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【Abstract】： Politicians and Rhetoric： The Persuasive Power of Metaphor written by Jonathan Charteris-Black is a valuable book to study speaking persuasively by using rhetoric， metaphors in particular. Corpus analysis is adopted and gives more credibility to the book. Many well-known politicians arranged in chronic order are discussed in the book. This paper aims to give a review on the book.
【Key words】： book review; rhetoric; politicians
1. Introduction
1.1 Background
This book is written by Jonathan Charteris-Black who is a professor of linguistics and is famous for his critical analysis of metaphors and speeches. His concrete and thorough analysis of metaphors contributes to the development of studies in rhetoric. This is the second edition of his book Politician and Rhetoric， in which Barack Obama， Enoch Powell and Ronald Reagan are three added features. Therefore， a compile of nine politicians who have shown great talent in their ability to persuade has been produced. They are Winston Churchill， Martin Luther King， Enoch Powell， Ronald Reagan， Margaret Thatcher， Clinton， Tony Blair， George Bush， Barack Obama. Their rhetorical use of language is characterized by a central topic. This topic is the clue for carrying on the analysis. The relationship between rhetoric and persuasion is the main concern of this book.
1.2 The values
The analysis of politicians’ use of rhetoric through public speaking is of great help for people to know how they convey their ideas persuasively and how to judge the ideas objectively. In addition， great figures created the history to an extent and analysis of their strategies in conveying the ideas or their beliefs helps readers learn something about foreign history. Readers can get hints on how to combine the language with specific situations and with personal background powerfully in order to achieve certain goals and exert great influence on others.
When you read the book， it is more like that you are reading the vividly portrayed sketches of several great figures in the history of politics. This book is an extraordinary painting of nine figures with specific portrait of their political performances and preferences of language use through detailed explanation of how they employ certain strategies in achieving their political goals and ambitions. This book also reflects the width and depth of the writer’s knowledge and his abilities to make connections between history， culture， personality and power. 2. Contents
This book explores the relationship between use of language and political power and influence of politicians. Each politician is represented with a particular myth according to their own use of language in pursuing the goals. The contents of this book are divided into four parts.
The first part is chapter 1. It is an introductive chapter which makes links between rhetoric and persuasion in speech making of speakers. The book follows conceptual metaphor theory proposed by Lakoff and Johnson （1980） to find the correspondences between the literal senses of words and how they can be used as metaphors. The second part is chapter 2. Chapter 2 demonstrated how metaphor contributes to political communication. Some typical examples are discussed here like “The Nation Is A Family”. Ideas of the national family are persuasive because the family symbolizes a source of security， and contributes to the impression that a politician has the right intention. By this association， such metaphors have ideological potential because they evoke ideas. The expectations about meanings vary between individuals but may be socially influenced. Audiences need to know how to analyze metaphors critically from identification， interpretation to explanation.
The third part is from chapter 3 to chapter 11; the fourth part is chapter 12 which is the overview and summary of metaphors and its magic power in arousing political effects.
2.1 Chapter three to eleven
Chapters from chapter three-eleven illustrated how some of the most rhetorically successful British and American political leaders have exploited metaphors and myths for the persuasive communication. There are two appendixes for each politician， one for their speech corpus and the other for their metaphors classified by type/source domain. Their characteristics and preferable way of expressing their ideas are shown. For each politician， the writer names them with an adjective plus a myth. Then the author explains the reason between the politicians and the myths which they match clearly and strongly.
2.1.1 Metaphors
Analysis of metaphors involves corpus analysis. The metaphors are classified according to their source domains and then typical social values added to the domains are identified. Their political beliefs are illustrated according to different types of metaphors. And readers can see great influence of their background on the preferred metaphors of politicians， such as the influence of former career as an actor on Ronald Reagan. From my point of view， the influences can be resorted to the following factors： （1）Political factor： Winston Churchill; Tony Blair;
（2）Social factor： Martin Luther King; Enoch Powell; George Bush;
（3）Personal factor： Margaret Thatcher; Clinton; Barack Obama;
（4）Career： Ronald Reagan.
