Allison M Prasch
Biographic Data
| ID | 5595102 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Allison M Prasch |
| GIVEN NAMES | Allison M |
| FAMILY NAME | Prasch |
| SIGNATURE | PRASCH A M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Minnesota |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Nehru Goes to Washington: A Strategic Act of Cold War Rhetorical Subversion
This essay examines Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s 1949 visit to the United States as an embodied display of postcolonial sovereignty at a key moment of Cold War geopolitics. We argue that Nehru leveraged Truman’s invitation to articulate his own view of India’s role on the Cold War world stage. Rather than adopting the standard bipolar framing of Cold War rhetorical discourse, we make the deliberate choice to read Nehru’s tour as he sa…
The World Is Our Stage: The Global Rhetorical Presidency and the Cold War , by Allison M. Prasch
Figure 0.1 of Allison M. Prasch’s The World Is Our Stage displays the average number of countries visited per year by each American presidential administration from 1906 to present. The most traveled president? George W. Bush, who averaged 17.5 countries per year. As Denise Bostdorff highlights in this forum, according to the data currently available, he is history’s most traveled American president.Bush visited seventy-three countries across his…
Lyndon Johnson, Vietnam, and the Presidency: The Speech of March 31, 1968
Zarefsky, David. Lyndon Johnson, Vietnam, and the Presidency: The Speech of March 31, 1968.." Congress & the Presidency, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp. 1–2
An Empire for Liberty”: Reassessing US Presidential Foreign Policy Rhetoric
Empire is central to US foreign policy aims but is rarely taken directly into account in studies of American presidential foreign policy rhetoric. We argue here that in doing such studies, analytic attention should be paid to questions of empire as foundational to the development of the United States and to articulations of the American nation. We examine two historical and two heuristic categories used to understand US presidential foreign polic…
John F. Kennedy and the Liberal Persuasion
John F. Kennedy looms large in the public imagination and has long captured the interest of rhetorical critics and scholars of the U.S. presidency. In this deeply researched and elegantly written book, John M. Murphy situates Kennedy’s public address within its historical, political, economic, social, and cultural contexts to explain why. In the book’s preface, Murphy offers a compelling rationale for what he terms “rhetorical readings” of histor…
The Rise of the Global Rhetorical Presidency
I introduce the concept of the global rhetorical presidency to account for a fundamental shift in U.S. presidential rhetoric and foreign policy, one that emerged at the dawn of the twentieth century. As the nation redirected impulses of westward expansion, manifest destiny, and settler colonialism to the rest of the world, U.S. presidents traveled beyond the nation's own borders to speak on the international stage. Through these acts of going glo…
A tale of two presidencies: Trump and Biden on the National Mall
The 2020 U.S. presidential campaign was about much more than an electoral contest between Donald J. Trump and Joseph R. Biden. Instead, this election cycle revealed two opposing views of the U.S. presidency and a bitter debate over whether it should be understood as an institution defined by and subservient to the U.S. Constitution or as a position dictated by the whims of one individual. In this essay, I examine two corresponding yet contrasting…
Obama in Selma: Deixis, rhetorical vision, and the “true meaning of America”
I argue that Barack Obama’s immediate, imaginary, and discursive deictic references to the actions and character of ordinary citizens, specific geographical markers within the “landscape of American history,” and sacred moments in U.S. history extended and enlarged the relational, spatial, and temporal contours of the national narrative in his 2015 speech on the fiftieth anniversary of Bloody Sunday. In so doing, the president offered a compellin…
The Ides of War: George Washington and the Newburgh Crisis
Book Review| June 01 2018 The Ides of War: George Washington and the Newburgh Crisis The Ides of War: George Washington and the Newburgh Crisis. By Stephen Howard Browne. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2016; pp. vii + 138. $44.99 cloth. Allison M. Prasch Allison M. Prasch Colorado State University Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2018) 21 (2): 377–380. https://doi.org/10.14321/…
Saluting the “Skutnik”: Special Guests, the First Lady’s Box, and the Generic Evolution of the State of the Union Address
This essay traces how Ronald Reagan’s invocation of Lenny Skutnik in his 1982 State of the Union address inaugurated a new generic norm for the president’s annual message to Congress. We argue that the invocation of a “Skutnik” enables presidents to display—both rhetorically and physically—the civic ideals they wish to laud, the national issues they deem important, and policy proposals they want to advance. When U.S. presidents honor individual c…
