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You Talkin' To Me?: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama Hardcover – 20 Oct 2011

by
Sam Leith (Author)
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Sam Leith (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 93 customer reviews
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Profile Books (20 Oct. 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1846683157
  • ISBN-13: 978-1846683152
  • Product Dimensions: 14.4 x 2.9 x 22.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (93 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 48,324 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

Highly entertaining and erudite ... He handles the important ancient texts, which can be rebarbative in their raw form, with a deliciously light touch, without sacrificing seriousness or finesse ... Reading this book is the equivalent of lounging in a leather club armchair, wreathed in cigar smoke and a couple of whiskies down, alongside a companion who's being funny and clever about Homer and Hello! magazine by turns. (Charlotte Higgins Guardian)

Entertaining ... You finish this book more than ready to rock a first in rhetoric. (Hermione Eyre Evening Standard)

Witty and revealing ... the chapter on Arrangement alone would probably bump up most student degrees by a class, not to mention the average oration (James McConnachie Sunday Times)

Leith gives modern relevance to an ancient practice. Though he is rigorous in his analysis of rhetoric, he is no dull pedagogue; his language is demotic, vernacular, colloquial ... Read this entertaining and instructive book and you will never again mistake an occultatio for an occupatio. (Ian Finlayson The Times)

Genius ... Leith's great gift is the ability to plunder the everyday to illustrate the rarefied ... even after the most cursory dip into this, you begin to hear the world in a completely different, illuminated way. (Telegraph)

this is the best available analysis, by a sensitive literary critic, of what rhetoric is, and how it works (Boris Johnson Mail on Sunday)

A work of both form and substance, sizzle and sausage - to use metonymy - and full of practical tips for any speaker or writer, this is a model of its kind (Ross Leckie Country Life)

irresistibly accessible...if you want to recreate the effects of Obama or Churchill, either by speaking in public or down the pub, this is the book for you (Metro Books of the Year)

highly entertaining...written with such charm and persuasion...if you like words and enjoy language you will love this book (Avanti! Magazine)

a sprightly, erudite and often very funny book about rhetoric...also an exceptionally astute examination of how politics works. I relished every page of it (Christopher Hart Literary Review)

elegant, concise and frequently very funny (John Preston Spectator)

entertaining (Peter Carty Independent)

Erudite loopiness of the highest order...sure to enlighten (George Pendle FT)

entertaining...winning humour and charm (Metro Non-Fiction Book of the Week)

Engaging (Ian Birrell Observer)

Book Description

A witty, elegant enquiry into the art of persuasion

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars'Let me persuade you'
By Purpleheart TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on 16 May 2012
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Some say we live in the age of communication so it seems odd that the study of rhetoric seems antiquated and neglected - part of an irrelevant classical tradition.

In a introduction which starts with a funny and apposite scene from The Simpsons, Sam Leith says 'So although rhetoric is all around us, we don't see it. Indeed it's precisely because it's all around us that we don't see it. Explaining rhetoric to a human being is, or should be, like explaining water to a fish.' He goes on to say 'We use language to cajole and seduce, to impress and inspire, to endear and to justify. Language happens because human beings are desiring machines; and what knits desire and language is rhetoric.' At that point I was sold - my interest was piqued. What kept me reading was his clear style and wonderful examples from Milton's Satan in Paradise Lost to The Simpsons, from Churchill to Obama.

The book is structured according to the Five Parts of rhetoric
1) Invention
Ethos, pathos and logos

2) Arrangement
For example narration, proof and refutation

3) Style
For example, decorum and jokes

4) Memory
some top tips on using a memory house

5) Delivery

and then he explores the three branches of rhetoric:
Deliberative Rhetoric
Judicial Rhetoric and
Epideicitic Rhetoric

Don't be put off by the classical terms. If you have an important presentation or speech to give then this book will be very useful, but it's also something that can be dipped in to with pleasure and will reward and enrich the everyday communications.

Sam Leith has pulled off that very difficult balancing act with his book which is entertaining and inspiring as well as informative and educational. It is a master class in rhetoric.
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5.0 out of 5 starsInstant smartness
By Mrs. R. on 21 Oct. 2012
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
This is a fabulous book. Fab-u-lous.
Why's that? Because reading it makes you feel intelligent.
A real expert can explain comlicated things so that people new to the subject can understand them too. That's what this book does.
Rhetoric. I didn't really know what that was, but I thought perhaps it was boring. It turns out that it's fascinating, or it is when Sam Leith writes about it.

