Books by Richard M. Weaver

Richard M. Weaver believed that "rhetoric at its truest seeks to perfect men by showing them better versions of themselves." Language is Sermonic offers eight of Weaver's best essays on the nature of traditional rhetoric and its role in shaping society.

Originally published in 1948, at the height of post-World War II optimism and confidence in collective security, this title uses "words hard as cannonballs" to present an unsparing diagnosis of the ills of the modern age. It argues that the decline of Western civilization resulted from the rising acceptance of relativism over absolute reality.