Naomi Greyser is Associate Professor of Rhetoric, English and Gender Studies at the University of Iowa, where she is also executive director of POROI, Iowa's Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry.

"Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty." --S. Batcos, CHOICE

"On Sympathetic Grounds interprets nineteenth-century literary sentimentalism as the means of creating an 'affective geography' that draws the reader into its formal boundaries to create sympathy. Such imaginative maps are deeply political in their efforts to persuade readers, but they can be used for very different political ends. The real strength of this book lies in its representation of how peoples of color--African Americans and indigenous peoples--recognized this ideology of sentiment and began to use it for progressive purposes." --John Carlos Rowe, University of Southern California

"There are many things to admire about On Sympathetic Grounds, not least of all is Greyser's sensitivity to both rhetorical nuance and lived experience. The detail with which Greyser tells her stories- about white, sentimental constructions of Indian Removal and the 'Trail of Tears', for example-render those readings both mesmerizing and commonsensical. I mean this latter in the most positive way: many times I found myself thinking, 'Of course, how could I have not seen that before?' That is the mark of a powerful argument ... I'm very glad I had the opportunity to read this smart, thought-provoking, and ground-breaking (no pun intended) book." --Elizabeth Barnes, College of William and Mary

"Greyser maps a new route through the debate over the political and moral efficacy of the sentimental mode. Through erudite analysis and personal reflection, she shows us the value in the pursuit of reciprocity, even when it fails. A vital study, On Sympathetic Grounds challenges accounts of sentimentalism as a white woman's genre taken up by people of color, uncovering mutual appropriations and revisionary projects." --Laura Mielke, University of Kansas