Rhetoric as Currency: Hoover, Roosevelt, and the Great Depression. By Davis W. Houck. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2001. Pp. 226. $39.95.

Extract

In this study of the economic rhetoric of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt, 1929–1933, Davis Houck tries boldly to link the fields of rhetoric, history, and economics. He claims to “have established the crucial relationship between rhetoric and economics. Specifically, economic recovery is premised, in part, on collective confidence, which, in turn, is influenced by both presidential speech and cooperative legislative action” (p. 199).