Safire's New Political Dictionary: The Definitive Guide to the New Language of Politics [Inscribed by William Safire to David Cornwell aka John le Carre]

Featuring more than one thousand new, rewritten, and updated entries, this timely reference on American politics explains current terms in politics, economics, and diplomacy and includes a new introduction and index. 25,000 first printing. $30,000 ad/promo.

This first revision of New York Times columnist Safire's dictionary since 1978 ( LJ 10/1/78) includes many new popular phrases and jargon from the Reagan ( Teflon-coated President , Star Wars ), Bush ( Velco Presidency , new world order , thousand points of light , family values ), and even the Clinton ( weasel words ) administrations, bringing the total to 1800 in more than 1100 lengthy entries. Many older terms have been revised and updated (e.g., peace with honor ) or even added ( junta ). The classics ( dark horse , Dixiecoat ) remain. Not much official government language is found here, nor historical events or documents--for those, the user can go to Jay Shafritz's HarperCollins Dictionary of American Government and Politics ( LJ 6/1/92) or Milton Greenberg and Jack Piano's American Political Dictionary (Harcourt College Pub., 1989. 8th ed.). Paul Dickson and Paul Clancy's The Congress Dictionary ( LJ 9/15/93) confines itself mainly to the terminology of Capitol Hill. Here, Safire informs us in his own style about the unique terminology that has sprung up in our country's political climate. Highly recommended.
- Louise Stwalley, Univ. of Colorado at Denver Lib.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

First published in 1968 as The New Language of Politics, word-maven Safire's compendium is now in its fourth edition, with definitions for more than 1,800 political terms. Many new and revised entries reflect events that have occurred in American politics during the 15 years since the last edition. In the book's introduction, Safire continues to chart the words and phrases introduced by our presidents. The Reagan years brought us such coinages as evil empire, star wars, Teflon-coated presidency, and Reaganomics; Bush gave us vision thing, read my lips, voodoo economics, and a thousand points of light. Such events as the end of the Cold War and the breakup of the Soviet Union have added glasnost and perestroika. Common words such as amendment or diplomat, readily found in any dictionary, are not included here. Hidden entries--those that would ordinarily be found by browsing, rather than looking them up--are brought to the user's attention in the introduction. These include suffixes (-nomics), speech constructions (I see construction, contrapuntal phrases), and euphemisms, political, among others.

Each entry contains a brief definition informed by a more lengthy word history. Quotations from politicians and others provide context and examples of current and past usage. Word and phrase etymologies clarify the origins of a term: politically correct is traced to the Maoist correct thinking, the 1983 film Sudden Impact with Clint Eastwood is cited under make my day, and sound bite has its roots in newsroom film editing in the 1960s. Notes on pronunciation may be appended; for example, junta is "HOON-ta" in the U.S., but Anglicized as "JUN-ta" in Britain. Cross-references are usually provided, although there are none for most of the 30 or so individual terms under the heading CIA-ese (sheep dipping, black bag job). The dictionary concludes with an interesting description of Safire's research process and a name index. The bibliography has been dropped from this edition.

Most reference collections should acquire a copy of this highly readable, informative work.