For twenty years this book has been a popular and useful introduction to the history of the rhetorical tradition in the West for students in colleges and universities and for general readers. In thoroughly revising it, I have taken account of much new scholarship that has appeared since the original publication, changed some of my own views as the result of further study, given greater attention to rhetorical study in Spain, and added discussion of women who have contributed to the history of rhetoric, a subject that had been little studied at the time of the first edition. I am grateful to the readers of the first edition who encouraged me to make this revision, to The University of North Carolina Press for its willingness to undertake a new edition, and to members of the Press staff who have assisted in preparing it.
George A. Kennedy
Fort Collins, Colorado
March 9, 1998