Adam Smith

Before his famed career as moral philosopher and economist, Adam Smith (1723-1790) was well known for a series of public lectures on rhetoric that he gave in Edinburgh and Glasgow. In this volume, Stephen J. McKenna provides the first book-length treatment of Smith’s rhetorical theory, focusing on his theory of rhetorical propriety–the means by which effective communication is adapted to the variables of subject, audience, speaker or writer, purpose, and moment–and the centrality of this concept to his thought. McKenna shows that Smith’s contribution to the theory of rhetorical propriety offers insights into the interdisciplinarity of rhetoric, particularly its relation to ethics, and has practical implications for the ways we conceive of and conduct rhetorical discourse and education today.