"In The Ethos of Rhetoric, fourteen noted rhetorical theorists and critics answer a summons to return ethics from abstraction to the particular. They discuss and explore a meaning of ethos that predates its more familiar translation as "moral character" and "ethics." Attentive to this more primordial meaning of the term, the contributors understand the phrase "the ethos of rhetoric" to relate to the way discourse is used to transform space and time into "dwelling places" where people can deliberate about and collectively understand some matter of interest. Such dwelling places define the grounds, abodes, and habitats where a person's ethics and moral character take form and develop. Together the contributors define ethical discourse and describe what its practice looks like in particular communities." "Among the phenomena these contributors examine are the rhetoric of a Black Arts movement leader, the 2000 presidential campaign, President George W. Bush's response to the September 11 terrorist attack, and the cold war computer culture."--BOOK JACKET.