“Rhetoric Alive! is a highly knowledgeable, comprehensive, and clear Aristotelian treatment of the art of rhetoric. . . . Its virtues are many, but two are especially prominent: its patient pedagogy and its detailed and interesting exercises. . . . This is a living rhetoric bound to animate the spoken and written suasions of any teacher or student who submits to its instruction.” (Taken from the foreword.)

“This text has the potential to shake up English studies at the secondary level. It is a formidable and appealing innovation that is wonderfully old-fashioned and yet as fresh as anything I’ve seen in a long time.”

“Rhetoric Alive! moves Aristotle’s ideas and concepts out of the classical past and sets them on the bottom shelf for high school students—and the accomplishment is that it does so without reducing them, but instead revealing their relevance and worth. It delivers on the aspiration of the title: It brings Aristotle’s Rhetoric alive.”

“Combining Aristotle’s insights on rhetoric with examples of speech and writing ranging from Augustine to Shakespeare and from Emily Dickinson to Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Alyssan Barnes has written an illuminating and useful guide for all K-12 teachers of the liberal arts. The selections are well-chosen and age-appropriate. The analysis is first-rate. The connection of past to present is exemplary. Excellent scholarship combined with practical applications.”