I spend a lot of my working life trying to convince business people that they don't have to use words like contextualisation or phrases like integrated stratigic teaming to make themselves look clever. Aiming to show that if they can explain something complicated so people can understand it, they'll get better results. I'm going to take this book with me to all my workshops from now on. I used to take a geology book called Understanding Earth for the same reason, but this one's smaller.

Sam Leith has made me smarter. I didn't learn Latin at school, but that's OK because Sam explains it for you.
But as well as using Aristotle and Obama, he quotes South Park, Kurt Cobain and Billy Connelly.
And it tells me that I could probably have rearranged this review to have a stronger impact. Buy it anyway. Even if you don't intend to write a speech or make a speech. Even if you never write anything.

Read this because it makes you a more intelligent listener.
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4.0 out of 5 starsEnjoyable and Accessible, but needs more speeches
By Mr. Ross Maynard VINE VOICE on 13 Sept. 2013
Format: Paperback
I enjoyed "You Talkin' to Me?". It provides a very accessible and readable introduction to what could be the very dry subject of rhetoric. There is a good deal of history there (but not too much) and good explanation of the key elements of this useful skill. What I felt the book lacked was sufficient examples of these elements. There are simply not enough extracts of great speeches in there, and (in my view) not enough great speakers highlighted. So, for example, there is a chapter about Churchill in there but only a few lines of his actual speeches. President Obama does a little better, but overall there are just not enough examples of this fine art. Even if the author included a list of great speeches with web page addresses so we could look them up, that would be useful.

I found the book interesting and engaging, but I wanted to read more examples of the art.
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5.0 out of 5 starsWho would have thought that learning about rhetoric would be so much fun?
By Bacchus TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on 3 Mar. 2012
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
I think this book does for rhetoric what 'Eats Shoots and Leaves' does for grammar. It provides a highly readable and hilarious guide to the history and practice of rhetoric.

Everyone knows what a rhethorical question is, i.e. one that suggests its answer rather than demands it. The book shows that the subject is about a series of tricks in which arguments are made to persuade others to come to the point of view of the speaker. Of course, it is just a prevalent in writing.

The thing that is clear is that people talk and think rhetorically almost by instinct and respond to it even without knowing. This book gives a very quick and highly readable account of how rhetoric works and begins with Aristotle's formulation of the rules and then looks at some of the finest [and infamous] orators who have mastered rhethoric, including Cicero and Demosthenes, Abraham Lincoln, Churchill and Hitler, Thatcher and Reagan and in our time President Barack Obama. On the way, he also uses examples from pop songs, advertisements, comedy sketches and film and plays.

I think it is very useful for everyone who communicates to know about rhetoric. Use of rhetoric can make your written work become more colourful. Use of rhetoric can make your speech more persuasive. Understanding of rhetoric can also make you recognise where you are being bamboozled and manipulated.

Immediately after finishing this book, I was asked to give a talk at a staff meeting about some work I had been doing. It is normally a tedious part of the meeting when most people switch off - other people's work not being as interesting as their own. Just for fun, I thought I would apply some rhetorical techniques to my talk, such as anaphora and tricolon. I thought more carefully about the order and choice of words for their effect on the listeners. I had so much fun playing with the material that the talk went down really well and I even managed to raise a few laughs.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsTips and tricks of speach writing

Reference guide to rhetoric and speech structure, backed by practical examples of historical speeches. A useful tool for people who are not used to public speaking.

Published 3 months ago by RickJ
5.0 out of 5 starsGood, entertaining read

Good, entertaining read, and nice introduction to a few basic concepts of rhetoric. I bought an extra copy or a friend.

Published 5 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Excellent book, very enjoyable

Published 6 months ago by Stephanie Walker
4.0 out of 5 starsSpeak up for this book!

This is a great book if you are interested in the idea of rhetoric the skills of public speaker, off argument construction and of the great speech. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Mr. Paul Hopkins
5.0 out of 5 starsWell played, Sam

What a smart piece of work. Learning lightly worn and only one or two flip moments of misjudgement.

Builds to a great climax with analysis of Martin Luther King's epic... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Madmoose
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Wonderful amusing read.
Great for understanding politicians, your peers and your children.

Published 13 months ago by Frederic
5.0 out of 5 starsTruely Wonderful

For anyone who has a love for language, this book is an essential. It's incredibly witty and the anecdote filled pages actually had me laugh-out-loud a few times. Read more

Published 13 months ago by Samuel
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

Handy for lippy teens.

Published 14 months ago by Carruthers
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Book was in amazing condition

Published 14 months ago by ITV Digital PLC, K Richardson
1.0 out of 5 starsOne Star

Was unable to download Kindle version

Published 15 months ago by Anne Turner

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