2.1.2 Strategies
The second appendix of each person is worthwhile to explore deeply to identify the domains and the politicians’ strategies. The most commonly used strategies by Churchill are personification and metaphors of journeys， light and darkness and slavery. And Clinton also highlights the importance of spatial concepts in political discourse. For Martin Luther King， his strategies are repetition and communicating his moral vision. For Powell， he develops a wide range of rhetoric strategies and he uses popular phrases and expressions and also some narrative techniques. For Reagan， he focuses on providing a sense of optimism and hope in the society， which forms the basis for his rhetoric intention. For Obama， he combines his own dream with the American dream and he is good at activating schemes among audience and using parallelism to enforce his power of speech. His success attributes to his skillful use of language. And the blending analysis of certain metaphors impresses the readers on the specific links between small parts of a metaphor， from agent， patient， and action to result.
3. Comments
3.1 The organization of the book is much appreciated
The contents of this book are rich and the structure of this book makes it easier for readers to read. The structure of general to specific and then to general facilitate the reading and understanding process. And at the end of each chapter， it has a short summary that contains both the author’s opinion and a short review of this part， which provides us a second chance to know more about politicians.
3.2 The analysis is subdivided
To describe a person’s use of language and to make connections between his life and his words is a hard and enduring job. But by analyzing the language of each politician with subdivided focuses and topics， as a reader， I am lured and I have a clear mind of where I am led to and what characteristics are shown by these politicians.
3.3 The writing clue is topic-oriented
The writing is conducted by stating the myths， types of metaphors and its combinations with other strategies， which is easier for readers to follow and think deep about certain questions. In addition， personal style is outlined through each specific chapter.
3.4 Too many examples make reading boring
For one metaphor， there are too many examples which make the reading doll and not refreshing sometimes. And for different politicians， they may use similar metaphors though arrange them in different ways and in this circumstance， metaphor analysis will be more fascinating if it puts more emphasis on the comparison between different politicians instead of thorough explaining for every single politician regarding the similar metaphor.
In a word， this is a book worthy of being read and you can get inspiration from it both about lives and societies from multiple perspectives in spite of occasional lengthiness.
Bibliography
[1] Jonathan Charteris-Black. Politicians and Rhetoric： The Persuasive Power of Metaphor[M]. Palgrave MacMillan. 2011.
[2] George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By[M]. University of Chicago Press. 1980.
[3] 陳勇， 刘肇云. 隐喻政治与政治隐喻：论美国政治家的政治隐喻[J]. 外语教学. 2009.
【Key words】： book review; rhetoric; politicians
1. Introduction
1.1 Background
This book is written by Jonathan Charteris-Black who is a professor of linguistics and is famous for his critical analysis of metaphors and speeches. His concrete and thorough analysis of metaphors contributes to the development of studies in rhetoric. This is the second edition of his book Politician and Rhetoric， in which Barack Obama， Enoch Powell and Ronald Reagan are three added features. Therefore， a compile of nine politicians who have shown great talent in their ability to persuade has been produced. They are Winston Churchill， Martin Luther King， Enoch Powell， Ronald Reagan， Margaret Thatcher， Clinton， Tony Blair， George Bush， Barack Obama. Their rhetorical use of language is characterized by a central topic. This topic is the clue for carrying on the analysis. The relationship between rhetoric and persuasion is the main concern of this book.
1.2 The values
The analysis of politicians’ use of rhetoric through public speaking is of great help for people to know how they convey their ideas persuasively and how to judge the ideas objectively. In addition， great figures created the history to an extent and analysis of their strategies in conveying the ideas or their beliefs helps readers learn something about foreign history. Readers can get hints on how to combine the language with specific situations and with personal background powerfully in order to achieve certain goals and exert great influence on others.
When you read the book， it is more like that you are reading the vividly portrayed sketches of several great figures in the history of politics. This book is an extraordinary painting of nine figures with specific portrait of their political performances and preferences of language use through detailed explanation of how they employ certain strategies in achieving their political goals and ambitions. This book also reflects the width and depth of the writer’s knowledge and his abilities to make connections between history， culture， personality and power. 2. Contents
This book explores the relationship between use of language and political power and influence of politicians. Each politician is represented with a particular myth according to their own use of language in pursuing the goals. The contents of this book are divided into four parts.
