Elizabeth Hanford Dole : speaking from the heart /

This second book to focus on a woman in the "Praeger Series in Political Communication" is more successful than the first, Colleen Elizabeth Kelley's The Rhetoric of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton (CH, Oct'01, 39-0744). In the first half of this book, Wertheimer and Gutgold (both, Pennsylvania State Univ.) analyze this talented leader's life and her agility in "rhetorical multitasking" and provide a rich context for her speeches. They argue that Dole's life--her education, rhetorical training, advocacies, and religious and patriotic values--can be interpreted as "a new fairy tale" of a capable, confident politician in her own right. In their classic analysis of Dole's political voice, the authors note her "sense of mission ... from the heart" and her efforts to craft a semblance of spontaneity. Important for its serious investigation of the voice of one who has contributed to public service in numerous capacities--secretary of transportation under Reagan, secretary of labor under the first George Bush, president of the Red Cross, presidential candidate in 1999, and US senator from North Carolina--this volume includes a lengthy appendix of 22 speeches delivered by Dole between 1987 and 2003. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Lower-/upper-division undergraduates; general readers. T. B. Dykeman Fairfield University