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Democracy and America's War on Terror (review)

The larger import of this book may well rest in its example; it illustrates what critics can do now. On the other hand, many of the arguments were made then. But it does not seem as if that happened, partly because the Bush administration so dominated the rhetorical terrain from 2001 to 2003. Yet Globalization and Empire does not quite get at the reasons for that fact. For instance, we learn why Secretary Powell was wrong but not why he was popular. Throughout the book, Hartnett and Stengrim detail ethical and argumentative flaws in this rhetoric, but not why it worked so consistently well for so long. To be fair, that does not seem to be the purpose, but if one seeks to undermine the effectiveness of such discourse, one ought to locate more precisely its persuasive charge. To put it another way, ideological criticism of this sort could use a large dose of close textual analysis—and, by the way, one suspects the reverse is true as well. That limitation should not, however, take away from the power of this book. Scholars and citizens will want it on their shelves.