Remembering the Rhetorical Tradition of Social Protest Scholarship

Mark Allan Steiner

Charles E. Morris III and Stephen H. Browne, editors. Readings on the Rhetoric of Social Protest. State College, PA: Strata Publishing, 2001. 480 pages. $47.50 (paper).

Sociologist Hans Toch aptly noted that prior to the 1920s, social protest and social movements were not seen as deserving of serious academic study, but were seen rather as "curiosities or monstrosities in an otherwise rational world" (4). Since that time, fortunately, a large body of scholarship has appeared on the subject. Scholars in a variety of disciplines, particularly sociology and psychology, began offering and nuancing a variety of theories to explain social movements or "collective behavior"—including (but not limited to) rational choice theory, resource mobilization theory, and state structure theory.

The tradition of rhetorical studies has also produced an impressive body of scholarship on social protest and social movements that complements and expands the work of other disciplines. Particularly since escaping the shackles of neo-Aristotelianism, rhetoricians have emphasized the fundamental roles that symbols play in the origin and advancement of social movements. In particular, their scholarship has shown the productive value of symbolic acts previously condemned as irrational and counterproductive. It is a tradition of scholarship that social movement scholars in a variety of disciplines would do well to acknowledge and build upon.

Among other things, Morris and Browne’s volume makes these tasks easier. Responding primarily to pedagogical concerns, Morris and Browne have assembled a collection of thirty previously published scholarly essays from the rhetorical tradition of social protest and social movement scholarship. This collection is chronologically broad, ranging from Leland Griffin’s 1952 article, "The Rhetoric of Historical Movements," to Charles Stewart’s 1997 case study of Black Power activist Stokely Carmichael.

The volume showcases its thematic breadth in its three main sections. The first section, "Theoretical Foundations," features a workable sample of essays representing the "first generation" of rhetorical scholarship on social protest and social movements. These essays, write Morris and Browne, "deal explicitly with theoretical foundations for the study of social protest . . . speak[ing] directly to ways in which social protest movements may be conceptualized as an area of rhetorical inquiry" (xi). Rhetoricians specializing in social protest and social movements will find few surprises here. Griffin’s initial 1952 article is reprinted here, along with articles including Franklyn Haiman’s "The Rhetoric of the Streets," Robert Scott and Donald Smith’s "The Rhetoric of Confrontation," Richard Gregg’s "The Ego-Function of the Rhetoric of Protest," and Robert Cathcart’s seminal "Movements: Confrontation as Rhetorical Form."

The second section, "Competing Perspectives," features essays that both problematize and extend the insights gained in the "first generation" of movement studies from a rhetorical perspective. "For all their rich yield," write Morris and Browne, "movement studies by the 1980s were coming under increasing scrutiny." "Many rhetorical scholars," they continue, "observed that their promise had yet to be fully realized, and set about to reexamine why" (113). This section also features few surprises. Malcolm Sillars’s very broad redefinition of social movements appears here, along with much of the content of the Winter 1980 movement studies special issue of the Central States Speech Journal.

The volume’s third section, "Critical Touchstones," features a broad array of social movement and social protest case studies conducted by rhetorical scholars. Case studies like these are valuable, claim Morris and Browne, because of their "attention to historical detail," because of their focus on the "theory of the case," and because of their ability not only to affirm "what we thought we knew about how protest rhetoric works" but also to "help us uncover the many relationships, tensions, and paradoxes that theory does not always anticipate" (175-76). Experts and students alike of social protest and social movement rhetoric will appreciate the diversity of both subject matter and theoretical approach represented in this section. The section includes such notable essays as James Andrews’s "Confrontation at Columbia," Karlyn Kohrs Campbell’s "The Rhetoric of Women’s Liberation: An Oxymoron," Randall Lake’s case study of native American protest rhetoric, Celeste Condit Railsback’s broad treatment of the contemporary American abortion controversy, and James Darsey’s historical study of gay liberation rhetoric.

Finally, the volume includes a bibliography, organized by subject, that includes both primary sources and secondary sources from a number of disciplines. Though certainly not anything close to exhaustive, the bibliography should serve well to direct students to good starting points for original research.

While I very much appreciate the appearance of this volume, I do have minor reservations with respect to the volume’s content and to its intended audience. My reservations concerning the volume’s content are minor and not surprising, given the fact that different scholars naturally will have somewhat different lists of the most important scholarship. Still, though, I was somewhat surprised at some of the work that was not included. I would have expected to see Leland Griffin’s essay, "A Dramatistic Theory of the Rhetoric of Movements," and (more generally) a more explicit representation of Kenneth Burke’s influence on the rhetorical tradition of social protest and social movement scholarship. I would have also expected to see an excerpt from (or at least some references to) James Darsey’s excellent 1997 book, The Prophetic Tradition and Radical Rhetoric in America, a book which not only reconceptualizes the "first generation" of rhetorical scholarship on social protest and social movements, but also makes some important connections between social protest and more contemporary problems of public discourse.

I also have some reservations about the volume’s usefulness as a text for an undergraduate course on rhetoric and social protest. Reading and digesting well over four hundred pages of material intended chiefly for an audience of scholars is—by itself—a sufficient semester-long challenge for most undergraduate students. That might leave little time for other work that would be useful in an undergraduate course on the rhetoric of social protest, including (but not limited to) practical application of much of the theoretical material, as well as original student research into a social protest phenomenon of their choosing. I suspect that many undergraduates will have a tough enough time just trying to make sense of the material, though the volume could work well for an undergraduate course that is unabashedly demanding and theory-based. For these reasons, I would be inclined instead to choose for my students among some of the quite workable undergraduate textbooks on the subject that are already available, supplementing that material as needed.

Reservations aside, this is an important and useful volume for communication teachers and scholars, particularly for those teaching courses on social protest. I would enthusiastically recommend this book for a graduate-level course on rhetoric and social protest. I would also enthusiastically recommend this book as a handy reference for those teaching any course on communication and social protest. Certainly I plan to consult it frequently the next time I teach the course. Finally, I would enthusiastically recommend this book to teachers and scholars of other disciplines who are interested in social protest and social movements, as the volume serves as a convenient and largely effective representation of the rhetorical tradition of social protest scholarship.

Works Cited