Debating societies [ Clubs & Societies / Associational culture ]
… at the theatre. They could be places of self-improvement for men with little formal learning. They served as schools for rhetoric and clearing houses for news and information. Though the middling and lower ranks of society which formed the … also attended – once, occasionally or for a season but not permanently – in order to deliver speeches and hone their rhetorical skills. There was a clear link between debating societies, elocution and eloquence. There was a market for the … Andrew, ed., London Debating Societies, 1776-1799, debates n°306, 2109) 11 . Christopher Reid, Imprison'd Wranglers: The Rhetorical Culture of the House of Commons 1760-1800 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), p. 11-14. The most famous …
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