Rhetoric in European and World Culture traces the position of rhetoric in cultural and educational systems from ancient times to the present. Here, Jirí Kraus examines rhetoric’s decline in importance in a period of rationalism and enlightenment, presents the causes of negative connotations of rhetoric, and explains why rhetoric in the twentieth century regained its prestige.

Kraus demonstrates that the reputation of rhetoric falls when it is reduced to a refined method for deceiving the public and increases when it is seen as a scientific discipline that is used throughout all of the fields of the humanities. In this sense, the author argues, rhetoric strives for universal recognition and the cultivation of rhetorical expression, spoken and written, including not only its production but also reception and interpretation.