The 54th episode of The Big Rhetorical Podcast features host Charles Woods chatting with Dr. Stephen M. Underhill about his book, The Manufacture of Consent: J. Edgar Hoover and the Rhetorical Rise of the FBI. Stephen M. Underhill is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Marshall University. His interest in rhetoric is grounded in the interplay of history and politics, especially as it is recorded in primary source documents. More to the point, he is interested in studying institutionalized power in critical and cultural contexts, which directs his focus to matters of law enforcement and national security discourse. Stephen is interested in how law enforcement speaks to and about its different publics to preserve and defend power structures. He is published in Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Quarterly Journal of Speech, and Western Journal of Communication. His recent book from Michigan State University Press, The Manufacture of Consent: J. Edgar Hoover and the Rhetorical Rise of the FBI, is a formative project that coupled his interests in rhetoric and archival research.
