Overview

"Rhetoric at the Margins: Revising the History of Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1873-1947 examines the rhetorical education of African American, female, and working-class college students in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Author David Gold uses archival materials to study three types of institutions historically under-represented in disciplinary histories: a black liberal arts college in rural East Texas; a public women's college; and an independent teacher training school. The rich case studies complement and challenge previous disciplinary histories and suggest that the epistemological schema that have long applied to pedagogical practices may actually limit our understanding of those practices.Gold argues that each of these schools championed intellectual and pedagogical traditions that differed from the Eastern liberal arts model - a model that often serves as the standard for rhetorical education. He demonstrates that by emphasizing community uplift and civic participation, these schools created contexts in which otherwise moribund curricular features of the era - such as strict classroom discipline and an emphasis on prescription - took on new possibilities.""""Rhetoric at the Margins"""" describes the recent revisionist turn in rhetoric and composition historiography, argues for the importance of diverse institutional microhistories, and asserts that the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries offer rich lessons for contemporary classroom practice. The study brings alive the voices of black, female, rural, southern, and first-generation college students and their instructors, linking these histories to the history of rhetoric and writing."

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9780809328345

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Rhetoric at the Margins has much to offer readers.... but it is Gold's challenge of Berlin's taxonomies and insistence that scholars must resist tendencies to simplistically connect ideology and pedagogy that really stand out. As Gold stresses throughout the book, connections between pedagogy and ideology are much more complex than traditional taxonomies suggest. A highly engaging book, Rhetoric at the Marginsshould appeal to those interested in the different institutions investigated, alternative sites of rhetorical education, and the history of rhetoric and composition during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. -- Suzanne Bordelon, Composition Studies Gold's book makes an important contribution to the field of rhetoric and composition studies because it exposes and examines rhetorical education in understudied college settings and highlights the work of scholar-teachers committed to providing their charges with essential language skills. Rhetoric at the Margins leads us to consider more carefully the historical significance of instruction in diverse institutions among a wide range of learners and reminds us that conservative methods and radical aims frequently coexist. --Shirley Wilson Logan, Rhetoric Review Gold's historical snapshots offer a nuanced picture of the rhetoric classroom that invites reconsideration of teacher motivation, student needs, historical conditions, and community involvement as factors shaping classroom writing and pedagogy.... [It] has much to offer rhetoricians, historiographers, and writing instructors. Arguing for a more diverse, complex depiction of the rhetoric classroom and teaching practices, Gold successfully makes the case that local histories matter and that small schools responding to local community needs dynamically change the face of rhetorical education. --Whitney Myers, Rhetoric Society Quarterly Gold's work...demonstrates a method of historiography that deserves repeat performances.... More importantly, however, he seems to resist the temptation to make another master narrative out of his recovered stories. His conclusion does not synthesize but sustains its commitment to the local and reiterates his initial objective to develop a corpus of work that will illuminate the past with a minimum of narrative distortion. Given his third objective--to learn from the past we uncover--Gold explores the obligations rhetoric and composition instructors face if we are to, in effect, do our jobs. --Kristen Garrison, Review of Communication

Rhetoric at the Margins has much to offer readers.... but it is Gold's challenge of Berlin's taxonomies and insistence that scholars must resist tendencies to simplistically connect ideology and pedagogy that really stand out. As Gold stresses throughout the book, connections between pedagogy and ideology are much more complex than traditional taxonomies suggest. A highly engaging book, Rhetoric at the Marginsshould appeal to those interested in the different institutions investigated, alternative sites of rhetorical education, and the history of rhetoric and composition during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. -- Suzanne Bordelon, Composition Studies Gold's book makes an important contribution to the field of rhetoric and composition studies because it exposes and examines rhetorical education in understudied college settings and highlights the work of scholar-teachers committed to providing their charges with essential language skills. Rhetoric at the Margins leads us to consider more carefully the historical significance of instruction in diverse institutions among a wide range of learners and reminds us that conservative methods and radical aims frequently coexist. --Shirley Wilson Logan, Rhetoric Review Gold's historical snapshots offer a nuanced picture of the rhetoric classroom that invites reconsideration of teacher motivation, student needs, historical conditions, and community involvement as factors shaping classroom writing and pedagogy.... [It] has much to offer rhetoricians, historiographers, and writing instructors. Arguing for a more diverse, complex depiction of the rhetoric classroom and teaching practices, Gold successfully makes the case that local histories matter and that small schools responding to local community needs dynamically change the face of rhetorical education. --Whitney Myers, Rhetoric Society Quarterly Gold's work...demonstrates a method of historiography that deserves repeat performances.... More importantly, however, he seems to resist the temptation to make another master narrative out of his recovered stories. His conclusion does not synthesize but sustains its commitment to the local and reiterates his initial objective to develop a corpus of work that will illuminate the past with a minimum of narrative distortion. Given his third objective--to learn from the past we uncover--Gold explores the obligations rhetoric and composition instructors face if we are to, in effect, do our jobs. --Kristen Garrison, Review of Communication

Author Information

David Gold, an assistant professor of English at California State University, Los Angeles, has published essays in English Journal, College English, CCC, and Rhetoric Review.

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