“Krista Ratcliffe’s Rhetorical Listening: Identification, Gender, Whiteness is a work of tremendous impact for composition, communication, and rhetorical studies, not only for the ways it calls attention to the importance of listening as an area of scholarship, but for the ways it extends Kenneth Burke’s theory of identification in order to help bridge the difficult space between cross-cultural communication.”—Steven M. Pedersen, KB Journal: The Journal of the Kenneth Burke Society
 
 “Hers is a lofty project but also one, as [Ratcliffe] correctly argues, that contributes to rhetorical literature, which has long overlooked listening in favor of theoretical approaches to the written and spoken word (19). Indeed, the book convincingly argues that rhetorical listening would affect the lives of citizens, scholars, and teachers if only we took it more seriously. As a theoretically strong and pedagogically useful work, this book is an asset for scholars and teachers concerned with the interplay of gender, whiteness, and agency.”—Kristen McCauliff, Rhetoric & Public Affairs
 
“Not only does [Ratcliffe] perform the feminist act of recovering the neglected fourth literacy of listening, but also she takes a hard look at race in feminist rhetoric and posits rhetorical listening as a possible way for black and white women to work their way through, around, or past the impasse that has stalled productive dialogue between the two groups for decades. This book gives white women readers a means of doing our own race work, rather than putting that burden on black women, as Ratcliffe carefully and respectfully avoids.”—Amy S. Gerald, Composition Studies
 
“Ratcliffe’s book on rhetorical listening offers insights about the value and possibilities for listening through identifications, disidentifications and non-identification. Ratcliffe’s primary examples of listening in public debate, scholarly discourse, and pedagogy are of particular interest to argumentation scholars. Given the number of controversial issues related to race and gender in contemporary U.S. American culture, Rhetorical Listening is also important for discussing race- and gender-based topics.”—Stacey K. Sowards and David Hoffman, Argumentation and Advocacy
 
 “Well-grounded in theory, Rhetorical Listening: Identification, Gender, Whiteness offers an easily accessible view of listening as a rhetorical concept and makes a provocative case for the need to bring critical attention to the area. I applaud Ratcliffe, not only for taking on this complex task, but doing so so thoughtfully.”—Jacqueline Jones Royster, author of Traces of a Stream: Literacy and Social Change among African American Women
 
“In making her case for rhetorical listening, Ratcliffe proposes that listening and reading should be valued equally in writing scholarship because listening may serve as a means of interpretive invention. In other words, Ratcliffe operates from the premise that all language is a trope, meaning it serves as a metaphor or signifier of whatever its words represent; therefore, she posits that rhetorical listening functions as an approach for making meaning in communication.”—Andéa Davis, Journal of Business and Technical Communication