« Pat Robertson and footwear | Main | "Drowning New Orleans" »
August 31, 2005
The end of the war on terror(ism)--G-WOT?
Joe diStefano, our graphic designer, was the subject of one of the best office jokes we've seen in a while, on a sticky, hectic afternoon when we all needed a good laugh. And all thanks to George W. Bush.
All of us are engrossed, one way or another, in terrorism these days, as final corrections are made to Patterns of Global Terrorism. Joe's had to deal with quite a few changes to the subtitle, with the latest being a particular nuisance because it's so long (and messes up the cover design, says Joe). But we--both editorial and marketing tams--want to explain the fact that we are publishing all the State Department reports, from 1985 to 2004, called Patterns of Global Terrorism, as well as extensive selections from other government reports and documents chosen to clarify and support details in the reports themselves. That's how we got to the current full title: Patterns of Global Terrorism 1985-2004: U.S. Department of State Documents and Supplementary Materials.
Yesterday, though, we read that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other senior Bush administration officials have decided to stop referring to "the global war on terror," and will now say instead that we are engaged in a "global struggle against violent extremism." (Read this hilarious article about the change, and the battle of the acronyms.) So Margaux emailed Joe that the title would have to be changed on press to Patterns of Violent Extremism and the Global Struggle Against It.
We've been getting lots of comments from authors and experts on terrorism. I especially like this, from Benjamin Barber: "Talk about 'glocal' (the global is local and the local is global!)--it takes a splendid little Berkshire publishing house to do what a major international trade publisher should have done long ago: make available in concise, readable form, the indispensable State Department reports that experts, scholars and engaged citizens have consulted for decades." Benjamin R. Barber, author of Jihad vs. McWorld, Kekst Professor of Civil Society, University of Maryland
Posted by Karen Christensen at August 31, 2005 4:55 AM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)