Collateral Language : A User's Guide to America's New War

Terrorism, jihad, fundamentalism, blowback - these and other highly charged terms have saturated news broadcasts and everyday conversation since September 11 2001, but to keen ears their meanings change depending upon who's doing the talking.

So what do these words really mean, and what are people trying to say when they use them?

Each of the 13 essays in this volume offers an informed perspective on a particular word or phrase that serves as a building block in the edifice of post-World Trade Center rhetoric.

The over-riding goal is to give the reader a set of practical tools to analyse the political language used at this critical time in the US's history.