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War Metaphors: How President’s Use the Language of War to Sell Policy

Bacharach, Marc N

Abstract Details

2006, Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, Political Science.
During the latter half of the 20th century, Presidents have often invoked the language of war to push through their policy initiatives. Despite the vast literature on presidential speeches, there has been little in the way of studying these rhetorical wars in any systematic fashion. This paper seeks to address that deficiency by studying several high-profile rhetorical wars that presidents have declared, from Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty to George W. Bush’s war on terror. The purpose is to trace the evolution of metaphorical wars from rhetoric into public policy. In tracing this process, many other questions will be addressed, including: What message was the president hoping to send to the American people through rhetoric? What were the original goals of the president? What are some of the reasons the “wars” failed or succeeded? Finally, to what extent did future administrations adopt their predecessor’s policy and to what extent did future presidents establish their own strategy for fighting the wars?
Ryan Barilleaux (Advisor)
127 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Bacharach, M. N. (2006). War Metaphors: How President’s Use the Language of War to Sell Policy [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1154105266

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Bacharach, Marc. War Metaphors: How President’s Use the Language of War to Sell Policy. 2006. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1154105266.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Bacharach, Marc. "War Metaphors: How President’s Use the Language of War to Sell Policy." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1154105266

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)