Description: In Saving Persuasion, Bryan Garsten uncovers the early modern origins of today's suspicious attitude toward rhetoric and seeks to loosen its grip on contemporary political theory. He argues that the artful practice of persuasion ought to be viewed as a crucial part of democratic politics.
Brief description: Bryan Garsten is Professor of Political Science, Yale University.
Review Quotes: This book is a gem: learned, important, original, persuasive. While the trend in democratic theory is to sideline rhetoric in favor of rationalistic 'deliberation, ' Garsten explores and defends an older tradition of republican rhetoric that disavows manipulation and pandering but differs with contemporary rationalism in practicing respect for citizens' actual opinions and for the arts of appealing to them. The book's arguments are unexpected and bracing; its discussion of canonical thinkers is consistently fresh and brings to bear neglected works to enliven more familiar debates. Finally, the work's style--vivid, clear, and elegant--deserves almost as much praise as its substance.--Andrew Sabl, University of California, Los Angeles