Chapter 1: What to Expect and Why -- PART I: A RHETORICAL THEORY OF PARRHESIA -- Chapter 2: What’s in a Word? Parrhesia, Rhetoric, and Discursive Fields of Meaning -- Chapter 3: A Word with a Mission: How Parrhesia Moves and Reproduces -- Chapter 4: A Networked Rhetorical Theory of Parrhesia: Putting It All Together -- PART II: THE HISTORY OF PARRHESIA -- Chapter 5: Historicizing Parrhesia: Athenian Democracy and Philosophy -- Chapter 6: Beyond Athens: Parrhesia and the Roman Republic -- Chapter 7: Parrhesia and Autocracy: Roman Empire and Early Christian Eras -- PART III: THE PRACTICE OF PARRHESIA -- Chapter 8: Problems and Interrogation: Parrhesia, Truth, and Ideology -- Chapter 9: Case Studies in Parrhesia -- Chapter 10: The Courage to Speak and to Listen.

Parrhesia is a vital rhetorical resource for our times, enabling discordant interruptions when oppressive power occults shared community values. Renea Frey accomplishes the impossible here in one volume: she untangles a complex theory of parrhesia, she recovers its ancient history, and she illustrates its modern practice to foster progressive social change. Frey is concerned at every point to make parrhesia available for every citizen reader to employ in promoting civic virtue. - Patricia L. Bizzell, College of the Holy Cross, Distinguished Professor of Humanities Emerita Speak the truth, regardless of the risks, to those who need to hear it and especially to those who don’t want to hear it. Why haven’t we been teaching parrhesia all along? In her skillful historical narration Renea Frey recovers parrhesia for the field of rhetoric, tracks its historical origins, catalogs its variations, and overall makes a compelling case for why parrhesia matters, why it is perhaps THE most important rhetorical (and ethical) principle of them all, particularly so in this era of social media disinformation, deepfakes, and, unapologetic mendacity. This impressive piece of scholarship is required reading for everyone in the field. - James E. Porter, Miami University This book examines the theory, history, and practice of parrhesia—the act of speaking truth to power, when doing so is risky for the rhetor—and argues for a networked rhetorical approach to parrhesia that has not been considered previously by any other theorist. The goal of this book is to offer a reader-friendly explanation of this networked rhetorical approach to parrhesia, provide a genealogical account of the origins of parrhesia in the Classical age, and to show how parrhesia manifests today. This book is meant to give readers a functional manual for understanding, recognizing, analyzing, articulating, and using parrhesia. Renea Frey is Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Writing Program Director at Xavier University (Ohio, USA).