Title: The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang
Author: edited by Grant Barrett
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195304470
Pro:
• Covers both new and old terms
Con:
• Will have to be updated sooner than most dictionaries
Description:
• Dictionary of political slang; covers over 600 words
• Describes the origins of slang and includes examples of their use
Book Review
Of course, politics isn’t entirely disconnected from the rest of life, and this means that political language ends up being transferred into common discourse and vice-versa. Thus people end up using political slang in non-political contexts and politicians use words in a political context with a meaning that’s not quite the same as what’s used in other situations. Disentangling all of this isn’t an easy job because it requires extensive knowledge of American language, of American politics, and an ability to do a lot of research on how words have been used in the past.
Grant Barrett, project editor of the Historical Dictionary of American Slang, is just the person for such a big job, and his Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang really delivers. Over 600 words and phrases are explained in this book: each is given a basic definition, and explanation about where it came from, and then a series of examples of how it was employed in political or non-political contexts over the decades.
Books like this usually have a built-in expiration date because slang, especially political slang, moves very quickly. The next scandal or the next shift in technology will likely introduce a half-dozen new slang words, some of which may replace a few old slang words. Barrett, for example, includes definitions of several slang terms that are products of recent political and blogging history — terms like war blog and soccer mom. In five or ten years, such words may only be useful in historical research, much like other out-of-date terms which Barrett defines, like copperhead (a Northerner who sympathized with the Confederacy) and jayhawker (violent Kansas abolitionist). At that time, a new edition may be necessary.
Historical information about how slang terms used to be used can also help us to remember how much has changed — and not necessarily for good reasons. Today, for example, the terms “red state” and “blue state” are used as common shorthand for “Republican-voting” and “Democratic voting” states. That, however, is due entirely to a contingent set of events which could have easily gone in the opposite direction. The current widespread use of these terms in this manner seems to have caused people to forget that, in the past, “red” and “blue” were not directly linked to political parties; instead, they were attributed based upon which party was in power.
In the past, the “red” states were those voting for the challenger and the “blue” states were those voting for the incumbent. Thus, in 1992 the states voting for Bill Clinton were red because he was the challenger and those voting for Bush were blue because his was the incumbent party. In 2000, the red states were those voting for Bush because he was the challenger and the blue ones were those voting for Gore because his was the incumbent party.
Today this system has been dropped because of the popular association of red/Republican and blue/Democrat. Why, though? Why did this shift occur because of the 2000 election rather than the 1992, 1996, or 2004 elections? Barrett doesn’t address this, but it might make for a good essay.
Aside from usefulness in historical research, learning about these old terms might inspire people to find new uses for them. Could we use “jayhawker” to refer to violent abortion abolitionists? Could we use “copperhead” to refer to people living in liberal areas who sympathize with the Christian Right? Sometimes, making a linguistic connection between modern movements and their historical antecedents may prove useful in helping people understand deeper, philosophical connections between them. Barrett’s book is a nice reference for helping us understand some of the development behind political language, political concepts, and political conflict.
