'Norman Fairclough's new book presents an original argument for a critical, text-oriented form of discourse analysis. He writes in an admirably lucid way about some very complex issues. It is a book to which those interested in the critical analysis of discourse and ideology should pay close attention. Moreover, students will benefit from the clearly presented examples, which Fairclough uses to show the methods of critical discourse analysis.' Michael Billig, Temple University 'This book is an excellent example of applied linguistics: acute observations and analyses of changing language use in the real social world - one of the few attempts to show the systematic relation between texts and institutions.' Michael Stubbs, University of Trier 'Fairclough has a sophisticated linguistic analysis and an explicit political agenda. Fairclough has written a strong book. He is clear and honest about his motivations, and straightforward in his findings. For these reasons alone, the book deserves wide reading, but all the more so because the author has combined his scholarly and pedagogical purposes well in this very readable and useful work.' Language in Society 'Fairclough makes an important contribution... [his] book demonstrates the value of an analytical and theoretical project which is able to generate explicit models of the social and discursive provess which characterise this phase of restructuring.' Social Semiotics