How the Virtue of Eloquence Became a Vice | Brian Snee | TEDxWCC

For more than 2000 years, eloquence was regarded as a virtue in democratic societies. It is therefore no accident that in the United States our greatest leaders (Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy, Reagan) have also been our most eloquent. However, our recent leaders, whose most loyal followers take them seriously--but not literally--has shown us that eloquence is now regarded by many as a vice.
Brian J. Snee is Professor of Communication and Media at Manhattanville College. He has been teaching rhetoric, persuasion, and public speaking for almost 25 years. He is the author of Lincoln before Lincoln (UP Kentucky, 2016) and editor of Michael Moore and the Rhetoric of Documentary (Southern Illinois UP, 2015). He has spoken at academic conferences all over the country, and in April he will deliver the keynote address at the annual meeting of the Peekskill Lincoln Society.
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