A Journey for Peace”: Spatial Metaphors in Nixon's 1972 “Opening to China”
Richard Nixon's “opening to China” is regarded as one of the most significant moments of U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War. Through his rhetoric before, during, and after his visit to the People's Republic of China, the president moved from established metaphors of communist nations and peoples as “savage enemies” and descriptions of “Red China” as a nation “lost” to communism to a narrative that suggested openness and friendship. In this e…
Toward a rhetorical theory of deixis
This article advances a rhetorical theory of deixis, a theoretical and methodological orientation that infuses the linguistic concept of deixis with rhetorical understandings of ethos, place, and time. Deixis reveals the rhetorical dynamics within the fabric of spoken discourse, dynamics that often refer to what is outside the text to make sense of what is within it. Ultimately, I argue that identifying the deictic indicators within a speech text…
Woman President: Confronting Postfeminist Political Culture
Book Review| March 01 2015 Woman President: Confronting Postfeminist Political Culture Woman President: Confronting Postfeminist Political Culture. By Kristina Horn Sheeler and Karrin Vasby Anderson. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2013; pp. xi + 242. $45.00 cloth. Allison M. Prasch Allison M. Prasch University of Minnesota Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2015) 18 (1): 177–181. …
Reagan at Pointe du Hoc: Deictic Epideictic and the Persuasive Power of “Bringing Before the Eyes”
President Ronald Reagan’s June 6, 1984, “Address on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day” is one of his most celebrated speeches, and yet no critical assessment of the address exists in rhetorical scholarship. In this article, I examine this speech as a deictic epideictic address, or a speech in which the rhetor uses the physical place, the immediate scene/setting, and the assembled audience as evidence to commemorate the past and chart a clear course f…
Maternal Bodies in Militant Protest: Leymah Gbowee and the Rhetorical Agency of African Motherhood
This essay analyzes how Leymah Gbowee and other Liberia Mass Action for Peace (LMAP) activists drew on the cultural power of African motherhood to engage in militant protest. Framing the movement as one motivated by a concern for their children, these women employed three specific rhetorical tactics to demand an end to the fourteen-year civil war: (1) repositioning women and children as the war's real victims; (2) threatening to bare their bodies…
The Good Neighbor: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Rhetoric of American Power
Book Review| September 01 2014 The Good Neighbor: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Rhetoric of American Power The Good Neighbor: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Rhetoric of American Power. By Mary E. Stuckey. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2013; pp vii + 300. $59.95 cloth. Allison M. Prasch Allison M. Prasch University of Minnesota Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2014) 17 (3): 553…
Presidential Temples: How Memorials and Libraries Shape Public Memory
Book Review| March 01 2013 Presidential Temples: How Memorials and Libraries Shape Public Memory Presidential Temples: How Memorials and Libraries Shape Public Memory. By Benjamin Hufbauer. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006; pp. xi + 270. $35.00 cloth. Allison M. Prasch Allison M. Prasch University of Minnesota Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2013) 16 (1): 198–202. https://doi.org/1…
Maternal Bodies in Militant Protest: Leymah Gbowee and the Rhetorical Agency of African Motherhood
This essay analyzes how Leymah Gbowee and other Liberia Mass Action for Peace (LMAP) activists drew on the cultural power of African motherhood to engage in militant protest. Framing the movement as one motivated by a concern for their children, these women employed three specific rhetorical tactics to demand an end to the fourteen-year civil war: (1) repositioning women and children as the war's real victims; (2) threatening to bare their bodies…
A Journey for Peace”: Spatial Metaphors in Nixon's 1972 “Opening to China”
Richard Nixon's “opening to China” is regarded as one of the most significant moments of U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War. Through his rhetoric before, during, and after his visit to the People's Republic of China, the president moved from established metaphors of communist nations and peoples as “savage enemies” and descriptions of “Red China” as a nation “lost” to communism to a narrative that suggested openness and friendship. In this e…
The Rise of the Global Rhetorical Presidency
