The Rhetorical Short Story: Best American Short Stories on War and the Military, 1915-2006

In The Rhetorical Short Story, Purcell examines over ninety short stories as rhetorical artifacts of nearly a century of American history. The words of over seventy-five authors present a pastiche of American voices, from the early days of the Great War to the ongoing conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each of the stories features a type of rhetorical depiction that enables its audience to connect vicariously with the experience presented by the author. This account sees the transformation of the…