Battle Exhortation: The Rhetoric of Combat Leadership (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781611170542)

A commanding study of the motivational speech of military leaders across the centuries

In this groundbreaking examination of the symbolic strategies used to prepare troops for imminent combat, Keith Yellin offers an interdisciplinary look into the rhetorical discourse that has played a prominent role in warfare, history, and popular culture from antiquity to the present day. Battle Exhortation focuses on one of the most time-honored forms of motivational communication, the encouraging speech of military commanders, to offer a pragmatic and scholarly evaluation of how persuasion contributes to combat leadership and military morale.

In illustrating his subject's conventions, Yellin draws from the Bible, classical Greece and Rome, Spanish conquistadors, and American military forces. Yellin is also interested in how audiences are socialized to recognize and anticipate this type of communication that precedes difficult team efforts. To account for this dimension he probes examples as diverse as Shakespeare's Henry V, George C. Scott's portrayal of General George S. Patton, and team sports.

Author: Keith Yellin
ISBN-10: 1611170540
ISBN-13: 9781611170542
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Language: English
Published: 01/01/2012
Pages: 208
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.67lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.47d