The Search for Self-Sovereignty: The Oratory of Elizabeth Cady Stanton

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Bloomsbury Academic, Dec 6, 1989 - Political Science - 216 pages

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was one of the founding philosophers of America's women's rights movement. The first woman's rights convention in the United States was held in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848; there she helped write and present the Declaration of Sentiments, a woman's bill of rights which articulated the inferior and unjust position of women in law, church, and society and called for redress. From this grew the organized demands by women in the United States for the ballot and other social change. In this fourth volume in Greenwood's series of book-length studies of great American orators, Waggenspack focuses on the rhetoric of an outstanding orator who has been hailed as one of the earliest and most outspoken advocates of women's rights issues. This needed addition to the history and criticism of American public address is based on Waggenspack's original research of the Elizabeth Cady Stanton papers and will facilitate not only the study of feminist rhetoric but will also meet the needs of those wishing to evaluate the effects of American public address and the impact of an advocate or speech upon history.

Part One, using a case study format, presents critical analyses of the orator and her speeches with the focus on rhetorical considerations of speaker and speech, purpose and effect. Part Two contains seven definitive speech texts of the commanding oratory analyzed in Part One. Of special note is the inclusion of Cady Stanton's famous The Solitude of Self, a speech appealing to the highest qualities and aspirations to people everywhere. A chronology details all of Cady Stanton's known addresses and the bibliography contains carefully annotated biographies on the orator as well as a detailed list of the contents of the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Papers in the Library of Congress. The volume closes with notes and an index. This notable study will be a valuable research tool for students and scholars of rhetoric, public oratory, American history, and women's studies; it will also fascinate the general reader.

From inside the book

 

Contents

From Defect of Sex to SelfSovereignty
7
The Status of Women and Reform
39
Discontent and Reform
59
Copyright

5 other sections not shown

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The Search for Self-Sovereignty: The Oratory of Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Beth M. Waggenspack
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Beth M. Waggenspack
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Common terms and phrases

abolitionist achieve advocate American American Anti-Slavery Society Anti-Slavery argued arguments asserted attempts audience audience's believed boys Cady Stanton papers called cause Church coeducation colleges create custom Daniel Cady daughters degradation demands demonstrated ECS Revealed Elizabeth Cady Stanton equal fact false father female feminist free love freedom Gerrit Smith girls Henry Stanton higher education History of Woman human husband ideas independence individual intellectual issues Judiciary Committee leaders legislation lives Lloyd Bitzer Lucretia Mott Lucy Stone lyceum male marriage Marriage and Divorce meeting moral mother National nature NAWSA NWSA political president question radical reform religion religious resolutions rhetorical role self-sovereignty Seneca Falls Convention sexes social society society's solitude soul speech Stanton and Anthony Stanton and Blatch Susan temperance traditional true vote widow wife Woman Suffrage Woman Suffrage Association Woman's Rights Convention woman's sphere womanhood women women's movement York young

References to this book

About the author (1989)

BETH M. WAGGENSPACK is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She has written chapters in numerous books and journal articles focusing on American public address, argumentation, and social movement rhetoric.

Bibliographic information

TitleThe Search for Self-Sovereignty: The Oratory of Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Great American Orators
AuthorBeth M. Waggenspack
Editionillustrated, annotated
PublisherBloomsbury Academic, 1989
ISBN031325978X, 9780313259784
Length216 pages
Subjects › 

Political Science / General
  
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