Collateral Language: A User's Guide to America's New War [Paperback]

John Collins (Editor), Ross Glover (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0814716288 | ISBN-13: 978-0814716281 | Publication Date: November 1, 2002

Terrorism, jihad, fundamentalism, blowback. These and other highly charged terms have saturated news broadcasts and everyday conversation since September 11th. But to keen ears their meanings change depending upon who's doing the talking. So what do these words really mean? And what are people trying to say when they use them?

Each of the thirteen essays in Collateral Language offers an informed perspective on a particular word or phrase that serves as a building block in the edifice of post-World Trade Center rhetoric. In some cases this involves a systematic examination of the term in question (e.g. "anthrax" or "unity")its historical roots, the development of its meaning and usage in the U.S. over time, and its employment in the current context. In other cases authors provide a set of more philosophical or autobiographical reflections on a particular idea (e.g. "vital interests" or "evil"), suggesting a need to consider the ethical and moral implications of using the concept uncritically. In every instance, however, the overriding goal is to give the reader a set of practical tools to analyze the political language that surrounds all of us at this critical point in our nation's history.

Witty, informative and highly readable, Collateral Language is a lexicon of political terminology and an indispensable tool for understanding the current conflict.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A bracing shot of 90-proof intellectual bourbon to counteract the slush and mush of America's post 9/11 War on Language and Reason.”
-Alexander Cockburn,columnist for The Nation and coeditor of CounterPunch

"Journalists are being attacked for telling the truth, for trying to tell it how it is. American journalists especially. I urge them to read a remarkable new book published by the New York University Press and edited by John Collins and Ross Glover. It's called Collateral Language and is, in its own words, intended to expose "the tyranny of political rhetoric". Its chapter titles —"Anthrax", "Cowardice", "Evil", "Freedom", Fundamentalism", "Justice", "Terrorism", "Vital Interests" and—my favourite—"The War on..." (fill in the missing country) tell it all."
-Robert Fisk,The Independent

"Words are weapons in our new war, and all citizens are combatants. As a dictionary of post-911 rhetoric, Collateral Language shows us why we need smart books, not smart bombs. Brilliantly conceived, this book defines the axis of intelligence."
-Amitava Kumar,author of Passport Photos and Bombay-London-New York

"This leftward assault on 'the tyranny of political rhetoric used to justify America's new war [on terrorism]' is unlikely to end up on Bush administration nightstands."
-Washington Post

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"The resulting book is to be warmly welcomed and slauted as a valuable contribution to a vital political debate on criminality in language in which the criminals are all too often granted impunity."
-Tribune

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About the Author

John Collins is assistant professor of global studies at St. Lawrence University. He is coeditor (with Ross Glover) of Collateral Language: A User's Guide to America's New War (NYU Press, 2002).

Ross Glover is Visiting Professor of Sociology at St. Lawrence University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (November 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814716288
• ISBN-13: 978-0814716281
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,475,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't forget the lessons of wwII, December 23, 2002

By 

Mike Brisco (Adelaide, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Collateral Language: A User's Guide to America's New War (Paperback)

WW II led to a couple of interesting works on propaganda: not
how to make your own, but how to recognise it, and how to avoid being taken in by it. In wartime we are perhaps as much in danger of propaganda and manipulation of information from our own governments, as from any other government. George Orwell wrote on how language is manipulated, in 1984 and Animal Farm. Less well known is Thouless "Clear thinking in wartime", with sections on such old favourites as propaganda speeches, and atrocity stories. Thouless' aim was to de-bunk the persuasive-sounding words, and get the reader asking how much hard fact lay behind them. Often, not much.
This new book, edited by Collins and Glover, should make interesting reading. As the generation who remember WWII are dying out, we are losing our knowledge on how to defend ourselves against propaganda. This leaves each citizen at the mercy of an enemy, and also at the mercy of their own govenment. All the war-mongers need to do is roll out a few old tricks, and people will fall for them, just like they did 60 years ago. We badly need books like this one, to help us think clearly in the coming months.
Some will doubtless say books like these are "un-patriotic", or "damage the war effort" or "put our troops in danger" . All that will show is that the propagandists have already started - such words make reading books like these more essential, not less.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Constructing a new world order, March 4, 2003

By 

Latha Varadarajan (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Collateral Language: A User's Guide to America's New War (Paperback)

We live in an age where words like "invasion" and "pre-emptive war" are being bandied about in a frighteningly common-sensical manner. At a time when the US government seems to be set on embarking on a war that has faced consistent opposition, it has becomingly increasingly urgent for all of us to start questioning the nature of this common-sense: why has it become acceptable for policy-makers and media persons to talk about "attacks" and "regime-change" openly as a strategy to create a new world order; how "new" is this form of creating a world order; and what is the nature of the order that is being constructed? John Collins and Ross Glover's edited volume goes a long way in helping address these extremely important questions.
To say that the volume is timely is to state the obvious. What makes it invaluable is that the collection of essays attempts to historicize and bring to light the manner in which political contexts cannot be separated from what pass for rhetorical common-sense. Terms like "terrorism," "vital interests," and "fundamentalism" do not emerge in a vacuum. Understanding their meaning involves a closer look at the political context and the struggles within which they emerge. Collins and Glover have done a remarkable job of putting together a collection that does precisely that. Bypassing academic jargon, the authors have succeeded in making complex arguments accessible to a wide array of people. Collins' essay on "Terrorism" for instance, carefully takes the reader through the historical evolution of the term and the various meanings that have been associated with it during the three decades that it has been critical to US foreign policy. The essays on the concepts of Laura J. Riediehs) and "Civilization versus Barbarianism" (Marina A. Llorente) carefully delineate the manner in which concepts that are supposed to be universal and abstract, with meanings that supposedly make sense to one and all, are constructed in the context of political struggles. I could carefully go through each essay in the collection, but that might involved getting repetitive about what makes this collection so important. To put it in a nutshell, each essay in the volume is an excellent example of what political committed scholarship ought to look like. We live in a world where it is has become urgent for us to understand the dynamic and politically charged nature of the terms that are being used to construct a new world order. Collateral Language is a critical tool that needs to be used in this endeavor. The editing of the volume and its general tenor also make it a great text-book for any undergraduate course or high-school course- be it in Political Science, History or Cultural Studies. This book is a great and necessary read for anyone interested in contemporary politics.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good for thought, September 29, 2003

By 

Kenneth Raymond "therite6" (Potsdam, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Collateral Language: A User's Guide to America's New War (Paperback)

I actually had one of the editors of this (Glover) as a teacher for a sociology course I took, and he brought this book to our attention for the latter third of the semester. While I don't think of him as the greatest of teachers I had, I can hardly fault his and Collins' ability to pick out good articles, and even write some themselves. The selection of articles helped bring some ideas forward in my mind and cleared my head on some matters. Others in the class would mutter afterwards about him being "too liberal," but it was refreshing and the ideas in here felt like fresh air after the stench of far-Right ideology (read: warmongering and abusiveness) I had the (dis)pleasure of dealing with frequently.