Forensics in America: A History

Here is the story of the process by which competitive speech and debate evolved in the United States during the 20^th Century.

This authoritative history shows how forensics, as practiced in the United States, was an uneasy fusion of contradictory premises that began as a significant part of the tradition of American public address: The need for preparing students to participate in democratic governance in conflict with a student’s need to express personal and competitive impulses. Forensics represented a push and pull between an activity simultaneously considered to be both a public and a private good.

The book:

• identifies the themes and trends of American forensics within an overarching chronological framework;
• reveals the impact of American forensics on the communication discipline, as well as America’s social and educational systems;
• concentrates on the elements of social history that contributed to organizational development, leadership, and politics; and,
• provides a base line reflecting the influences of both American culture in particular, and western culture in general, for cross-cultural comparisons between processes and effects of forensics as a form of education.