I introduce the concept of the global rhetorical presidency to account for a fundamental shift in U.S. presidential rhetoric and foreign policy, one that emerged at the dawn of the twentieth century. As the nation redirected impulses of westward expansion, manifest destiny, and settler colonialism to the rest of the world, U.S. presidents traveled beyond the nation's own borders to speak on the international stage. Through these acts of going glo…
Woman President: Confronting Postfeminist Political Culture
Book Review| March 01 2015 Woman President: Confronting Postfeminist Political Culture Woman President: Confronting Postfeminist Political Culture. By Kristina Horn Sheeler and Karrin Vasby Anderson. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2013; pp. xi + 242. $45.00 cloth. Allison M. Prasch Allison M. Prasch University of Minnesota Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2015) 18 (1): 177–181. …
Reagan at Pointe du Hoc: Deictic Epideictic and the Persuasive Power of “Bringing Before the Eyes”
President Ronald Reagan’s June 6, 1984, “Address on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day” is one of his most celebrated speeches, and yet no critical assessment of the address exists in rhetorical scholarship. In this article, I examine this speech as a deictic epideictic address, or a speech in which the rhetor uses the physical place, the immediate scene/setting, and the assembled audience as evidence to commemorate the past and chart a clear course f…
Presidential Temples: How Memorials and Libraries Shape Public Memory
Book Review| March 01 2013 Presidential Temples: How Memorials and Libraries Shape Public Memory Presidential Temples: How Memorials and Libraries Shape Public Memory. By Benjamin Hufbauer. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006; pp. xi + 270. $35.00 cloth. Allison M. Prasch Allison M. Prasch University of Minnesota Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2013) 16 (1): 198–202. https://doi.org/1…
The Good Neighbor: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Rhetoric of American Power
Book Review| September 01 2014 The Good Neighbor: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Rhetoric of American Power The Good Neighbor: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Rhetoric of American Power. By Mary E. Stuckey. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2013; pp vii + 300. $59.95 cloth. Allison M. Prasch Allison M. Prasch University of Minnesota Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2014) 17 (3): 553…
Woman President: Confronting Postfeminist Political Culture
Book Review| March 01 2015 Woman President: Confronting Postfeminist Political Culture Woman President: Confronting Postfeminist Political Culture. By Kristina Horn Sheeler and Karrin Vasby Anderson. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2013; pp. xi + 242. $45.00 cloth. Allison M. Prasch Allison M. Prasch University of Minnesota Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2015) 18 (1): 177–181. …
Reagan at Pointe du Hoc: Deictic Epideictic and the Persuasive Power of “Bringing Before the Eyes”
President Ronald Reagan’s June 6, 1984, “Address on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day” is one of his most celebrated speeches, and yet no critical assessment of the address exists in rhetorical scholarship. In this article, I examine this speech as a deictic epideictic address, or a speech in which the rhetor uses the physical place, the immediate scene/setting, and the assembled audience as evidence to commemorate the past and chart a clear course f…
Maternal Bodies in Militant Protest: Leymah Gbowee and the Rhetorical Agency of African Motherhood
This essay analyzes how Leymah Gbowee and other Liberia Mass Action for Peace (LMAP) activists drew on the cultural power of African motherhood to engage in militant protest. Framing the movement as one motivated by a concern for their children, these women employed three specific rhetorical tactics to demand an end to the fourteen-year civil war: (1) repositioning women and children as the war's real victims; (2) threatening to bare their bodies…
Toward a rhetorical theory of deixis
This article advances a rhetorical theory of deixis, a theoretical and methodological orientation that infuses the linguistic concept of deixis with rhetorical understandings of ethos, place, and time. Deixis reveals the rhetorical dynamics within the fabric of spoken discourse, dynamics that often refer to what is outside the text to make sense of what is within it. Ultimately, I argue that identifying the deictic indicators within a speech text…
Saluting the “Skutnik”: Special Guests, the First Lady’s Box, and the Generic Evolution of the State of the Union Address
This essay traces how Ronald Reagan’s invocation of Lenny Skutnik in his 1982 State of the Union address inaugurated a new generic norm for the president’s annual message to Congress. We argue that the invocation of a “Skutnik” enables presidents to display—both rhetorically and physically—the civic ideals they wish to laud, the national issues they deem important, and policy proposals they want to advance. When U.S. presidents honor individual c…
