Presidential Power, Rhetoric, and the Terror Wars: The Sovereign Presidency

(Hardback)

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Presidential Power, Rhetoric, and the Terror Wars: The Sovereign Presidency argues that the War on Terror provided an opportunity to fundamentally change the presidency. Alexander Hiland analyzes the documents used to exercise presidential powers, including executive orders, signing statements, and presidential policy directives. Treating these documents as genres of speech-act that are ideologically motivated, Hiland provides a rhetorical criticism that illuminates the values and political convictions at play in these documents. This book reveals how both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama wielded the personal power of the office to dramatically expand the power of the executive branch. During the War on Terror, the presidency shifted from an imperial form that avoided checks and balances, to a sovereign presidency where the executive branch had the ability to decide whether those checks and balances existed. As a result, Hiland argues that this shift to the sovereign presidency enabled the violation of human rights, myriad policy mistakes, and the degradation of democracy within the United States.

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Presidential Power, Rhetoric, and the Terror Wars: The Sovereign Presidency by Alexander Hiland is an important new contribution to the rhetorical study of the American Presidency. Hiland provides one of the most important studies of the emergency of Presidential power with regard to the 'war on terror' in the 21st century. This book is an excellent addition to any current study of rhetoric, and especially courses aiming to examine either the 'war on terror' or contemporary aspects of the American Presidency.--Ben Voth, associate professor, communication; director of speech and debate, Southern Methodist University; former advisor for the George W Bush institute, the Coolidge Presidential foundation and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC

Author Bio

Alexander Hiland is lecturer in communication studies and assistant director of debate at James Madison University.