Abstract

Abstract This article examines two texts important in American rhetorical history, Caleb Bingham's 1794 American Preceptor and Eliphalet Pearson's 1802 abridgment of Blair's Lectures. These schoolbooks challenge accepted historiographies of late eighteenth‐ and early nineteenth‐century rhetoric in two ways: they demonstrate that neoclassicism encompassed a much greater variety of ancient figures and texts than is usually presumed, and they suggest that neoclassical rhetorics operated within a more complicated sociopolitical milieu than is commonly understood. Bingham and Pearson emerge as key figures in early American rhetorical history and their books prompt reconsideration of American neoclassicism.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2001-09-01
DOI
10.1080/02773940109391214
Open Access
Closed
Topics

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Cites in this index (1)

  1. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Also cites 8 works outside this index ↓
  1. Composition‐Rhetoric: Backgrounds, Theory, and Pedagogy
  2. Composition in the University
  3. 10.2307/361972
  4. The American Colonial Mind and the Classical Tradition
  5. 10.1080/03637754609374896
  6. The Formation of College English: Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the British Cultural Provinces
  7. 10.1080/00335635909382357
  8. Traces of a Stream: Literacy and Social Change Among African American Women
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