A Journey for Peace”: Spatial Metaphors in Nixon's 1972 “Opening to China”
Richard Nixon's “opening to China” is regarded as one of the most significant moments of U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War. Through his rhetoric before, during, and after his visit to the People's Republic of China, the president moved from established metaphors of communist nations and peoples as “savage enemies” and descriptions of “Red China” as a nation “lost” to communism to a narrative that suggested openness and friendship. In this e…
The Ides of War: George Washington and the Newburgh Crisis
Book Review| June 01 2018 The Ides of War: George Washington and the Newburgh Crisis The Ides of War: George Washington and the Newburgh Crisis. By Stephen Howard Browne. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2016; pp. vii + 138. $44.99 cloth. Allison M. Prasch Allison M. Prasch Colorado State University Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2018) 21 (2): 377–380. https://doi.org/10.14321/…
Obama in Selma: Deixis, rhetorical vision, and the “true meaning of America”
I argue that Barack Obama’s immediate, imaginary, and discursive deictic references to the actions and character of ordinary citizens, specific geographical markers within the “landscape of American history,” and sacred moments in U.S. history extended and enlarged the relational, spatial, and temporal contours of the national narrative in his 2015 speech on the fiftieth anniversary of Bloody Sunday. In so doing, the president offered a compellin…
John F. Kennedy and the Liberal Persuasion
John F. Kennedy looms large in the public imagination and has long captured the interest of rhetorical critics and scholars of the U.S. presidency. In this deeply researched and elegantly written book, John M. Murphy situates Kennedy’s public address within its historical, political, economic, social, and cultural contexts to explain why. In the book’s preface, Murphy offers a compelling rationale for what he terms “rhetorical readings” of histor…
The Rise of the Global Rhetorical Presidency
I introduce the concept of the global rhetorical presidency to account for a fundamental shift in U.S. presidential rhetoric and foreign policy, one that emerged at the dawn of the twentieth century. As the nation redirected impulses of westward expansion, manifest destiny, and settler colonialism to the rest of the world, U.S. presidents traveled beyond the nation's own borders to speak on the international stage. Through these acts of going glo…
A tale of two presidencies: Trump and Biden on the National Mall
The 2020 U.S. presidential campaign was about much more than an electoral contest between Donald J. Trump and Joseph R. Biden. Instead, this election cycle revealed two opposing views of the U.S. presidency and a bitter debate over whether it should be understood as an institution defined by and subservient to the U.S. Constitution or as a position dictated by the whims of one individual. In this essay, I examine two corresponding yet contrasting…
Lyndon Johnson, Vietnam, and the Presidency: The Speech of March 31, 1968
Zarefsky, David. Lyndon Johnson, Vietnam, and the Presidency: The Speech of March 31, 1968.." Congress & the Presidency, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp. 1–2
An Empire for Liberty”: Reassessing US Presidential Foreign Policy Rhetoric
Empire is central to US foreign policy aims but is rarely taken directly into account in studies of American presidential foreign policy rhetoric. We argue here that in doing such studies, analytic attention should be paid to questions of empire as foundational to the development of the United States and to articulations of the American nation. We examine two historical and two heuristic categories used to understand US presidential foreign polic…
The World Is Our Stage: The Global Rhetorical Presidency and the Cold War , by Allison M. Prasch
Figure 0.1 of Allison M. Prasch’s The World Is Our Stage displays the average number of countries visited per year by each American presidential administration from 1906 to present. The most traveled president? George W. Bush, who averaged 17.5 countries per year. As Denise Bostdorff highlights in this forum, according to the data currently available, he is history’s most traveled American president.Bush visited seventy-three countries across his…
Nehru Goes to Washington: A Strategic Act of Cold War Rhetorical Subversion
This essay examines Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s 1949 visit to the United States as an embodied display of postcolonial sovereignty at a key moment of Cold War geopolitics. We argue that Nehru leveraged Truman’s invitation to articulate his own view of India’s role on the Cold War world stage. Rather than adopting the standard bipolar framing of Cold War rhetorical discourse, we make the deliberate choice to read Nehru’s tour as he sa…
Political science (15 works) · Law (14 works) · Rhetoric and Communication Studies (14 works) · Politics (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Rhetoric (10 works) · Rhetorical question (8 works) · History (6 works)