Bad Language: Decoding Donald Trump

by Andy Curtis, Kathleen Bailey (foreword)

You’ve heard the speeches. Now see how they work—that is, how language can be used to convey information—or misinformation—to persuade, to rouse, to obfuscate. Linguist and researcher Dr. Andy Curtis deconstructs five major speeches by Donald Trump and examines them move by move, line by line, and explains how they function.

Thoroughly researched (citing well over 200 sources) and engagingly written, this book pulls back the curtain to show you how this kind of speechifying works. Words matter, whether you’re speaking them or hearing them. As a global citizen, you owe it to yourself to understand the deeper meaning of the messages targeted at you. With a better understanding of how language works, you’ll be better equipped to make sense of what you hear, and to distinguish fact from fiction.

236 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 13, 2024

About the author

Dr. Andy Curtis, M.A. Applied Linguistics and Language Education, Ph.D. International Education, University of York, is the founder of the New Peace Linguistics, which focuses on how powerful people use language not to communicate but to manipulate.

The 50th President of the TESOL International Association, Dr. Curtis has (co)authored and (co)edited 200 articles, book chapters, and books, presented to 50,000 language educators in 100 countries, and his writings have been read by 100,000 language educators in 150 countries. Dr. Curtis is currently serving as a Specially Appointed Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the City University of Macau, and is cross-appointed to a number of universities in Mainland China.

Reviews

[Mr. Book · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can also see this review, along with others I have written, at my blog, Mr. Book's Book Reviews.

Thank you, Wayzgoose Press, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. No review was required in return for an advance reading copy and no review was promised.

Mr. Book just finished Bad Language: Decoding Donald Trump, by Andy Curtis.

This book will be released to the public on September 13.

The author is an applied linguist, who analyzed five Trump speeches from late 2022 through 2024, studying nearly 60,000 words and this book is a result of that study. The author claimed, multiple times, that this is not a book about Donald Trump or about his lies, but rather a book about his use of language. I don’t think he is going to convince many readers, or reviewers, that it’s not about Trump’s lies.

There are already other excellent books that have looked at Trump’s lies and Trump’s use of rhetoric, but I don’t remember reading one that is organized by looking at a set of specific speeches. This book makes a very good addition to the already existing literature on those topics.

I give this book an A. Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at Goodreads, NetGalley and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews.

Mr. Book finished reading this on August 31, 2024.

[Kris Kosaka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Andy Curtis's "Bad Language: Decoding Donald Trump" is a useful tool for all teachers of rhetoric. In simple, engaging language, using film, the most popular cultural medium of the age as a constant, enlivening contextual reference, Curtis unpacks the rhetorical techniques behind five recent major speeches by Donald Trump. Starting with Trump's announced intention to seek the Republican Party nomination and continuing until he officially accepted it this past summer on July 18, 2024, the book serves as an important record of this moment in history. Meticulously researched, with copious sources and resources for every chapter, the book is also important for anyone wondering why Donald Trump still manages to dominate the Republican party. It's all here, in Curtis's shrewd analysis, and reveals an underlying reason behind Trump's continuing popularity: expertly using the language of unity while appealing to the fears and insecurities of his base. Dr. Curtis, a professor of linguistics and the founder of New Peace Linguistics, frequently focuses in his writings on how powerful people use language to manipulate. Love Donald Trump or hate him, there's no denying he is a master at manipulation (or as Curtis writes: "false and misleading statements or F&M's") and a creative entertainer, using body language, hyperbole, and lively re-enactments to engage his crowds and distance himself from normal political-speak. That it's still working is frightening. This book won't ease the fears of another Trump presidency, but it does provide a way to understand his unfortunate success.

[Goldie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d like to thank the publishers for the ARC of Bad Language: Decoding Donald Trump. As someone who loves books on language and linguistics, this was right up my street. The book does a great job of breaking down the specific ways Donald Trump uses language to connect to incite emotions, outright lie, and keep control of the conversation. It’s clear that a lot of research went into it—everything is very well sourced, and the analysis is both detailed and accessible. If you’re interested in understanding how language works in political rhetoric, this is definitely worth picking up.

[Juliana Alves Mota · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great surprise this book was. The title got me curious to know more about the underlying messages a Politician speech might have and It didn't disappoint. I was not interested in the politics the book might discuss, but the linguistic and language aspect of it and I'm glad the book follows this line of thought as well.

[Mande · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this soon after it was published, while the 2024 election was revving up, and it was quite the read! Curtis thoroughly explores 5 major rally speeches of Trump's, some snippets of which we may have seen on the news, but certainly not the entire speeches. This book delves into each one and provides the much-needed context to understand what Trump's motives are, how his words and tone can be interpreted, and what this means us. Now that he's been elected, this is a must-read.