‘Parliamentary government’, wrote Macaulay in 1857, ‘is government by speaking’. Despite periodic laments about the decline of parliamentary oratory, language—and thus rhetoric as the art of verbal persuasion—is clearly as crucial as ever to the business of politics, especially where relations with the media (and through them the public) are concerned. British politicians may invariably use the word ‘rhetoric’ for the purpose of attacking their opponents, accusing them of indulging in ‘empty rhetoric’ and contrasting it with reality or the need for action. By their very nature, however, such attacks are themselves rhetorical, intended to persuade an audience. From an analytical perspective, on the other hand, rhetoric has been studied since the days of Aristotle and remains a recognised academic discipline in American universities. Along with popular studies such as Leith (2011), this book suggests that there has been a revival of interest in rhetoric on this side of the Atlantic too.