Abstract
The profound reliance on rhetorical appeals by political leaders in the articulation and prosecution of U.S. foreign policy initiatives, particularly those involving the use of military force, is a phenomenon both long-studied and widely chronicled. This phenomenon appears to be an especially favored tactic of the current Bush administration. This characterization seems most apt with respect to the Bush administration’s framing of the military components of its larger counterterrorism efforts. This chapter seeks to probe more deeply into the use of moralizing rhetoric by political elites with respect to war within the American historical and political context.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Althus, Scott L., and Devon M. Largio. 2004. When Osama became Saddam: Origins and consequences of the change in America’s public enemy #1. PS: Political Science & Politics 37(4): 795–99.
Beatty, J. 2003. In the name of God. The Atlantic Monthly (March 2003).
Berelson, Bernard, Paul F. Lazarsfeld, and W. N. McPhee. 1954. Voting: A study of opinion formation in a presidential campaign. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bloch, R. H. 1985. Visionary republic: Millennial themes in American thought, 1756–1800. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bovard, J. 2004. The Bush betrayal. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Brecher, M., and J. Wilkenfeld. 2000. A study of crisis. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Bush, George W. 2001a. Statement by the president in his Address to the Nation. Office of the White House. September 11. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010911-16.html (accessed May 5, 2006).
— 2001b. Presidential address to the nation. Office of the White House. October 7. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/10/20011007-8.html (accessed May 5, 2006).
—. 2003. We will prevail: President George W. Bush on war, terrorism, and freedom. New York: Continuum.
CNN.com. 2001. Bush vows to rid the world of evil-doers. CNN.com September 16. http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/16/gen.bush.terrorism (accessed December 29, 2005).
Clausewitz, C. von. 1984. On war. Eds. and trans. Michael Howard and Peter Paret. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Cohen, M. 1984. Moral skepticism and international relations. Philosophy and Public Affairs 13(4): 299–346.
Covell, C. 1998. Kant and the law of peace: A study in the philosophy of international law and international relations. London: Macmillan.
Davis, T. R., and S. M. Lynn-Jones. 1987. Citty on a Hill. Foreign Policy 66:20–38.
Derrida, J. 1976. Of’ grammatology. Trans. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
—. 1983. Dissemination. Trans. Barbara Johnson. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dickens, D. R., and A. Fontana, eds. 1994. Postmodernism and social inquiry. New York: Guilford.
Doyle, M. W. 1983a. Kant, liberal legacies, and foreign affairs. Part 1. Philosophy and Public Affairs 12(3): 205–35.
—. 1983b. Kant, liberal legacies, and foreign affairs. Part 2. Philosophy and Public Affairs 12(4): 323–53.
Fitzsimmons, D. M. 1995. Tom Paine’s new world order: Idealistic internationalism in the ideology of early American foreign relations. Diplomatic History 19:569–82.
Foucault, M. 1976. The archaeology of knowledge and, the discourse on language. New York: Harper and Row.
Frohmann, B. 1994. Communication technologies and the politics of postmodern information science. Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science 19 (2): 1–22.
Hartz, L. 1955. The liberal tradition in America: An interpretation of American political thought since the revolution. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World.
Howard, M. 1978. War and the liberal conscience. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Kant, I. 1905. Perpetual peace: A philosophical essay, 1795. Translated with introduction and notes by M. Campbell Smith. London: S. Sonnenschein.
Kaye, Harvey J. 2005. Thomas Paine and the promise of America. New York: Hill and Wang.
Keane, John. 1995. Tom Paine: A political life. London: Bloomsbury
Jameson, Fredric. 1992. Postmodernism, or, the cultural logic of late capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Lebow, Richard Ned. 1981. Between peace and war: The nature of international crisis. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Lerner, Max. 1957. America as a civilization. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Michels, Robert. 1949. Political parties: A sociological study of the oligarchical tendencies of modern democracy. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
Milton, John. 2003. Paradise lost. New ed., ed. Merritt Y. Hughes. Indianapolis: Hackett.
Nelson, Leonard. 1956. System of ethics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Paine, Thomas. 1776. Common sense. Philadelphia: W. and T. Bradford. http://www.bartleby.com/133/ (accessed August 8, 2006).
Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. 2001. Economy, education, social security dominate public’s policy agenda. Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. September 6. http://people-press.org/reports/displayphp3?ReportID=4 (accessed February 2, 2006).
—. 2002. Americans thinking about Iraq, but focused on the economy. Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. October 10, 2002, http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=162. (accessed February 2, 2006).
Schneider, William. 2005. About that cowboy rhetoric.… The Atlantic (January 25).
Singer, Peter. 2004. The president of good and evil: The ethics of George W. Bush. New York: Dutton.
Snyder, Glenn H., and Paul Diesing. 1977. Conflict among nations: Bargaining, decision making, and system structure in international crises. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
The White House. 2002. President delivers State of the Union address. January 29. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020129-11.html (accessed December 18, 2005).
Weimann, Gabriel. 1991. The influentials: Back to the concept of opinion leaders? Public Opinion Quarterly 55:267–79.
Zarefsky, David. 2002. The presidency has always been a place for rhetorical leadership. In The presidency and rhetorical leadership. College Station: Texas A & M University Press.
—. 2004. George W Bush discovers rhetoric: September 20, 2001 and the U.S. response to terrorism. In The ethos of rhetoric. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2007 Anne-Marie Obajtek-Kirkwood
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Butler, M.J. (2007). Searching for Common Sense: The Roots of George W. Bush’s War Rhetoric. In: Obajtek-Kirkwood, AM., Hakanen, E.A. (eds) Signs of War: From Patriotism to Dissent. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230610026_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230610026_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-53983-3
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-61002-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)