Unspeak

“A sharply articulated, well-documented expos of the political and economic manipulation of language . . . Fans of Orwell, take heart.”— Kirkus Reviews What do the phrases “pro-life,” “intelligent design,” and “the war on terror” have in common? Each of them is a name for something that smuggles in a highly charged political opinion. Words and phrases that function in this special way go by many names. Some writers call them “evaluative-descriptive terms.” Others talk of “terministic screens” or