In this enlightening and insightful monograph, John B. Hatch analyzes various public discourses that have attempted to address the racialized legacy of slavery, from West Africa to the United States, and in doing so, proposes a rhetorical theory of reconciliation. Recognizing the impact both of religious traditions and modern social values on the dialogue of reconciliation, Hatch examines these influences in tandem with contemporary critical race theory. Hatch explores the social-psychological and ethical challenges of racial reconciliation in light of work by Mark McPhail, Kenneth Burke, Paul Ricoeur, and others. He then develops his own framework for understanding reconciliation_both as the recovery of a coherent ethical grammar and as a process of rhetorical interaction and hermeneutic reorientation through apology, forgiveness, reparations, symbolic healing, and related genres of reparative action. What emerges from this work is a profound vision for the prospects of meaningful redress and reconciliation in American race relations.

John B. Hatch is associate professor of communication and the Wendt Ethics Professor at the University of Dubuque.

Chapter 1 ContentsChapter 2 List of TablesChapter 3 Foreword by the Series EditorChapter 4 PrefaceChapter 5 AcknowledgmentsPart 6 I. The Rhetoric of Race: From Racism to ReconciliationChapter 7 1. Introduction: THe Racial Divide and the Emergence of ReconciliationChapter 8 2. Recovering from Racism: An Exigence for (Theorizing) ReconciliationChapter 9 3. Reconciliation, Rhetorically ConsideredPart 10 II. Theorizing ReconciliationChapter 11 4. Coming to Terms in ReconciliationChapter 12 5. Dialectics and (Dia)logology of ReconciliationChapter 13 6. Reconciliation in Time: Actions and TransformationsPart 14 III. Reconciling the Heirs of Slavery's LegacyChapter 15 7. Steps toward Reconciliation: From the United States to West AfricaChapter 16 8. The Leaders' Conference on Reconciliation and DevelopmentChapter 17 9. There and Back Again: Taking Stock of Reconciliation's ProgressChapter 18 10. A Prospect on Racial ReconciliationChapter 19 BibliographyChapter 20 IndexChapter 21 About the Author