Jeff D. Bass

Imperial mission and manifest destiny: A case study of political myth in rhetorical discourse

By differentiating between the concepts “myth” and “ideology,” this study accounts for the rise in popularity of imperialist policies in the United States and Great Britain at the end of the nineteenth century. Specifically, it is argued that the use of mythically grounded rhetorical appeals by proponents of empire explains the ultimate defeat of the anti‐imperialist movement in both Britain and the United States.

The appeal to efficiency as narrative closure: Lyndon Johnson and the Dominican crisis, 1965

This essay examines the possibility that public approval for a foreign policy action can be based, in part, upon the perception that the action has been effective. Lyndon Johnsons rhetorical justification for the Dominican intervention of 1965 is used here as a case study. Specifically, this essay argues that Johnson was able to secure public support for the intervention by means of a detailed rhetorical narrative. This narrative was able to stress the efficacy of the Presidents actions by providing the public with a sense of closure, an element noticeably absent from Cold War rhetoric in general.

The perversion of empire: Edmund burke and the nature of imperial responsibility

Professions by British politicians of their nations responsibility or obligation to provide “just” rule for foreign peoples have long been characterized by critics of the British Empire as being little more than hypocritical ploys intended to obfuscate the “true” economic and racist motivations for nineteenth‐century imperialism. But such criticisms, while undoubtedly accurate in many cases, do not account for the British publics acceptance of the ideal of imperial responsibility as a political necessity. This essay proposes an alternative interpretation of imperial responsibility founded upon Edmund Burkes rhetorical denunciation of the East India Company in 1783. By ironically foregrounding the classical justification for empire in order to indict the Companys policies in India, Burke essentially constructed a new understanding of imperial responsibility in which the need to protect foreign peoples from unscrupulous Britons was stressed instead of any sense of racial superiority or paternalism. This...

An efficient humanitarianism: The British slave trade debates, 1791–1792

The dominant interpretation of the British Parliamentary debates on the abolition of the slave trade is that of a melodramatic confrontation between economic self interest and Christian social ethics. But the argumentative strategies employed by the slave interest and the abolitionists were more complex than historians commonly recognize. By means of an “egoistic‐altruistic” merger, the slavers sought to link their interest with those of the British working class in order to portray abolition as a policy that would destroy the prosperity of the nation. The abolitionists, arguing that the trade was economically inefficient, endeavored to depict this “commerce” as irrational and contradictory to the desire for profit. In this manner, the abolitionists were able to undermine the slave trades economic legitimacy.

Hearts of darkness and hot zones: The ideologeme of imperial contagion in recent accounts of viral outbreaks

This study situates recent popularized accounts of emerging lethal viral strains within the context of a late nineteenth‐century rationale for imperialism‐i.e., the ideologeme of scenic contamination. Defining non‐European lands and peoples as “active” agents capable of “contaminating” the civilized natures of the imperialists who would seek to rule them, this ideologeme justified imperialism as a “defensive” measure designed to control and quarantine the unpredictable and chaotic forces of the underdeveloped world. A diachronic adaptation of this ideologeme forms the basis for texts detailing recent Third World viral outbreaks such as Richard Prestons The Hot Zone, a Video News International documentary entitled “Killer Virus,” and an episode of NOVA entitled “Plague Fighters.” While these texts do not advocate a return to an era of formal empire, all three present ideologically charged images of the Third World and its relationship to the West as objectively based scientific “fact.”

The romance as rhetorical dissociation: The purification of imperialism in king Solomon's mines

That the romance can be employed for rhetorical purposes other than reaffirming a cultures values is illustrated by H. Rider Haggards King Solomons Mines, a romance that purifies imperialism by dissociating its “appearance” as exploitation from its “reality” as the establishment of justice and the resulting transformation of identity.

The rhetorical opposition to controversial wars: Rhetorical timing as a generic consideration

In this essay, the claim is advanced that loosely structured, complex rhetorical situations often possess a strong internal structure with regard to their development or maturation over the course of time. It is argued that this position has important implications for the generic criticism of rhetorical discourse. These implications are developed via an analysis of the discourse delivered in response to two complex rhetorical situations in American history: the American Revolution and the Vietnam War.

Of Madness and Empire: The Rhetor as "Fool" in the Khartoum Siege Journals of Charles Gordon, 1884.

This essay examines the rhetorical persona of the “Fool” as employed by General Charles Gordon in six volumes of journals recorded during the siege of Khartoum by Mahdist forces from September to December, 1884. After identifying the particular rhetorical aspects of the “Fool” as social critic/site of ideological contestation, I argue that Gordon utilized this persona to undermine the Gladstonian opposition of an imperial morality based upon economic frugality and foreign non-involvement versus the immorality of imperial expansion. To accomplish this purpose, Gordon appropriated a textual location of social exteriority, employed ridicule of superiors as a form of “hidden transcript” made public, and subverted Gladstones moral imperialism as a grotesque hybridization of moral ends mandating the use of immoral means by means of conditional reasoning. Finally, Gordon proposed an alternative meaning of moral imperialism as loyalty to indigenous allies.

“Levellers”: The economic reduction of political equality in the Putney debates, 1647

The Putney debates of 1647 between Puritan radicals and moderates within the New Model Army over political equality are a classic example of the de‐legitimation of demands for political change. The radicals sought to present their proposal for the institution of political equality as an extension of the consent theory of sovereignty that had been employed by Parliament to justify resistance to Charles I. The moderates’ response to this strategy was to reduce the idea of political equality from the level of a religiously‐grounded civil right to that of an economic liability that would plunge society into chaos. This reduction facilitated the ability of the upper classes to “misname” the radicals as self‐interested “Levellers” of all persons estates. The radicals’ inability to refute this charge stigmatized their proposals as irresponsible and irreparably damaged their ethos.