{"product_id":"9781603447911","title":"Reagan at Westminster: Foreshadowing the End of the Cold War","description":"President Ronald Reagan’s famous address to the Houses of  Parliament is now considered—in its spirit if not in its actual words—to  be the initial enunciation of his “Evil Empire” stance. In this  important volume by two experienced rhetorical scholars, Robert C.  Rowland and John M. Jones offer a historical-descriptive treatment that  includes both rhetorical analysis and a narrative of the drafting of the  speech. They consider Reagan’s focus on “ultimate definition,”  “dialectical engagement,” and other rhetorical tools in crafting and  presenting the momentous address. They also note the irony of Reagan’s  use of Leon Trotsky’s phrase “ash-heap of history” to predict the demise  of Communism.\u003cbr\u003eRowland and Jones present three reasons for the importance of this  speech. First, it offers new insights into President Reagan himself,  through a view of his role in the drafting of the speech as well as the  ideas it contains. Second, the speech is an act of rhetorical history,  and its analysis helps recover a significant rhetorical artifact.  Finally, the address ultimately expresses a rhetorical framework for the  Cold War that systematically subverted the narrative, ideology, and  values of Marxism.\u003cbr\u003eAlthough initial response to the speech was tepid, Reagan considered it  one of his most important addresses, and the hindsight afforded by the  fall of Communism a decade later lends validation to that view, the  authors suggest. \u003ci\u003eReagan at Westminster: Foreshadowing the End of the Cold War \u003c\/i\u003ewill highly commend itself to students and scholars of rhetoric, the Presidency, and political communication.","brand":"Texas A\u0026M University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47164839788784,"sku":"9781603447911","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781603447911_p0.jpg?v=1763830413","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781603447911","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}