The Force of Fantasy: Restoring the American Dream

By Ernest G. Bormann

This study is the culmination of a dec­ade of work that began with the contro­versial article, "Fantasy and Rhetorical Vision," which was recently honored by the Speech Communication Association with the Charles H. Woolbert Research Award in recognition of "scholarship of exceptional originality and influence."

With the publication of this long-anticipated book, Bormann offers new insights into the development of Ameri­can thought and the related social pro­cesses of intellectual history and small group communication as well as rheto­rical criticism. To accomplish this he studies religious and reform speaking in the United States from the time of the Puritans to the Civil War.

Not attempting to survey all of the varied practices of preaching and reform speaking, he isolates, describes, and criti­cizes one rhetorical tradition, starting with the Puritan sermon and moving through the emergence of revivalism to the rise of the antislavery reform efforts and culminating in the speeches of Abra­ham Lincoln. He thereby presents for the first time an integrated and structured account of one rhetorical tradition in this country. Of perhaps equal interest to rhetorical critics are Bormann's research procedures as he presents the first book-length study to utilize fantasy theme analysis.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809311852
• ISBN13: 9780809311859
• Release Date: February 1985
• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.1" x 6.0"