Critical Reflections on the Cold War: Linking Rhetoric and History.

• Author: Houck, Davis W.
• Position: Book Reviews

Critical Reflections on the Cold War: Linking Rhetoric and History. Ed. by Martin J. Medhurst and H. W. Brands. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2000; pp. ix + 281; $39.95.

Dame Rhetoric considered it quite an honor simply to be invited to the Intellectual Ball. Following years of pleading Her case for acceptance, She was finally and somewhat grudgingly permitted an official invitation. And though She wasn't accorded the grand reception of lordly nobility reserved for History and Political Science and Psychology, She didn't much care, for She knew something of influence, and reason.

But something quite unexpected happened at the Ball. Dance after dance found Her without company, left to watch the pageantry and the intricate footwork without partner. Was it Her heavily sequined gown that seemed to change colors with the angle of the light? Was it Her unnatural ease of movement? Occasionally, She caught murmurings of harlotry and deception. Late in the evening, and with Her patience long grown thin, She resorted to impassioned exhortation with would-be suitors-History and Political Science particularly. But they merely sidestepped Dame Rhetoric as they headed for the still-long queue attending Queen Scientia.

But time was running short. She quickly and cleverly invented a plan. She strode confidently across the floor, firmly grasped a startled History's clammy mitt, and pulled Him to the floor. As the music began, it was clear to the astonished onlookers that this waltz was like none other: Dame Rhetoric was leading.

So it has been for the past six years at Texas A&M University's annual conference on presidential rhetoric. With Martin J. Medhurst playing a beguiling and forceful Dame Rhetoric, historians, political scientists, sociologists, economists and literary critics have been invited to make the annual trip to College Station, TX to "dance" with the rhetoricians. Remarkably, they have come. Many keep returning, despite rhetoric's lead-or perhaps because of it.

As is to be expected from a dance of unfamiliar partners, the steps can be a bit uneven, out of time, sometimes even bumbling. Far more important, though, is the partnership. And, with each passing dance, the steps become more fluid and assertive. Texas A&M University Press has recorded that partnership-the fourth to be specific-in an anthology edited by Medhurst and his colleague at A&M, H. W. "Bill" Brands, the same Brands of Theodore Roosevelt and Benjamin Franklin...