Research Catalog

Title

Proverbs are the best policy : folk wisdom and American politics / Wolfgang Mieder.

Author

Mieder, Wolfgang

Publication

Logan, Utah : Utah State University Press, c2005.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xvi, 323 p.; 23 cm.

Summary

"Wolfgang Mieder, widely considered the world's greatest proverb scholar, examines the role of proverbial speech on the American political stage from the Revolutionary War to the present. He begins his survey by discussing the origins and characteristics of American proverbs and their spread across the globe hand in hand with America's international political role. He then looks at the history of the defining proverb of American democracy, "Government of the people, by the people, for the people.""--Jacket.

Uniform Title

Project Muse UPCC books

Subject

• Proverbs, American
• Proverbs > Political aspects > United States
• Rhetoric > Political aspects > United States
• Politicians > United States > Language
• United States > Politics and government > Miscellanea
• United States > Politics and government > Quotations, maxims, etc

Genre/Form

• Trivia and miscellanea
• Quotations

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 297-309) and indexes.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

"Different strokes for different folks" : American proverbs as an international, national, and global phenomenon -- "Government of the people, by the people, for the people" : the making and meaning of an American proverb about democracy -- "God helps them who help themselves" : proverbial resolve in the letters of Abigail Adams -- "A house divided against itself cannot stand" : from biblical proverb to Abraham Lincoln and beyond -- "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" : Frederick Douglass's proverbial struggle for civil rights -- "It's not a president's business to catch flies" : proverbial rhetoric in presidential inaugural addresses -- "We are all in the same boat now" : proverbial discourse in the Churchill-Roosevelt correspondence -- "Good fences make good neighbors" : the sociopolitical significance of an ambiguous proverb.

ISBN

• 0874216222 (pbk. : alk. paper)
• 9780874216226

LCCN

^^2005018275

OCLC

• 61204246
• SCSB-11069806

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library