On the rhetoric of social movements, historical movements, and “top‐down” movements: A commentary

Abstract

This essay offers a commentary on the case studies of movement rhetoric by Stewart, Condit and Lucaites, Darsey, and Nelson. It proposes a modified definition of “social movement” in light of the apparent evidence of “top‐down” movements but nevertheless insists on the centrality of the variable of institutionalization in analyses of the rhetoric of social movements.