Introduction: Was there a nineteenth century rhetorical presidency? a debate revisited / Martin J. Medhurst

Part I. Alternative perspectives on the rhetorical presidency. Talking without speaking, and other curiosities / Mel Laracey ; On the forms of rhetorical leadership / Jeffrey K. Tulis ; Present at the founding: the rhetorical presidency in historical perspective / Stephen E. Lucas

Part II. Nineteenth-century rhetorical presidencies. Little magic: Martin van Buren and the politics of gender / Susan Zaeske ; John Tyler and the rhetoric of the accidental presidency / David Zarefsky ; James Knox Polk: the first imperial president? / Karlyn Kohrs Campbell ; Franklin Pierce and the exuberant hauteur of an age of extremes: a love song for America in six movements / Stephen John Hartnett ; James Buchanan: romancing the Union / Robert E. Terrill ; Andrew Johnson and the politics of character / Stephen Howard Browne ; Resolute commander for just peace: the rhetoric of President Ulysses S. Grant / George R. Goethals ; The challenges of reunification: Rutherford B. Hayes on the close race and the racial divide / Amy R. Slagell ; The problem with public memory: Benjamin Harrison confronts the "southern question" / Kirt H. Wilson ; Grover Cleveland and the non-rhetorical presidency / Michael Leff ; William McKinley and the emergence of the modern rhetorical presidency / William D. Harpine

Afterword: Questioning the rhetorical presidency construct / M.J Medhurst.