Perspective by incongruity in Norman Thomas's "Some Wrong Roads to Peace"

Norman Thomas was an outstanding ethical presence in the annals of American public address and politics during the second quarter of the twentieth century. Although neglected by students of rhetoric today,1 in his own day, he ranked among America's most popular and controversial public speakers. Widely praised for his candor, wit, and courage, his political career consisted of passionate calls for social justice and of carefully crafted challenges to the prevailing public views on the major issues of his time. Martin Luther King, Jr. declared, "I can think of no man who has done more to inspire the vision of a society free of injustice and exploitation."2