This introduction to the art of rhetoric analyzes rhetorical concepts, problems, and methods and teaches practical inquiry through a series of classic rhetorical texts.

• An introduction to the art of rhetoric for those who are unacquainted with it and an argument about invention and tradition suitable for specialists
• Texts range from Cicero's De oratore and Augustine's On Christian Doctrine to Jane Austen's Persuasion and Stephen Greenblatt's Marvellous Possessions
• Texts serve simultaneously as works of persuasion and considerations of how rhetoric works
• Engages readers in using rhetoric to deliberate about challenging issues.

Wendy Olmsted is Associate Professor in the New Collegiate Division and in the Humanities Division at the University of Chicago as well as Associated Faculty Member in the Department of Classics (PAMW). Her previous publications include A Companion to Rhetoric and Rhetorical Criticism, co-edited with Walter Jost (Blackwell Publishing, 2004) and Rhetorical Invention and Religious Inquiry, co-edited with Walter Jost (Yale University Press, 2000).