J. Michael Hogan, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor J. Michael Hogan, Committee Chair/Co-Chair Michele Kennerly, Committee Member Stephen H. Browne, Committee Member Suzanna Linn, Outside Member
Keywords:
Rhetoric Rhetorical Criticism Public Address Ethos History Economics Federal Reserve Marriner Eccles Paul Volcker Alan Greenspan
Abstract:
In this dissertation, I examine key moments when the Federal Reserve chair responded to important economic and political episodes, tracing its increasingly important role in these debates over the twentieth century. I build the concept of the “rhetorical Fed,” including its three functions of negotiation, communication, and translation, to show how three Fed chairs, Marriner Eccles (1934-1948), Paul Volcker (1979-1987), and Alan Greenspan (1987-2006) navigated important transformative moments at the Federal Reserve. Given that all of these chairs raised the visibility of the Federal Reserve, I develop the idea of “institutional êthos” to explain the mutual relationship between the public perceptions of an organization and its leader. This dissertation provides a foundation for future scholarship intersecting the rhetoric of economics and public address and theorizing other rhetorical concepts from an institution’s perspective.