surprising effectiveness as a rhetor despite his soft-spoken style, uncharacteristic of most powerful orators. The fact that Chavez had an extraordinarily powerful effect on audiences is well known; how Chavez achieved that effect has never before been explained. Hammerback and Jensen developed a model "to help explain Chavez's startling transformation of some audiences and persuasion of others." By merging thought and character in his themes, arguments, and explanations, and in his first and second personae, Chavez was able to identify with the character of his listeners. That identification induced many audience members to support Chavez's agenda for union activism.

The Rhetorical Career of Cesar Chavez

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Texas A & M Univ Pr

The Words of César Chávez

César Chávez's relentless campaign for social justice for farm workers and laborers in the United States marked a milestone in U.S. history. Through his powerful rhetoric and impassioned calls to action, Chávez transformed as well as persuaded and inspired his audiences. In this first published anthology, Richard J. Jensen and John C. Hammerback present Chávez in his own terms. Through this collection and through his own words and analysis of his major speeches and writings, Jensen and Hammerback reveal the rhetorical qualities and underlying rhetorical dynamics of a master communicator and also offer a rich source of the history of the farm workers' movement Chávez led from the early 1960s to his death in 1993. Each chapter features a clear introductory section that helps the reader focus on the highlights that won Chávez a reputation as an effective communicator. The editors explain the sources of Chávez's motivation to campaign for farm workers, his selection of characteristic and signature rhetorical elements, and the success of specific campaigns and his overall career. The Words of César Chávez offers an important new resource for scholars of public discourse, Chicano studies, and César Chávez himself. It complements the editors' earlier study, The Rhetorical Career of César Chávez, by providing the primary materials for that rhetorical profile of Chávez. Through his own words, Jensen and Hammerback present Chávez doing what he did best: teaching and influencing audiences who would enact his agenda to create a new and better world.

Business & Money

Economics

Texas A&M University Press

Although born into one of the least powerful segments of American society, César Chávez led the farm-labor movement to unprecedented heights. His powerful effect on audiences is well known, but award-winning scholars John C. Hammerback and Richard J. Jensen offer the first explanation of how Chávez achieved that effect. Although other studies of Chávez exist, none has examined so thoroughly his rhetoric nor analyzed in depth such a large number of Chávez's own texts—scores of which have previously been unstudied. Chávez was an indefatigable speaker, writer, and non-discursive communicator who developed a well-thought-out approach to his rhetorical discourse and placed his speaking and writing at the very center of his career. By merging thought and character in his themes, arguments, and explanations, and in his first and second personae, Chávez was able to identify with the character of his listeners. That identification induced many audience members to support Chávez's agenda for union activism. The authors have developed a model "to help explain Chávez's startling transformation of some audiences and persuasion of others." Hammerback and Jensen reveal that Chávez's world view motivated him to work tirelessly and directed him to the particular rhetorical qualities and techniques that characterized his discourse. The authors also demonstrate Chávez's surprising effectiveness as a rhetor despite his soft-spoken style, uncharacteristic of most powerful orators.

The Rhetorical Career of César Chávez

Ronald Reagan’s inability to sway the American public and press with his speeches at the former site of the infamous Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and, later, at the U.S. Air Force base in Bitburg, Germany, has been marked by many as the first major failure of the Great Communicator’s second term. Richard J. Jensen highlights the qualities of the speeches that make them, in his estimation, models of presidential discourse. But he also looks at the setting for the speeches—political and historical—that doomed them despite their eloquence. Telescoping in from the broadest perspective on Reagan’s rhetorical career; to the circumstances surrounding the decision to make the speeches; to the drafting, delivery, and reception of the texts, Jensen contrasts these two speeches with two very successful ones Reagan had delivered in Normandy the previous year. The result is a vivid picture of a man and a moment in history. Students and all those interested in public discourse and the presidency will deeply benefit from this mature work by a major scholar of rhetoric.

Reagan at Bergen-Belsen and Bitburg

Ronald Reagan’s inability to sway the American public and press with his speeches at the former site of the infamous Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and, later, at the U.S. Air Force base in Bitburg, Germany, has been marked by many as the first major failure of the Great Communicator’s second term.  Richard J. Jensen highlights the qualities of the speeches that make them, in his estimation, models of presidential discourse. But he also looks at the setting for the speeches—political and historical—that doomed them despite their eloquence. Telescoping in from the broadest perspective on Reagan’s rhetorical career; to the circumstances surrounding the decision to make the speeches; to the drafting, delivery, and reception of the texts, Jensen contrasts these two speeches with two very successful ones Reagan had delivered in Normandy the previous year. The result is a vivid picture of a man and a moment in history. Students and all those interested in public discourse and the presidency will deeply benefit from this mature work by a major scholar of rhetoric.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jensen, Richard J.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Jensen, Richard J.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jensen, Richard J.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Illinois: A History

A War of Words: Chicano Protest in the 1960s and 1970s (Contributions in Ethnic Studies)

Clarence Darrow: The Creation of an American Myth (Great American Orators)

Illinois: A History (States and the Nation)

The Rhetoric of Agitation and Control

The Rhetorical Career of Cesar Chavez

The Words of César Chávez

The Rhetorical Career of César Chávez

Reagan at Bergen-Belsen and Bitburg

Reagan at Bergen-Belsen and Bitburg