Do Not Disavow

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Do Not Disavow By: Rick Davis   When Charlemagne established law Salic in barb’rous land, The gospel flourished, and he saw Christ’s praise on every hand.   (“Do you approve his methods now?”) I do not disavow.   King Godfrey took Jerusalem From bloody paynim hands And brought a halt to Musselmen Invading Christian lands.   (“He did some mean things anyhow!”) I do not disavow.   King Richard with his scarlet shield And passant lions ‘bossed Rode forth again unto the field To regain what was lost.   (“His deeds at Acre you allow?”) I do not disavow.   Unto the Germans Luther brought The gospel full restored, And Calvin at Geneva taught The glory of the Lord.   (“The Jews? Servetus? Holy cow!”) I do not disavow.   Stonewall and Lee like knights of old Fought for their native soil, The true and lovely to uphold Against the tyrant’s spoil.   (“Those vile racists broke their vow!”) I do not disavow.   Men
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Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students

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Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students gets the job done, I suppose. It was much more difficult to follow than the, in my opinion, superior Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student by Edward Corbett. That book, from which I have taught a Rhetoric course before, is better arranged with lots of bullet points and lists to break up the prose. This book, though thinner, feels heavier and harder for a student to plod through. The Corbett book also includes complete essays by famous writers at the end of each chapter as examples, whereas this book merely includes paragraph excerpts throughout the chapters.

This book has one advantage over Corbett, however, and that is in the number of exercises provided for the student to hone his (or "her" as Crowley and Hawhee would have me remember!) rhetorical skills.

Overall this is a decent introduction to Rhetoric, but too concerned with extraneous issues, with an extreme (seriously) political bias, a weird habit of frequently switching between male and female personal pronouns even when historically inaccurate (How many female rhetors were there in 5th century Athens again?), and presenting information in way that would make it difficult for a beginning student to grasp.

3/5 stars

Comments

Wayne B. said…
haha. Seriously, a political bias about as strong as the ancient South American version of hot chocolate. It was annoying at times, but seeing as there are plenty of books the same way from the "other" side, not really surprising. I'm glad VP uses it, personally, because it shows that they're willing to use the best book they can find regardless of the authors' stances on things. At least, I think that's what it shows. =D
04 August, 2012 10:40
Rick Davis said…
It is a good book. I wouldn't say it's great, but then again, the Corbett book that I prefer does have very little in the way of exercises. I think maybe VP wanted the huge number of practice sessions which is the one area in which Ancient Rhetorics excels.
06 August, 2012 07:09
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