Books by David B. Chesebrough

Though much has been written about Charles G. Finney, "The Father of Modern Revivalism", most works have concentrated on his roles as an educator and political reformer. This study examines the rhetorical skills and techniques that made Finney the first contemporary evangelist.

Based on the belief that sermons can reflect the values and feelings of their times, this analysis of more than 300 sermons delivered in a seven-week period following Lincoln's assassination on 16th April 1865 shows how people sought comfort and guidance, and a perspective concerning the death.

Frederick Douglass was one of the great 19th-century American orators and an important spokesman for African Americans. This book traces the development of his rhetorical skills, discusses the effect of his oratory on his contemporaries, and analyzes the specific oratory skills he employed.

Phillips Brooks, author of the carol O Little Town of Bethlehem, was the rector of the Trinity Episcopal Church in Boston for 22 years and the Bishop of Massachusetts for 15 months until his death in 1893. This volume in the Great American Orators series focuses on Brooks' oratorical style and the public's response to his rhetoric.

Theodore Parker, a great orator of the mid-19th century, was a Unitarian clergyman who directed much of his oratory towards ecclesiastical and social reform. As a volume in the Great American Orators series, the focus is on Parker's oratory and its effect on theology and the social structures of the mid-19th century.