This book approaches Lin-Manuel Miranda's groundbreaking cultural production of Hamilton: An American Musical as a rhetorical text with implications for contemporary U.S. politics. The contributors to this volume utilize training in rhetorical criticism and performance studies to analyze the musical in relation to three broad themes: national public memory, social and cultural identity, and democracy and social change. Each chapter offers unique insights on its own accord while the volume as a whole explores multiple facets of the musical, from the theater performance and the soundtrack to the musical's circulation in public discourse and the Chicago exhibition. The diversity of topics and methods means that the volume is suitable for students of rhetoric and U.S. politics and even the "HamilFans" will learn something new.

Autorentext

Jeffrey P. Mehltretter Drury (PhD, University of Wisconsin) is Associate Professor of Rhetoric at Wabash College. He has published in numerous rhetoric journals and authored two books: Speaking with the People's Voice (2014) and Argumentation in Everyday Life (2019).

** Sara A. Mehltretter Drury** (PhD, Pennsylvania State University) is Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Director of Democracy and Public Discourse at Wabash College. She has published in Communication Quarterly, Argumentation and Advocacy, and Journal of Public Deliberation, and is an Indiana Humanities Action Fellow.