Making the Past Useful with Epideictic Cultural Criticism: Frederick Douglass and Abstinence-only Education

• In Event: Theorizing Pedagogy, Challenging Education

Abstract

In this essay, I take Frederick Douglass seriously when he advised that “We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful for the present and future.” In doing so, I attempt to position myself as a cultural critic in the epideictic species of rhetoric that is firmly rooted in the present while drawing on a continuity of past accomplishments and future goals. The essay demonstrates how a historical discourse can inform socio-political judgments about contemporary policy initiatives, in this case President Bush's abstinence-only education initiative. I conclude by accounting for prominant readings of Douglass' Fifth of July oration that show how cultural criticism can deal with historical texts in such a way that the historical work may bear upon contemporary politics.

Author

• Michael Tumolo, Penn State University