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Summary:
“By necessity, by proclivity, by delight,” Ralph Waldo Emerson said in 1876, “we all quote.” But often the phrases that fall most readily from our collective lips—like “fire when ready,” “speak softly and carry a big stick,” or “nice guys finish last”—are those whose origins and true meanings we have ceased to consider. Restoring three-dimensionality to more than fifty of these American sayings, Tippecanoe and Tyler Too turns clichés back into history by telling the life stories of the words that have served as our most powerful battle cries, rallying points, laments, and inspirations. In individual entries on slogans and catchphrases from the early seventeenth to the late twentieth century, Jan Van Meter reveals that each one is a living, malleable entity that has profoundly shaped and continues to influence our public culture. From John Winthrop’s “We shall be as a city upon a hill” and the 1840 Log Cabin Campaign’s “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” and Ronald Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” each of Van Meter’s selections emerges as a memory device for a larger political or cultural story. So the next time we hear or see one of these verbal symbols used to sell a product, illustrate a point, make a joke, reshape a current cause, or resuscitate a forgotten ideal, we will finally be equipped to understand its broader role as a key source of the values we continue to share and fight about. Taken together in Van Meter’s able hands, these famous slogans and catchphrases give voice to our common history even as we argue about where it should lead us.
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
The historic background of 60 American iconic phrases
Customer Rating:
Jan R. Van Meter has drawn on his experiences in public relations, CIA intelligence, speech writing and teaching English in putting together his first book. He describes the historical context of 60 phrases (listed in the first Comment) which have become a part of American culture.
The entries are well written, and provide a rather basic description of how each phrase fit into the history of the speaker or writer. In some cases, the phrase arose decades after the event, although Van Meter doesn't always warn the reader. Michael O. Eshleman reviewing the book for the "Library Journal" suggests checking the background of any of the slogans or catchphrases in The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When by Ralph Keye.
The University of Chicago has published an addendum to the book which gives a flavor of the entries here:
"Read My Lips; No New Taxes (1988)
"George Herbert Walker Bush needed to prove he was tough, tough enough to win the presidential election against the Democrat Michael Dukakis, tough enough to continue the legacy of the outgoing president Ronald Reagan, tough enough to erase his lingering reputation as an effete aristocrat and long-time government insider.
"The Bush campaign staff wanted to demonstrate his toughness, his devotion to the Reagan ideals, and his strong conservative convictions. And so, in his acceptance speech to the GOP Convention, Bush stared directly into the lens of the television cameras and grimly said:
*My opponent won't rule out raising taxes. But I will. And the Congress will push me to raise taxes and I'll say no. and they'll push, and I'll say no, and they'll push again, and I'll say to them, "Read my lips: no new taxes."
"Bush was elected, but less than two years later, with the federal deficit reaching record levels, Bush was forced to raise some taxes as well as cut spending. He was never forgiven by his own party's conservatives or by the media. Though Bush's approval ratings with the public improved following the first Gulf War, his slogan became a byword for political untrustworthiness."
These phrases come and go, of course, it's hard to predict which ones will stick -- "We Shall Be as a City upon a Hill" has been an icon for over 380 years -- will John McCain's "He's Already Measuring the Drapes" last as long?
Whatever the legs of any particular slogan, this collection is an interesting insight to American culture.
Robert C. Ross 2008
A Page Turner
Customer Rating:
A "so that's where that comes from!" on every page. To now, one could only imagine the first time one of these famous slogans or sayings was uttered or written. Mr. Van Meter brings us back to those "a ha" moments. A fun read.
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