Vernacular Voices or Song of Faith and Hope

Vernacular Voices: The Rhetoric of Publics and Public Spheres

Author: Gerard A Hauser

Democracy is grounded on the principle that public opinion should influence the course of society. Yet this opinion, its content, and its representation are difficult to define and interpret. Vernacular Voices: The Rhetoric of Publics and Public Spheres discusses the role of citizen voices in steering a democracy through an examination of the rhetoric of publics - active segments of society that influence the "general climate" of public dialogue - and of the associated public spheres and public opinion.

Table of Contents:

	List of Tables
	Series Editor's Preface
	Acknowledgments
	Introduction: Forgotten Publics	1
Ch. 1	The Public Voice of Vernacular Rhetoric	13
Ch. 2	Discourse, Rhetorical Discourse, and the Public Sphere	37
Ch. 3	Civic Conversation and the Reticulate Public Sphere	57
Ch. 4	Reading Public Opinion from Vernacular Rhetoric	82
Ch. 5	Narrative, Cultural Memory, and the Appropriation of Historicity	111
Ch. 6	Reshaping Publics and Public Spheres: The Meese Commission's Report on Pornography	161
Ch. 7	Technologizing Public Opinion: Opinion Polls, the Iranian Hostages, and the Presidential Election	189
Ch. 8	Democracy's Narrative: Living in Roosevelt's America	232
Ch. 9	The Rhetoric of Publicness: Theory and Method	268
App. I	Chronology of Hostage Developments	283
App. II	Chronology of the 1980 Campaign	289
	Notes	293
	Bibliography	311
	Index	329

New interesting textbook: Corporations and Other Business Associations or Human Value Management

Song of Faith and Hope: The Life of Frankie Muse Freeman

Author: Frankie Muse Muse Freeman

Growing up in the Jim Crow-era South, Frankie Freeman learned lessons about discrimination. She walked places instead of taking the segregated streetcar; she felt hurts and vowed privately never to forget. But in her loving family, she also learned positive lessons about living: work hard, get an education, fight injustice, and make a difference. Freeman took all these lessons to Hampton Institute, to Howard University law school, then to her career as a St. Louis civil rights attorney, winning a landmark victory in the area of fair housing. In 1964, she became the first woman appointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, leaving in 1979 to serve as inspector general of the Community Services Administration. During these years, she was also St. Louis Housing Authority general counsel—and lost her job amid bitter controversy stirred up by a commission hearing in St. Louis County. This memoir tells the story of Frankie Freeman's life and career. There were high points, such as meetings with President Lyndon Johnson, historic commission hearings, and her national presidency of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. There were also difficult events, such as the illness and death of her husband and son. Through it all, she continued to fight for what she believed in; she kept her faith—and carried on.