Overview
Ending a war, as Fred Charles IklÉewrote, poses a much greater challenge than beginning one. In addition to issues related to battle tactics, prisoners of war, diplomatic relations, and cease-fire negotiations, ending war involves domestic political calculations. Balancing the tides of public opinion versus policy needs poses a deep and enduring problem for presidents. In a first-of-its-kind study, Resowing the Seeds of War explains how Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, and Obama managed the political, policy, and bureaucratic challenges that arise at the end of war via a series of rhetorical choices that reframe, modify, or unravel depictions of national enemies, the cause of the conflict, and the stakes for the nation and world. This end-of-war rhetoric justifies ending hostilities, rationalizes postwar national policy, argues for the construction of postwar security arrangements, and often sustains public support for massive financial investment in reconstruction. By tracking presidential manipulations of savage imagery from World War II to the War on Terror, this book concludes that even as metaphoric reframing facilitates exit from conflict, it incurs unexpected consequences that make national involvement in the next conflict more likely.
Full Product Details
Author: Stephen J. Heidt
Publisher: Michigan State University Press
Imprint: Michigan State University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.20cm
, Length: 22.60cm
Weight: 0.475kg
ISBN: 9781611863840
ISBN 10: 1611863848
Pages: 366
Publication Date: 30 March 2021
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
Stephen J. Heidt's Resowing the Seeds of War: Presidential Peace Rhetoric since 1945 is a valuable and innovative contribution to scholarship on US war rhetoric. --ROBERT L. IVIE, professor emeritus in English and American studies, Indiana University Bloomington, and coauthor of Hunt the Devil: A Demonology of US War Culture
"""Stephen J. Heidt's Resowing the Seeds of War: Presidential Peace Rhetoric since 1945 is a valuable and innovative contribution to scholarship on US war rhetoric."" --ROBERT L. IVIE, professor emeritus in English and American studies, Indiana University Bloomington, and coauthor of Hunt the Devil: A Demonology of US War Culture"
Author Information
Stephen J. Heidt has taught at Florida Atlantic University, California Lutheran University, and California State University, Northridge, focusing on the form and function of presidential rhetoric in policy deliberation. He has published in Rhetoric & Public Affairs, the Southern Communication Journal, and a number of edited volumes.
