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Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
Verfasst von:Lim, Elvin T
Titel:The Anti-Intellectual Presidency
Ausgabe:1
Verlagsort:United Kingdom
Verlag:Oxford University Press
 Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Jahr:2008
Umfang:197 S.
Inhalt:Why has it been so long since an American president has effectively and consistently presented well-crafted, intellectually substantive arguments to the American public? Why have presidential utterances fallen from the rousing speeches of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Wilson, and FDR to a series of robotic repetitions of talking points and 60-second soundbites, largely designed to obfuscate rather than illuminate? This book draws on interviews with more than 40 presidential speechwriters to investigate this relentless qualitative decline, over the course of 200 years, in our presidents' ability to communicate with the public. The book argues that the ever-increasing pressure for presidents to manage public opinion and perception has created a “pathology of vacuous rhetoric and imagery” where gesture and appearance matter more than accomplishment and fact. The book tracks the campaign to simplify presidential discourse through presidential and speechwriting decisions made from the Truman to the present administration, explaining how and why presidents have embraced anti-intellectualism and vague platitudes as a public relations strategy. The book sees this anti-intellectual stance as a deliberate choice rather than a reflection of presidents' intellectual limitations. Only the smart, it suggests, know how to dumb down. The result, it shows, is a dangerous debasement of our political discourse and a quality of rhetoric which has been described, charitably, as “a linguistic struggle” and, perhaps more accurately, as “dogs barking idiotically through endless nights.”
ISBN:9780199711611
 0199711615
 019534264X
 9780195342642
Jahr Quelle:2008
DOI:doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342642.001.0001
URL:http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/cgi-bin/edok?dok=http%3A%2F%2Fdigital.casalini.it%2F9780199711611
 http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/cgi-bin/edok?dok=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1093%2Facprof%3Aoso%2F9780195342642.001.0001
 http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/cgi-bin/edok?dok=https%3A%2F%2Febookcentral.proquest.com%2Flib%2F%5BSITE_ID%5D%2Fdetail. ...
 http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/cgi-bin/edok?dok=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vlebooks.com%2Fvleweb%2Fproduct%2Fopenreader%3Fid%3Dn ...
 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342642.001.0001
Sprache:English
Sach-SW:Communication in politics
 History
 Intellectual life
 Language
 Political aspects
 Political oratory
 Political science
 Politics and government
 Presidents
 Rhetoric
 United States
 US Politics


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