The first part is chapter 1. It is an introductive chapter which makes links between rhetoric and persuasion in speech making of speakers. The book follows conceptual metaphor theory proposed by Lakoff and Johnson （1980） to find the correspondences between the literal senses of words and how they can be used as metaphors. The second part is chapter 2. Chapter 2 demonstrated how metaphor contributes to political communication. Some typical examples are discussed here like “The Nation Is A Family”. Ideas of the national family are persuasive because the family symbolizes a source of security， and contributes to the impression that a politician has the right intention. By this association， such metaphors have ideological potential because they evoke ideas. The expectations about meanings vary between individuals but may be socially influenced. Audiences need to know how to analyze metaphors critically from identification， interpretation to explanation.
The third part is from chapter 3 to chapter 11; the fourth part is chapter 12 which is the overview and summary of metaphors and its magic power in arousing political effects.
2.1 Chapter three to eleven
Chapters from chapter three-eleven illustrated how some of the most rhetorically successful British and American political leaders have exploited metaphors and myths for the persuasive communication. There are two appendixes for each politician， one for their speech corpus and the other for their metaphors classified by type/source domain. Their characteristics and preferable way of expressing their ideas are shown. For each politician， the writer names them with an adjective plus a myth. Then the author explains the reason between the politicians and the myths which they match clearly and strongly.
2.1.1 Metaphors
Analysis of metaphors involves corpus analysis. The metaphors are classified according to their source domains and then typical social values added to the domains are identified. Their political beliefs are illustrated according to different types of metaphors. And readers can see great influence of their background on the preferred metaphors of politicians， such as the influence of former career as an actor on Ronald Reagan. From my point of view， the influences can be resorted to the following factors： （1）Political factor： Winston Churchill; Tony Blair;
（2）Social factor： Martin Luther King; Enoch Powell; George Bush;
（3）Personal factor： Margaret Thatcher; Clinton; Barack Obama;
（4）Career： Ronald Reagan.
2.1.2 Strategies
The second appendix of each person is worthwhile to explore deeply to identify the domains and the politicians’ strategies. The most commonly used strategies by Churchill are personification and metaphors of journeys， light and darkness and slavery. And Clinton also highlights the importance of spatial concepts in political discourse. For Martin Luther King， his strategies are repetition and communicating his moral vision. For Powell， he develops a wide range of rhetoric strategies and he uses popular phrases and expressions and also some narrative techniques. For Reagan， he focuses on providing a sense of optimism and hope in the society， which forms the basis for his rhetoric intention. For Obama， he combines his own dream with the American dream and he is good at activating schemes among audience and using parallelism to enforce his power of speech. His success attributes to his skillful use of language. And the blending analysis of certain metaphors impresses the readers on the specific links between small parts of a metaphor， from agent， patient， and action to result.
3. Comments
3.1 The organization of the book is much appreciated
The contents of this book are rich and the structure of this book makes it easier for readers to read. The structure of general to specific and then to general facilitate the reading and understanding process. And at the end of each chapter， it has a short summary that contains both the author’s opinion and a short review of this part， which provides us a second chance to know more about politicians.
3.2 The analysis is subdivided
To describe a person’s use of language and to make connections between his life and his words is a hard and enduring job. But by analyzing the language of each politician with subdivided focuses and topics， as a reader， I am lured and I have a clear mind of where I am led to and what characteristics are shown by these politicians.
3.3 The writing clue is topic-oriented
The writing is conducted by stating the myths， types of metaphors and its combinations with other strategies， which is easier for readers to follow and think deep about certain questions. In addition， personal style is outlined through each specific chapter.
3.4 Too many examples make reading boring
For one metaphor， there are too many examples which make the reading doll and not refreshing sometimes. And for different politicians， they may use similar metaphors though arrange them in different ways and in this circumstance， metaphor analysis will be more fascinating if it puts more emphasis on the comparison between different politicians instead of thorough explaining for every single politician regarding the similar metaphor.
In a word， this is a book worthy of being read and you can get inspiration from it both about lives and societies from multiple perspectives in spite of occasional lengthiness.
Bibliography
[1] Jonathan Charteris-Black. Politicians and Rhetoric： The Persuasive Power of Metaphor[M]. Palgrave MacMillan. 2011.
[2] George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By[M]. University of Chicago Press. 1980.
[3] 陳勇， 刘肇云. 隐喻政治与政治隐喻：论美国政治家的政治隐喻[J]. 外语教学. 2009.