The Rhetoric of the Right
Language Change and the Spread of the Market
1st Edition
Published on 12. October 2012
208 pages
978-1-136-24509-1 (ISBN)
Description
This study seeks to demonstrate the subtle ways in which changes in the language associated with economic issues are reflective of a gradual but quantifiable conservative ideological shift.
In this rigorous analysis, David George uses as his data a century of word usage within The New York Times, starting in 1900. It is not always obvious how the changes identified necessarily reflect a stronger prejudice toward laissez-faire free market capitalism, and so much of the book seeks to demonstrate the subtle ways in which the changing language indeed carries with it a political message. This analysis is made through exploration of five major areas of focus: "economics rhetoric" scholarship and the growing "behavioral economics" school of thought; the discourse of government and taxation; the changing meaning of "competition," and "competitive"; changing attitudes toward labor; and the celebration of growth relative to the decline in attention to economic justice and social equality.
In this rigorous analysis, David George uses as his data a century of word usage within The New York Times, starting in 1900. It is not always obvious how the changes identified necessarily reflect a stronger prejudice toward laissez-faire free market capitalism, and so much of the book seeks to demonstrate the subtle ways in which the changing language indeed carries with it a political message. This analysis is made through exploration of five major areas of focus: "economics rhetoric" scholarship and the growing "behavioral economics" school of thought; the discourse of government and taxation; the changing meaning of "competition," and "competitive"; changing attitudes toward labor; and the celebration of growth relative to the decline in attention to economic justice and social equality.
Reviews / Votes
"David George's The Rhetoric of the Right carefully demonstrates the dramatic rightward shift in elite rhetoric about markets and government over the last generation. Using a deceptively simple method-counts of words and word pairings in the New York Times-George teases out a rich story of how corporate executives came to be seen as creative "entrepreneurs", markets as universally beneficial, and government as distant and inefficient, rather than a democratically controlled means for solving basic market failures." - Jacob S. Hacker, Stanley B. Resor Professor Political Science, Yale UniversityMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
82 s/w Tabellen, 2 s/w Zeichnungen
82 Tables, black and white; 2 Line drawings, black and white
File size
1,84 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-136-24509-1 (9781136245091)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
08/2014
1st Edition
Routledge
€71.00
Shipment within 10-20 days
Book
08/2014
1st Edition
Routledge
€222.84
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
David George is Professor of Economics at La Salle University, USA.
Content
1. Introduction 2. Markets over Governments 3. Competition over Cooperation and Monopoly 4. Consumers over Citizens 5. Management over Labor 6. Growth over Progress, Justice, and Equality 7. Conclusion
