Abstract

ARGUMENTATION AND ADVOCACY 2019, VOL. 55, NO. 2, 172–174 BOOK REVIEW Romanticism, rhetoric, and the search for the sublime, by Craig R. Smith. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2018, 335 pp., $119.95 (Hardcover), ISBN-10: 1527515958 (English) ISBN-13: 978-1527515956. Dr. Craig R. Smith’s Romanticism, Rhetoric, and the Search for the Sublime sets out to develop a Neo-Romantic theory of rhetoric for modern times. Smith’s primary argument throughout this book is that there needs to be a return to classic understandings of per- suasion combined with romantic images of the sublime beauty of nature to persuade the general population to care more about the environment. Arguing that this book extends a kind of “green Romanticism or Romantic ecocriticism into the realm of rhetoric,” Smith draws from romantics such as Thomas Sheridan, Hugh Blair, and Thomas de Quincy to develop a Neo-Romantic theory of rhetoric (p. xii). I was initially drawn to Smith’s bookuponfinding his 2016 article in the Western Journal of Communication titled “Constructing a Neo-Romantic Rhetorical Theory.” This article acts as a precursor to Smith’s larger work, providing a condensed, in-depth explor- ation into Neo-Romantic Rhetoric. One of the things that I really enjoyed about this article was the amount of