The Anti Intellectual Presidency or Finding Grace

The Anti-Intellectual Presidency: The Decline of Presidential Rhetoric from George Washington to George W. Bush

Author: Elvin T Lim

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 sixty-second soundbites, largely designed to obfuscate rather than illuminate?
In The Anti-Intellectual Presidency, Elvin Lim 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. Lim 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. Lim 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. Lim sees this anti-intellectual stance as a deliberate choice rather than a reflection of presidents' intellectual limitations. Only the smart, he suggests, know how to dumb down. The result, he 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."
Sharply written and incisively argued, The Anti-Intellectual Presidency sheds new light onthe murky depths of presidential oratory, illuminating both the causes and consequences of this substantive impoverishment.

Publishers Weekly

This slim, scathing book does not mince words about the current state of presidential rhetoric, frankly deploring its "nosedive from our founding era." Drawing upon interviews with 42 presidential speech writers, Lim investigates what he sees as a particularly American phenomenon whereby "most presidents have preferred to appear less, not more intellectually inclined than they actually were." He reveals the long "institutional pedigree" of anti-intellectualism in presidential addresses, from Harding to Eisenhower, Clinton ("an intelligent but anti-intellectual president") to Bush, as presidents have positioned intellectuals as the "piñatas of American politics." Lim builds his case systematically, introducing fascinating indices to measure oratorical sophistication or simplicity. A massive campaign of "linguistic simplification" is afoot, he argues, and he dissects inaugural addresses and presidential public papers, charting average sentence length, Flesch Readability and the preponderance of platitudes to evince a growing "reification of style over substance." While his methodology is occasionally esoteric, Lim's presentation of the consequences of the manipulation of language in the political arena is clear and compelling, and will delight grammarians and political aficionados alike. (June)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents:

The Problem of Presidential Rhetoric     3
The Linguistic Simplification of Presidential Rhetoric     19
The Anti-Intellectual Speechwriters     40
The Substantive Impoverishment of Presidential Rhetoric     54
Institutionalizing the Anti-Intellectual Presidency     77
Indicting the Anti-Intellectual Presidency     100
Reforming the Anti-Intellectual Presidency     115
The General Inquirer (GI)     123
Definitions of General Inquirer Categories Used     127
Annual Messages, 1790-2006     129
Inaugural Addresses, 1789-2005     135
Presidential Speechwriters Interviewed     137
The Flesch Readability Score     141
Notes     143
Index     175

Interesting textbook: Little Book of Cocktails or Making Sense of Wine

Finding Grace: The Face of America's Homeless

Author: Lynn Blodgett

An amateur photographer from the age of 10, Lynn Blodgett studied under Andrew Eccles, a renowned photographer who was selected by The New York Times to shoot the cover of their millennium issue. Blodgett is also a businessman with a social conscience who travels the country as head of the nation’s largest provider of computer-based services to state and local governments. He does extensive fundraising across the country, with the funds going to benefit local homeless shelters and projects. During his travels over the last few years, he began keeping a photographic journal of the homeless people he met, along with their stories, in every city he visited. The result is this powerful collection of words and images that show how people who go through life ignored and reviled manage to endure, often with grace and humanity, the grimmest of life’s circumstances.

Karen MacMurray <P>Copyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. - School Library Journal

This book evolved out of a class assignment in a photography workshop that Blodgett took with Andrew Eccles, a nationally prominent photographer. Blodgett has been taking pictures since the age of ten, and while making a living in corporate America, he pursued his passion for photography on weekends and in workshops. Eccles has continued to advise Blodgett in his art and has witnessed his evolution into "a remarkable photographer." This book of 140 black-and-white photographs is the culmination of a year's picture taking across America of the homeless, a group of society that many of us do not choose to see or interact with. In these photographs, we see the faces of men, women, and children who are the homeless; the overused axiom of one picture equals a thousand words has never been a more accurate statement. These photographs capture the people and the stories behind the faces. A powerful and impactful book; recommended for all libraries.