This specialised study of ancient rhetoric compares and contrasts the works of Isocrates and Aristotle, arguing that Isocrates was every bit a worthy intellectual rival to Aristotle, despite the historical limelight focusing on the latter. Haskins' review of their rhetorical theories and practices, placed within the contemporary intellectual climate, leads to the conclusion that Aristotle's works about rhetorical education may have been a reaction to Isocrates. Haskins develops her consideration of Isocrates and Aristotle in chapters on orality/literacy, poetic/rhetoric, kairos /genre, identification/persuasion, and social change/social performance. These frames. create the ground for analysis that is both historically informative and theoretically provocative' - from the editor's preface.