On Exhibit : A Rhetorical, Political History of Washington, DC.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sheckels, Theodore.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (288 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bradford : Ethics International Press Limited, 2025.

Summary:

On Exhibit relates, episode by episode, how political actors have portrayed the District of Columbia to achieve their political ends. These episodes feature selectivity, exaggeration, and outright distortion. They extend throughout the city's history, beginning with pictures that, first, normalized slavery and, then, depicted the horrors of the slave trade and ending with pictures offered by Donald Trump and Congressional allies of the city as crime-infested and in need of a federal takeover. Although Aristotle and argumentation theorists talk about the example as a proof, they do not talk about the exhibit as described in this study; both how the exhibit works rhetorically and how ethical (or not) it is. The use of the exhibit in the case of Washington illustrates the technique--common in political communication. The book, then, has multiple audiences; those interested in American political history, especially that of the nation's capital city; those interested in rhetorical theory; those interested in political communication.

Contents:

Intro

Preface

The Scholarly

The Political

The Personal

Preview

Acknowledgements

On Exhibition

Aristotle on the Example Topos

James Herrick and David Zarefsky on the Example

The Exhibit

As a "Performance Fragment"

A Rhetorical History of the City

The District of Columbia: An Overview

Geography

History

"The Room Where It Happened": The Aftermath-Slavery on Display

Hamilton vs. Jefferson

George Washington

Slavery as the Norm

From Slavery to Slave-Trading

Creating Exhibits

The Civil War: Racial Progress in Its Aftermath

Before the War

After the War: the "Radical Republicans"

Backlash

Terminating Home Rule

Different Kinds of Exhibits

Creating a "City Beautiful"

"Boss" Shepherd

City Parks

Errors and Negative Consequences

Exhibitions of a Traditional Sort

Pennsylvania Avenue and Outside the White House: The Suffs

Across the Anacostia: The Bonus Army

On the National Mall in Front of Lincoln: Civil Rights

West Potomac Park and Resurrection City

City as Exhibit Site vs. City as Exhibit

Under the Thumb

Growing Anti-Black Sentiment

The Congressional District Committees

Countering Black Exhibits: Culture on U Street

Education on M

The Performing Arts

Education

City on Fire, 1968

The April 1968 Riots

Crime in DC

Other Demonstrations

Responding to the Rioting

What People Saw

Failure, Failure, Success: Urban Renewal and Urban Transportation

Housing

Transportation

Freeways

Metro

Conclusion

Home Rule Again: Walter Washington to Vincent Gray

Walter Washington

Marion Barry

Sharon Pratt Dixon

Marion Barry

Reprise

Anthony Williams

Adrian Fenty

Vincent Gray

Muriel Bowser

Beyond the District Committees

Muriel Bowser and MAGA

Ups and Downs.

Black Lives Matter

Trump and DC Crime

Congress Against the City

Crime But More Than Crime: Extending the Trope

Conclusions: Politics, Political Communication, Rhetoric, and Ethics

Reviewing the Exhibitions

Crime and Race

DC's Political Status

The Rhetorical Exhibit

Rhetorical History

Place in Political Communication and Rhetoric

Ethics

References

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-83711-188-X