"Every working historian, from the novice to the veteran, from the untrained amateur to the professionally prepared, can profit immeasurably from this important work. . . . The Rhetoric of History belongs on the shelf of all those who aspire to effective historical authorship."

Choice

The sole purpose of this book, said author Savoie Lottinville, is "to help the person committed to history to become an effective writer in that inviting field." Lottinville emphasizes that writing must be practiced as a discipline, as exacting as research and as elusive as achievement in any other art.

As every historian discovers, it is one thing to learn historical method and amass data and quite another to write effectively about any period or episode. Research is an absorbing means to an end, but writing is often baffling, especially to the beginner. The Rhetoric of History analyzes techniques historians need to employ and includes examples of the writing styles of many of the most notable historians of the United States and Europe.

Covering topics like conceptualization in history, constructing scenes, narrative structures, analytical historical writing and editing, The Rhetoric of History will prove to be indispensable to historians-both professional and amateur.

Savoie Lottinville, was director of the University of Oklahoma Press for thirty years and editor of Life of George Bent: Written from His Letters and A Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory During the Year 1819, both published by the University of Oklahoma Press.