Jared Del Rosso takes a discourse-analytic, social-constructionist approach to understanding the meaning of 'torture,' developing well-known and powerful analytic traditions to shed light on an important and controversial issue that is still topical today. His book is interesting and enlightening.
James Holstein, Marquette University By tracing the evolution of Congress's conversations on topics ranging from Abu Ghraib to waterboarding, ... Read moreJared Del Rosso shows how facts, policies, and principles can be created, challenged, and changed. His painstaking analysis offers both a careful history of recent claims about torture and a model for those who want to penetrate officials' language about other issues.
Joel Best, University of Delaware Jared Del Rosso delivers a compelling and timely analysis of governmental discourse on torture in the United States. He skillfully delves into the politically embedded debate and contentious processes through which an electoral democracy grapples with human rights violations authorized or perpetrated by its own state officials. Talking About Torture reveals the multiple forms of denial, justification, partial acknowledgment, and denunciation advanced by members of the government confronted with evidence of abuse and torture in U.S.-run detention sites after 9/11. In doing so, Del Rosso exposes how accountability is eschewed, how political opponents draw on shared cultural frames regarding torture, and how the legacies of the 'torture debate' continue to shape current policy and political discourse. This book offers a powerful examination of the U.S. government rhetoric on torture and the high stakes involved in such political talk.
Barbara Sutton, SUNY-Albany Highly recommended. Choice The book is provocative, meticulous in its research and fascinating, underlining how Americans-or at least the political class-came to justify the use of torture. Human Rights Law Review Show Less