Synopses & Reviews
The environment figures prominently in American political debate of the twentieth century. Issues of wilderness and wetlands preservation, clean air and clean water, and the sustainable use of natural resources attract passionate advocacy and demands for national as well as local action. Presidents since Theodore Roosevelt have addressed these issues, rhetorically (though not always prominently) in their public addresses and pragmatically in their policies and appointments to pertinent positions.
Green Talk in the White House gathers an array of approaches to studying environmental rhetoric and the presidency, covering a range of presidential administrations and a diversity of viewpoints on how the concept of the and#147;rhetorical presidencyand#8221; may be modified in this policy area.
Tarla Rai Petersonand#8217;s introduction discusses both methodological and substantive issues in studying presidential rhetoric on the environment. In subsequent chapters, noted scholars examine various aspects of half a dozen modern presidencies to shed light not only on those administrations but also on the study of environmental rhetoric itself. The final section of the book then directs attention to the future of presidential rhetoric and environmental governance, with looks and#147;inand#8221; at state-level environmental issues and looks and#147;outand#8221; at the international context of environmentalism.
As a whole, the volume is ideal for those looking to better understand the particular intersection of presidency, policy, and rhetorical studies.
Review
and#8220;This volume is an important contribution to environmental communication and presidential rhetoric scholarship. Editor Peterson offers an excellent introduction that both justifies the volume and productively frames the subsequent essays. She successfully places the work in the field as well as highlights the unique contribution this volume makes in joining presidential rhetoric and environmental communication (and to a lesser extent media studies). In this volume it is a fruitful meeting. . . I profited from reading the essays and look forward to using this book in classes.and#8221;--Kevin DeLuca, Associate Professor, Department of Speech Communication, Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia
About the Author
TARLA RAI PETERSON is currently a professor at the University of Utah. She served as principle organizer of the Presidential Rhetoric Conference that focused on environmental rhetoric while an associate professor of communication at Texas AandM.