Purchase
Safire's Political Dictionary
William Safire
Oxford University Press
April 2008
On Sale: March 31, 2008
896 pages ISBN: 0195340612 EAN: 9780195340617 Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction
When it comes to the vagaries of language in American
politics, its uses and abuses, its absurdities and
ever-shifting nuances, its power to confound, obscure, and
occasionally to inspire, William Safire is the language
maven we most readily turn to for clarity, guidance, and
penetrating, sometimes lacerating, wit. Safire's Political Dictionary is a stem-to-stern updating
and expansion of the Language of Politics, which was first
published in 1968 and last revised in 1993, long before such
terms as Hanging Chads, 9/11 and the War on Terror became
part of our everyday vocabulary. Nearly every entry in
that renowned work has been revised and updated and
scores of completely new entries have been added to produce
an indispensable guide to the political language being used
and abused in America today. Safire's definitions--discursive, historically aware, and
often
anecdotal--bring a savvy perspective to our colorful
political lingo. Indeed, a Safire definition often reads
like a mini-essay in political history, and readers will
come away not only with a fuller understanding of particular
words but also a richer knowledge of how politics works,
and fails to work, in America. From Axis of Evil, Blame
Game, Bridge to Nowhere, Triangulation, and Compassionate
Conservatism to Islamofascism, Netroots, Earmark, Wingnuts
and Moonbats, Slam Dunk, Doughnut Hole, and many others,
this language maven explains the origin of each term, how
and by whom and for what purposes it has been used or
twisted, as well as its perceived and real significance. For anyone who wants to cut through the verbal haze that
surrounds so much of American political discourse, Safire's
Political Dictionary offers a work of scholarship, wit,
insiderhood and resolute bipartisanship.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
|