When you think of the word "demagogue," what comes to mind? Probably someone like Hitler or another bombastic leader, right? Patricia Roberts-Miller is a rhetoric scholar and has spent years tracing the term and its uses. She joins us this week to explain a new way of thinking about demagoguery and how that view relates to democracy. She also explains what she's learned from what she describes as years of "crawling around the Internet with extremists."
Roberts-Miller is a Professor of Rhetoric and Writing and Director of the University Writing Center at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of two new books on demagoguery. "Demagoguery and Democracy" is a short book in the style of "On Tryanny" that covers the basics of her argument in about 100 small ages. "Rhetoric and Demagoguery" is a longer, more academic book for those looking for more on the rhetorical roots of demagoguery and its relationship to democratic deliberation.
