"An entertaining history of great oratory" ( New Yorker ) and a primer to rhetoric's key techniques Rhetoric gives our words the power to inspire. But it's not just for politicians: it's all around us, whether you're buttering up a key client or persuading your children to eat their vegetables. You have been using rhetoric yourself, all your life. After all, you know what a rhetorical question is, don't you? In Words Like Loaded Pistols , Sam Leith traces the art of argument from ancient Greece through the present day. He introduces verbal villains from Hitler to Donald Trump--and the three musketeers: ethos, pathos, and logos. He explains how rhetoric works in speeches from Cicero to Zelensky and pays tribute to the rhetorical brilliance of AC/DC's "Back in Black." Before you know it, you'll be confident in chiasmus and proud of your panegyrics--because rhetoric is useful, relevant, and crucial to understanding the world around us.