This work provides a detailed introduction to the theories put forward by the founder-fathers of the 'New Rhetoric', represented here by I.A. Richards, the champions of the New Semantics, Richard M. Weaver and Kenneth Burke. The author outlines the basic tenets and pinpoints an impulse common to the entire 'New Rhetoric' movement in its early stages destined to become a major influence in the development of rhetorics as an academic discipline in the United States. What these theories all have in common, the author suggests, is their claim to establish and entrench the status of rhetoric as a root discipline fundamental to all others.