Book Review| June 01 2012 Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America. Thomas L. Friedman. Rya Butterfield Rya Butterfield Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2012) 15 (2): 375–378. https://doi.org/10.2307/41940579 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Rya Butterfield; Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America. Rhetoric and Public Affairs 1 June 2012; 15 (2): 375–378. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/41940579 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveMichigan State University PressRhetoric and Public Affairs Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. © 2012 Michigan State University Board of Trustees2012 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Abstract As the steadily expanding cyberpublic presents both obstacles and opportunities for Communist Party rule in China, the party has responded by adapting the rhetorical strategies of the Model Worker (MW) commendations to a changing political environment Using role model representations to encourage particular kinds of citizen labor, the system has changed from Maoist single-lane authoritarianism to a multilane interaction between the public and the party. This essay investigates the epideicticfunction, adaptation, and modification of MW awards via Kenneth Burkes symbolic labor. Tracing the awards through the periods of leadership from Mao Zedong to Deng Xiaoping to Hu Jintao, I explore how the structure of the MW program has evolved into a rhetorical strategy capable of stabilizing party power through the moralization of party initiatives and the promulgation of party ideals despite increases in new media forms and institutions.