Paul Stob

Lonely Courage, Commemorative Confrontation, and Communal Therapy: William James Remembers the Massachusetts 54th

On May 31, 1897, William James, one of Americas most influential philosophers and psychologists, delivered the first civic oration of his career. The principal orator at the dedication of the Robert Gould Shaw memorial in Boston, James did what commemorative speakers are not supposed to do. He chose to be confrontational and divisive in a situation that called for exactly the opposite. Nevertheless, upon conclusion of his speech the audience erupted in applause, hailing his remarks as both unconventional and fitting. In this essay, I explore how Jamess speech could be both unconventional and fitting. I argue that his Shaw memorial oration demonstrates a style of commemorative discourse that is conflictual, even disruptive, yet capable of serving the ends of the epideictic tradition. As I show, James used his intellectual ethos as the nations leading psychologist to construct a kind of communal therapy session, at the heart of which was the notion of “lonely courage.” With this strangely individualistic civic virtue, James turned his audience from spectators gazing upon the Shaw memorial to active participants in the memorials meaning. Ultimately, his individualistic notion of civic virtue stands as an alternative to other forms of civic virtue and to the patterns of epideictic discourse that authorize them.

Religious Conflict and Intellectual Agency: Robert Ingersoll's Contributions to American Thought and Culture

Robert Green Ingersoll, often called the Great Agnostic, was the most celebrated and the most reviled orator in America during the final decades of the nineteenth century. He attacked revealed religion, ridiculed the faith of millions, yet attracted massive audiences to his lectures in cities and towns across the country. In this essay I explore how Ingersoll was able to maintain his visibility and influence for over a quarter century while simultaneously assaulting what many of his listeners held sacred. I argue that Ingersoll’s lectures ultimately ascribed intellectual agency to individuals whose agency seemed in question, thereby empowering ordinary Americans as participants in the radical changes then shaping the world of thought. Importantly, this message of agency extended to believers and nonbelievers, which helps explain why both the religiously devout and skeptical agnostics flocked to Ingersoll’s lectures. In the end, Ingersoll’s lectures underscore the role of conflict and controversy in a healthy democratic society.

The Rhetoric of Individualism and the Creation of Community: A View from William James's “The Will to Believe”

In this essay I explore the paradoxical operation of the rhetoric of individualism. While individualism suggests the demarcation of liberal subjects and even opposition to communities, groups, and collectives, its rhetorical deployment can call people together in powerful ways, offering them a common identity and a shared perspective. In short, the rhetoric of individualism can be used to create community. To illustrate the paradoxical operation of the rhetoric of individualism, I analyze William Jamess popular lecture “The Will to Believe,” which deployed individualism as a response to various social, political, and intellectual shifts at the end of the nineteenth century. In particular, Jamess individualist rhetoric helped foster a community of religious believers ready to oppose the evidentiary demands of modern science. Although “The Will to Believe” represents only one instance of the rhetoric of individualism, it suggests that community building may be a natural function of individualisms rhetorical deployment.

Louis Brandeis and the Rhetoric of Transactional Morality

Progressive reformers frequently spoke a moral language, bringing abstract moral laws to bear on the social, economic, and political turmoil of the early twentieth century. However, this form of moral discourse often proved ineffective for grasping the complexities of the time. In this essay I turn to Louis Brandeis’s progressive advocacy to uncover an alternative form of moral speech, one that was better attuned to the changing nature of society. As I argue, Brandeis articulated what one might call “transactional morality,” crafting a rhetoric that hinged upon the interconnection of morality, economics, and democratic citizenship. By infusing his moral speech with economic terminology and an abiding concern for civic participation, Brandeis directed the nation’s attention to the moral costs and benefits of an emerging industrial democracy. The result was a form of moral engagement that not only avoided the problems other progressives encountered but also reconfigured morality in response to radical social change.

Black hands push back: Reconsidering the rhetoric of Booker T. Washington

ABSTRACT Booker T. Washington has long been considered a great compromiser—but not in a way that reflects positively on him. In his infamous Atlanta Exposition Address, he supposedly compromised with the segregationist South in a push for mere economic opportunity for African Americans. This essay, however, reconsiders Washington’s rhetoric, including his speech in Atlanta, by exploring the ways he spoke about human hands, deploying a language that positioned his listeners as agents of resistance capable of pushing back against systems of oppression. Beyond offering a reinterpretation, however, I argue that Washington adeptly navigated the tensions of race, geography, and body of his era and thereby expanded the constituency of civil-rights participants beyond those clustered in Northern urban communities. Ultimately, Washington’s rhetoric of hands prompts us to reconsider his place in the American and African American rhetorical traditions, and it demonstrates the importance of geography in rhetorical criticism.

Jeannette Rankin’s Democratic Errand to Washington

ABSTRACT In this essay, I argue that Jeannette Rankin’s 1917 address at Carnegie Hall recast a religious rhetorical form—the Puritan errand—for the democratic needs of the early twentieth century. Rankin’s “democratic errand” positioned the American West as a place that nurtured the truths of democracy and could help purge the nation of its political sins.