Elizabeth Hanford Dole - (Praeger Political Communication) by Molly Wertheimer & Nichola Gutgold (Hardcover)

About the Book

As a politician, what you say and how you say it is almost as important as what you do. Political careers are made based not only on substantive achievements, but also on style, presentation, speeches, and debates. Dole's is no exception. After a career in government service spanning six presidents, from Lyndon B. Johnson to George H. W. Bush, she became widely recognized as a leading Republican politician in her own right after her 1996 speech at the GOP convention. In 1999 she spent six months campaigning for president before dropping out of the race due to a lack of adequate funds, and in 2002 she was elected U.S. Senator from North Carolina. In this biography of Dole, the authors show how she has been able to advance the causes she cares about, as well as her political career, through her consummate skills as a public speaker.

Dole's career included service in two cabinets, as Secretary of Transportation (Reagan) and Secretary of Labor (Bush), and she also served as president of the American Red Cross. The authors quote liberally from her speeches and interviews to illustrate the events of her political career and to place her choices--personal, career, and political--in the context of the times and places in which she grew up and came of age. Her trajectory--from Southern belle debutante to Harvard Law School student and from political wife to presidential candidate and U.S. senator--is fascinating, and the deftness with which she has been able to deflect the criticisms thrown her way is instructive for women of both political parties and for politicians of both genders.

Book Synopsis

As a politician, what you say and how you say it is almost as important as what you do. Political careers are made based not only on substantive achievements, but also on style, presentation, speeches, and debates. Dole's is no exception. After a career in government service spanning six presidents, from Lyndon B. Johnson to George H. W. Bush, she became widely recognized as a leading Republican politician in her own right after her 1996 speech at the GOP convention. In 1999 she spent six months campaigning for president before dropping out of the race due to a lack of adequate funds, and in 2002 she was elected U.S. Senator from North Carolina. In this biography of Dole, the authors show how she has been able to advance the causes she cares about, as well as her political career, through her consummate skills as a public speaker.

Dole's career included service in two cabinets, as Secretary of Transportation (Reagan) and Secretary of Labor (Bush), and she also served as president of the American Red Cross. The authors quote liberally from her speeches and interviews to illustrate the events of her political career and to place her choices--personal, career, and political--in the context of the times and places in which she grew up and came of age. Her trajectory--from Southern belle debutante to Harvard Law School student and from political wife to presidential candidate and U.S. senator--is fascinating, and the deftness with which she has been able to deflect the criticisms thrown her way is instructive for women of both political parties and for politicians of both genders.

Review Quotes

"Elizabeth Dole's life provides rich material for analysis. This volume provides an important contribution to research about women and politics, foreshadowing the specific challenges that women face running for major political offices, especially the U.S. presidency."-Janette Kenner Muir, Associate Dean for New Century College, George Mason University

"This book...promises to make a significant contribution to the growing area of women's place in political discourse. Dole is an important figure for study, as she is uniquely known for her discourse and work as a political appointee, elected official, and candidate spouse. Thus, she encompasses the many roles for women in the political sphere that compell scholarly attention."-Janis L. Edwards, Associate Professor, University of Alabama

"This study of Elizabeth Dole's political voice presents careful analysis that preserves the passion of its subject. Wertheimer brings the experience of previous treatments of First Ladies Barbara Bush and Laura Bush to the exuberance of Gutgold's interviews. Together, the authors add new understanding to a famously elusive subject."-Catherine M. Hastings, Associate Professor, Susquehanna University

?Wertheimer and Gutgold analyze this talented leader's life and her agility in "rhetorical multitasking" and provide a rich context for her speeches. They argue that Dole's life--her education, rhetorical training, advocacies, and religious and patriotic values--can be interpreted as "a new fairy tale" of a capable, confident politician in her own right. In their classic analysis of Dole's political voice, the authors note her "sense of mission ... from the heart" and her efforts to craft a semblance of spontaneity. Important for its serious investigation of the voice of one who has contributed to public service in numerous capacities--secretary of transportation under Reagan, secretary of labor under the first George Bush, president of the Red Cross, presidential candidate in 1999, and US senator from North Carolina--this volume includes a lengthy appendix of 22 speeches delivered by Dole between 1987 and 2003. Highly recommended. Lower-/upper-division undergraduates; general readers.?-Choice

"Wertheimer and Gutgold analyze this talented leader's life and her agility in "rhetorical multitasking" and provide a rich context for her speeches. They argue that Dole's life--her education, rhetorical training, advocacies, and religious and patriotic values--can be interpreted as "a new fairy tale" of a capable, confident politician in her own right. In their classic analysis of Dole's political voice, the authors note her "sense of mission ... from the heart" and her efforts to craft a semblance of spontaneity. Important for its serious investigation of the voice of one who has contributed to public service in numerous capacities--secretary of transportation under Reagan, secretary of labor under the first George Bush, president of the Red Cross, presidential candidate in 1999, and US senator from North Carolina--this volume includes a lengthy appendix of 22 speeches delivered by Dole between 1987 and 2003. Highly recommended. Lower-/upper-division undergraduates; general readers."-Choice

About the Author

MOLLY MEIJER WERTHEIMER is Professor of Speech Communication and Women's Studies at Pennsylvania State Universeity, Hazleton.

NICHOLA D. GUTGOLD is Assistant Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Pennsylvania State University, Berks-Lehigh Valley.