Overview

The rhetorical presumption of war's necessity makes violence regrettable, but seemingly sane, and functions to shame anyone who opposes military action. Ivie proposes that the presence of dissent is actually a healthy sign of democratic citizenship, and a responsible and productive act, which has been dangerously miscast as a threat to national security. Ivie, a former US Navy petty officer, puts a microscope to the language of war supporters throughout history and follows the lives and memories of soldiers and anti-war activists who have dealt with degrees of confusion and guilt about their opposition to war. Arguing that informed dissent plays out largely in the realm of rhetoric, he equips readers with strategies for resisting the dehumanizing language used in war propaganda. Through his careful study of language strategies, he makes it possible to foster a community where dissenting voices are valued and vital.

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9781565492400

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Reviews

When it comes to the study of war, Robert Ivie is a trailblazer. Rhetorical scholars who strive to understand better how our leaders justify war to citizens, and how citizens in turn justify war to themselves, start with Ivie's work--or at the very least soon find their way back to it.... Dissent from War is a profoundly hopeful work.... thought-provoking, conversation-starting... we can learn many things about how to dissent from war from this book.

A call to action through communication, a challenge to Americans to check the rhetorical habit of recrimination, to harness the powers of critical thinking, speaking, and writing, and to build a more peaceful world... makes an enormous contribution to democratic practice. We are used to thinking of history as defined by wars, punctuated by lapses called 'peace.' In this broad-ranging and compelling book, Robert L. Ivie challenges the ways we marginalize dissent from war and peacemaking efforts in general. He focuses our attention on U.S. policy and popular movements, from the Civil War to the present, showing how readily we fall into the patterns of demonizing 'the enemy, ' pushing aside those who question the rush to battle, and how inconsistent these patterns are with our deeper yearnings, our national principles, and our religious commitments. Dissent from War helps us not only to see the road not taken but also offers some useful signs for getting there. Bob Ivie s magnificent book tackles the life-and-death question of our time: how can we transcend the communicative habits of fear-mongering and imperial hubris to create a language of compassion, fraternity, and renewed citizenship? Offering elegant case studies that leap across history, from his family s heroic efforts during the US Civil War to our collective response to 9/11 and the War on Terror, Ivie chronicles how we talk about peace and war, life and death, reconciliation and recrimination. Ivie thus offers us a brave, eloquent, passionate, and at times sermonic opportunity to begin the hard task of reclaiming democracy from war. This is scholarship at its best, citizenship in action, a call of conscience from one of our most persuasive advocates for peace. Ivie draws on his long-standing expertise in war rhetoric to explain the pervasive failures of modern-day opponents of war. His insightful analysis of artifacts, ranging from soldier's diaries, movies, and the internet to the statements of public intellectuals and government officials, is not only provocative but timely in its application to the current U.S. conflict in Iraq. Ivie provides an extremely impressive argument for a version of pacifism grounded in solidarity and citizenship. I know of no comparative text providing such compelling dissent against war and so this text could be a classic on its subject. When it comes to the study of war, Robert Ivie is a trailblazer. Rhetorical scholars who strive to understand better how our leaders justify war to citizens, and how citizens in turn justify war to themselves, start with Ivie's work--or at the very least soon find their way back to it.... Dissent from War is a profoundly hopeful work.... thought-provoking, conversation-starting... we can learn many things about how to dissent from war from this book.

"""A call to action through communication, a challenge to Americans to check the rhetorical habit of recrimination, to harness the powers of critical thinking, speaking, and writing, and to build a more peaceful world... makes an enormous contribution to democratic practice."" ""Bob Ivie s magnificent book tackles the life-and-death question of our time: how can we transcend the communicative habits of fear-mongering and imperial hubris to create a language of compassion, fraternity, and renewed citizenship? Offering elegant case studies that leap across history, from his family s heroic efforts during the US Civil War to our collective response to 9/11 and the War on Terror, Ivie chronicles how we talk about peace and war, life and death, reconciliation and recrimination. Ivie thus offers us a brave, eloquent, passionate, and at times sermonic opportunity to begin the hard task of reclaiming democracy from war. This is scholarship at its best, citizenship in action, a call of conscience from one of our most persuasive advocates for peace."" ""Ivie draws on his long-standing expertise in war rhetoric to explain the pervasive failures of modern-day opponents of war. His insightful analysis of artifacts, ranging from soldier's diaries, movies, and the internet to the statements of public intellectuals and government officials, is not only provocative but timely in its application to the current U.S. conflict in Iraq."" ""Ivie provides an extremely impressive argument for a version of pacifism grounded in solidarity and citizenship. I know of no comparative text providing such compelling dissent against war and so this text could be a classic on its subject."" ""We are used to thinking of history as defined by wars, punctuated by lapses called 'peace.' In this broad-ranging and compelling book, Robert L. Ivie challenges the ways we marginalize dissent from war and peacemaking efforts in general. He focuses our attention on U.S. policy and popular movements, from the Civil War to the present, showing how readily we fall into the patterns of demonizing 'the enemy, ' pushing aside those who question the rush to battle, and how inconsistent these patterns are with our deeper yearnings, our national principles, and our religious commitments. ""Dissent from War"" helps us not only to see the road not taken but also offers some useful signs for getting there."" ""When it comes to the study of war, Robert Ivie is a trailblazer. Rhetorical scholars who strive to understand better how our leaders justify war to citizens, and how citizens in turn justify war to themselves, start with Ivie's work--or at the very least soon find their way back to it.... ""Dissent from War"" is a profoundly hopeful work.... thought-provoking, conversation-starting... we can learn many things about how to dissent from war from this book."""

Author Information

Robert Ivie is professor of rhetoric and public culture in the Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University. He also serves as a member of the faculties of the American Studies, Cultural Studies, and Myth Studies programs at Indiana University. His teaching and writing focus on the critique of U.S. war culture and the study of democratic dissent and peacebuilding communication. He has served as editor of several journals of communication scholarship, including Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies and the Quarterly Journal of Speech. His previous books include Democracy and America's War on Terror, Cold War Rhetoric: Strategy, Metaphor, and Ideology with Martin Medhurst, Philip Wander, and Robert Scott, and Congress Declares War: Rhetoric, Leadership, and Partisanship in the Early Republic with Ronald Hatzenbuehler.

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