Rhetoric and cultural conservatism: an historical examination

Abstract

When alternative visions of society, institutional structures and academic programs are brought into play, there arises controversy such as we in English studies are currently experiencing. Critical educators, like E. D. Hirsch, Jr., Allan Bloom et al, and their opponents, such as Terry Eagleton, William Cain and Frank Lentriccia, have been debating the ideal nature and aims of our profession; both argue for a need to reevaluate the social effectiveness of our professional endeavor and both call for re-emphasis on the study of rhetoric. Their discussion is not, however, as new an issue as we might be inclined to believe. On other historical occasions, when perpetuation of traditional cultural values has seemed to stand in the way of individual empowerment, similar conflict has arisen and, on these occasions, educators found programs based on the art of rhetoric to be the answer. Evidence is drawn from three periods when significant technological breakthrough in information dissemination called teaching practices into question. The work of Isocrates, Desiderius Erasmus and Richard Weaver--all cultural conservatives and all teachers dedicated to the betterment of society as a whole--is examined and will show how these scholars saw that programs of educational reform in which both rhetoric and cultural literacy were emphasized best prepared upcoming generations for full participation in active citizenship.