Taming democracy : models of political rhetoric in classical Athens /

Yunis gives scholarly attention to rhetoric in Athens, 5th and 4th centuries BCE. He concentrates on the rhetorical ideas and strategies of three particular thinkers: Thucydides (author of History of the Peloponnesian War), Demosthenes (defender of Athens' independence in his speeches against Philip of Macedon), and Plato. Yunis gives special attention to rhetoric in a number of Plato's works, particularly Georgias and Laws. Yunis is an excellent writer, enabling even the reader who knows little about rhetoric in the classical era to find Taming Democracy accessible. The book effectively sets the scene for its discussions of rhetorical strategies, providing superb treatment of the period of each author. Unlike most other treatments of rhetoric in the classical period, Yunis is more interested in his subjects' attitudes and rhetorical practices than in formal rhetorical theory of the age, thus avoiding yet another discussion of Aristotle's theory of rhetoric. Overall, Yunis's book illustrates how important different objectives of rhetoric were in the classical age, and shows that these differences can matter in political theory and practice. Graduate students; faculty. R. B. Fowler University of Wisconsin--Madison