The War of Words

by Kenneth Burke, Anthony Burke (Editor), Kyle Jensen (Editor)

When Kenneth Burke conceived his celebrated “Motivorum” project in the 1940s and 1950s, he envisioned it in three parts. Whereas the third part, A Symbolic of Motives , was never finished, A Grammar of Motives (1945) and A Rhetoric of Motives (1950) have become canonical theoretical documents.
 
A Rhetoric of Motives was originally intended to be a two-part book. Here, at last, is the second volume , the until-now unpublished War of Words , where Burke brilliantly exposes the rhetorical devices that sponsor war in the name of peace. Discouraging militarism during the Cold War even as it catalogues belligerent persuasive strategies and tactics that remain in use today, The War of Words reveals how popular news media outlets can, wittingly or not, foment international tensions and armaments during tumultuous political periods. This authoritative edition includes an introduction from the editors explaining the compositional history and cultural contexts of both The War of Words and A Rhetoric of Motives. The War of Words illuminates the study of modern rhetoric even as it deepens our understanding of post–World War II politics .

 

296 pages, Paperback

Published November 13, 2018

About the author

Kenneth Duva Burke was a major American literary theorist and philosopher. Burke's primary interests were in rhetoric and aesthetics.

Reviews

[Zachary]

Burke is always prescient, and this is even true here in this posthumous publication of some completed sections of a book and some fragments, comprising a fascinating overview of the linguistic and symbolic warfare being waged during the Cold War. I say that Burke is prescient because so many of the devices that he identifies as instrumental in maintaining the war of words even while using war to promote peace--all of these things are eminently visible in our own society. Worth noting for this volume in particular is that Burke's style is remarkably clear here, tempered in such a way as to make "The War of Words" certainly his most easily understood and used. There are some areas that get to be a bit more like classic Burke, with lots of allusions, wordplay, and vagueness, but mostly this is a clear explication of many of Burke's greatest observations and most significant worries. In sum, the book shows why Burke is kind of a maddening genius, one whose work refuses to be left alone, demanding to be engaged with.

[Marc Stremciuc]

The War of Words finds itself in the unique territory of being horribly witty, eloquently clear, and numbingly thought-provoking. Burke has such a voice to him that I, myself, considered the rules of engagement and malicious (or not!) doublespeak I navigate daily. Many in my life have proved to be a Miss Preen, and I am not without the qualities of Miss Prone. Regrettably, the book does begin to be tied down by lengthy descriptions of multiple political cartoons, disrupting the flow and rapport I was perpetually on the edge of consoling. Could they have not been pictures?