"An unprecedented encounter between feminist criticism, reading-research and reader-response criticism...I found 'Gender and Reading' a valuable book to read as a feminist critic. Valuable because it asserts our rights, as women, to read; to read as women. Valuable because it begins a dialogue among so many varieties of criticism and theory."--Susan Squier, 'Women's Review of Books.'

This collection of essays investigates the historiography of rhetoric, global perspectives on rhetoric, and the teaching of writing and rhetoric, offering diverse viewpoints. Addressing four major areas of research in rhetoric and writing studies, contributors consider authorship and audience, discuss the context and material conditions in which students compose, cover the politics of the field and the value of a rhetorical education, and reflect on contemporary trends in canon diversification. Providing both retrospective and prospective assessments, Rhetoric and Writing Studies in the New Century offers original research by important figures in the field.