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Undertakes a wide-ranging examination of the US-Mexico border as it functions in the rhetorical production of civic unity in the United States

A “border” is a powerful and versatile concept, variously invoked as the delineation of geographical territories, as a judicial marker of citizenship, and as an ideological trope for defining inclusion and exclusion. It has implications for both the empowerment and subjugation of any given populace. Both real and imagined, the border separates a zone of physical and symbolic exchange whose geographical, political, economic, and cultural interactions bear profoundly on popular understandings and experiences of citizenship and identity.

The border’s rhetorical significance is nowhere more apparent, nor its effects more concentrated, than on the frontier between the United States and Mexico. Often understood as an unruly boundary in dire need of containment from the ravages of criminals, illegal aliens, and other undesirable threats to the national body, this geopolitical locus exemplifies how normative constructions of “proper”; border relations reinforce definitions of US citizenship, which in turn can lead to anxiety, unrest, and violence centered around the struggle to define what it means to be a member of a national political community.

Critical studies of the prophetic voice that reshaped a nation. 

Martin Luther King Jr. and the Sermonic Power of Public Discourse presents a rich and illuminating examination of Dr. King’s rhetorical mastery, revealing how his most iconic speeches and writings drew deeply from African American sermonic traditions to articulate a moral vision capable of transforming public consciousness. Through nine incisive essays, the volume explores how King’s oratory fused theology, ethics, metaphor, and call‑and‑response patterns to mobilize audiences and frame the civil rights movement as a universal moral struggle. 

The collection focuses on five pivotal works—“Death of Evil on the Seashore,” “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” “I Have a Dream,” “A Time to Break Silence,” and “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”—each analyzed for its rhetorical structure, historical context, and thematic force. These pieces span the full arc of King’s public career, illustrating not only his evolving political and theological commitments but also his sustained effort to envision and communicate a “beloved community” rooted in justice, equality, and human dignity. 

In addition to unpacking King’s metaphoric language, ethical appeals, and theological grounding, several essays highlight the ways his rhetoric bridged diverse audiences and invited collective participation in social change. Scholars examine how King re‑constructed the rhetorical situation in “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” framed equality as a universal ideal, and used orality and performance to elevate “I Have a Dream” into one of the most resonant speeches in American history.

Far more than an anthology of commentary, this volume provides a nuanced, interdisciplinary understanding of King as a rhetorician whose discourse transcended political advocacy to become a powerful form of moral persuasion. It is an essential resource for readers interested in rhetoric, communication, civil rights history, and the enduring power of prophetic speech.

In No Caption Needed, Robert Hariman and John Louis Lucaites provide the definitive study of the iconic photograph as a dynamic form of public art. Their critical analyses of nine individual icons explore the photographs themselves and their subsequent circulation through an astonishing array of media, including stamps, posters, billboards, editorial cartoons, TV shows, Web pages, tattoos, and more. Iconic images are revealed as models of visual eloquence, signposts for collective memory, means of persuasion across the political spectrum, and a crucial resource for critical reflection.
Arguing against the conventional belief that visual images short-circuit rational deliberation and radical critique, Hariman and Lucaites make a bold case for the value of visual imagery in a liberal-democratic society. No Caption Needed is a compelling demonstration of photojournalism’s vital contribution to public life.

A critical examination of how pleasure and pain are constructed, represented, and contested within American public culture.

Mainstream news and social media often highlight presentations of pain that invite a voyeuristic, pleasurable experience, whether the result of war, disasters, crime, accidents, or other catastrophes. This collection of essays explores pleasurable pains and painful pleasures, showing how they pervade contemporary western public culture.

Deploying methodologies drawn from psychoanalysis, rhetoric and communication, political theory, and visual culture, Pleasure and Pain in US Public Culture offers insightful criticisms and theories about how pleasure and pain function in public discourse, media, and everyday communication practices.

The contributors provide a sample of fascinating range of news reportage, television, film and cinema, stage drama, comic performances, street art, and other forms of popular culture. The media cited and analyzed include Spike Lee’s films, Afrofuturism, autoethnography, and the #MeToo movement.

The collection takes up engrossing topics such as the cathartic allure of pain, ethical dilemmas surrounding public displays of suffering, and the transformative power of narratives that confront trauma. The essays also draw connections between theory and real-world outcomes, explore the implications of enjoying traumatic comedy, and link the natural world to otherwise mundane instances of interspecies violence.  Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination hearings and what they suggest about witnessing trauma is also discussed.

Pleasure and Pain in US Public Culture will change how a reader sees the world. It imparts a startling vision of western culture permeated by pain and pleasure.