Making enemies / Rodney Barker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Barker, Rodney S.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political science--Philosophy.

Political science.

Enemies.

Hostility (Psychology).

World politics--21st century.

World politics.

Physical Description:

x, 216 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

Summary:

You may tell a lady by the company she keeps. But you may tell a political leader by the company he or she doesn't keep and by the enemies that they describe. Whom a prime minister or president will not shake hands with is still more noticed than with whom they will. Public identity can afford to be ambiguous about friends, but not about enemies. The identity of nations, movements and parties is cultivated by the description of enemies, and narratives about enemies are a recurring feature of the way in which political leaders, parties and nations give accounts of who they are themselves. This is neither necessary nor unavoidable and finding a way of creating identity without creating enemies is one of the major problems facing the contemporary world.

Contents:

1 Accounts of Enmity in Politics and Government 1

2 Competition, Antagonism, and Enmity 18

3 Patterns of Enmity: Varieties of Narrative 35

4 Contexts of Enmity Narratives 59

5 The Language and Imagery of Enmity 71

6 Telling the Enmity Narrative 83

7 Enemies of the People 101

8 Demonisation: the Frenzy of Enmity 114

9 Narratives of Contention: the Case of Party Politics in Twentieth- and Twenty-first-century Britain 128

10 Enmity Narratives, Politics, and Peacefulness 149.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 175-206) and index.

ISBN:

0230516815

9780230516816

OCLC:

70676634

Online:

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