Enough Said, Mark Thompson
Enough Said, Mark Thompson
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Enough Said
What’s Gone Wrong with the Language of Politics?

Author: Mark Thompson

Narrator: James Langton

Unabridged: 14 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/06/2016

Synopsis

There’s a crisis of trust in politics across the Western world. Public anger is rising, and faith in conventional political leaders and parties is falling. Antipolitics, and the antipoliticians, have arrived. In Enough Said, president and CEO of the New York Times Company, Mark Thompson, argues that one of the most significant causes of the crisis is the way our public language has changed.Enough Said tells the story of how we got from the language of FDR and Churchill to that of Donald Trump. It forensically examines the public language we’ve been left with: compressed, immediate, sometimes brilliantly impactful, but robbed of most of its explanatory power. It studies the rhetoric of Western leaders from Reagan and Thatcher to Berlusconi, Blair, and today’s political elites on both sides of the Atlantic. And it charts how a changing public language has interacted with real-world events—Iraq, the financial crash, the United Kingdom’s surprising “Brexit” from the European Union, immigration—and a mutual breakdown of trust between politicians and journalists, to leave ordinary citizens suspicious, bitter, and increasingly unwilling to believe anybody.Drawing from classical as well as contemporary examples and ranging across politics, business, science, technology, and the arts, Enough Said is a smart and shrewd look at the erosion of language by an author uniquely placed to measure its consequences.

About Mark Thompson

Mark Thompson has been the president and CEO of the New York Times Company since 2012. Previously, he was director general of the BBC from 2004 to 2012 and CEO of Channel Four Television Corporation from 2002 to 2004. Born in London, Thompson attended Stonyhurst College and Merton College, Oxford. Thompson has three children with his wife, writer Jane Blumberg.

About James Langton

James Langton is an actor and narrator who has performed many voice-overs and narrated numerous audiobooks, including the international bestseller The Brotherhood of the Holy Shroud by Julia Navarro, Fire Storm by Andrew Lane, and An Old Betrayal by Charles Finch. He has won multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards for his work in narration. As a voice-over artist, he has worked with a host of industrial and commercial clients including Geico, Johnson&Johnson, and ask.com. He is also a professional musician who led the internationally renowned Pasadena Roof Orchestra from 1996 to 2002. Langton was born in York, England, and is now based in New York City.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Katia

This book is about how the rhetoric affects the quality and the effectiveness of the political and social debate. According to the author, the one of the reasons of the crisis in the mainstream politics is the crisis of public language. Through the history of the political discourse from the 70s (of......more

Goodreads review by Martin

Mark Thompson je ako Vašo Mika, len lepší a s menej selfíčkami. Roky bol šéf celej BBC a teraz vedie vydavateľstvo New York Times. Popri tom napísal knihu o svojej obľúbenej téme, kvalite verejného jazyka. Hoaxy, silné výrazy, polarizácia, emócie a spin. Thomspon ich príchod do verejnej debaty ilustr......more

Goodreads review by David YB

A thought-provoking book. This is not an "easy read." It is challenging. It requires engagement. And that's a good thing. If you're interested in politics, rhetoric, public discourse, journalism, etc., this belongs at the top of your reading list. It's timely, it provides an impressive historical ove......more

Goodreads review by Gregg

President and CEO of the New York Times Company Mark Thompson analyzes Western language in an effort to explain what happened over the past several decades to get us to this point. If I need to spell out "this point" for you, the book may be a tougher read than he intends, but suffice to say, scream......more

Quotes

“A much-needed antidote to the miasma of spin, incivility, and ‘truthiness’ that afflicts politics today.” Michael Sandel, New York Times bestselling author

“Offers many instructive allusions, useful judgments, and important refinements and provides reassurances by its mere existence that someone in the author’s position is grappling so earnestly with such questions.” New York Times Book Review

“A great essayist…He writes restlessly and compellingly, shaking arguments free of the established wisdom until they reveal their hidden flaws or virtues and can be thus judged for their fitness to be part of the public debate he laments.” Financial Times

"[An] important book…elegantly argued.” Guardian (London)

“Enough Said displays many of the qualities that it identifies as lacking in our civic discourse. It is thoughtful, nuanced, and wise; it considers opposing views; it takes ample note of history and is unafraid of complexity. To read this book is to feel there is cause, however tenuous, for hope.” Washington Post

“Thompson’s writing packs a high percentage of insights per page, and his book manages to be an exemplary investigation, a history, an autopsy, a practical manual, and a cautionary tale all at once.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Analyzes communication theory and the ways the media struggles to meet the current dependence on compressed phrasing to fit the 24/7 news cycle and to meet the immediate comprehension demands of consumers….Worthwhile and thought provoking.” Library Journal

“A pointed, dense exposé à la George Orwell.” Kirkus Reviews

Awards

  • New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice
  • Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year
  • Orwell Prize
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