Political English
eBook - ePub

Political English

Language and the Decay of Politics

  1. 224 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Political English

Language and the Decay of Politics

About this book

From post-truth politics to "no-platforming" on university campuses, the English language has been both a potent weapon and a crucial battlefield for our divided politics. In this important and wide-ranging intervention, Thomas Docherty explores the politics of the English language, its implication in the dynamics of political power and the spaces it offers for dissent and resistance. From the authorised English of the King James Bible to the colonial project of University English Studies, this book develops a powerful history for contemporary debates about propaganda, free speech and truth-telling in our politics. Taking examples from the US, UK and beyond - from debates about the Second Amendment and free-speech on campus, to the Iraq War and the Grenfell Tower fire - this book is a powerful and polemical return to Orwell's observation that a degraded political language is intimately connected to an equally degraded political culture.

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Yes, you can access Political English by Thomas Docherty in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & Rhetoric. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half-Title
  3. Dedication
  4. Title
  5. Contents
  6. Introduction
  7. 1 On Pluck: English and money
  8. 2 English nativism and linguistic xenophobia
  9. 3 Fundamentalist English: The stiff upper lip
  10. 4 On truth and lying in a political sense
  11. 5 Words, deeds and democracy
  12. 6 Profanity and free speech
  13. 7 Remnants of dissent: Free speech, political silence and guilt
  14. Select Bibliography
  15. Index
  16. Copyright