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Enemyship: Democracy and Counter-Revolution in the Early Republic. By Jeremy Engels. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2010; pp 336. $59.95 cloth.
Humanity's preoccupation with notions of friends and enemies is ancient, with roots in politics, religion, and perhaps even human nature itself. Jeremy Engels argues that, although scholars have done important work on related topics such as the roles of war and peace, counterrevolution, violence, and dissent in early U.S. history, a study is needed that highlights the rhetorical nature of enemy-making. Enemyship is thus both a work of rhetorical criticism and deft historical analysis, that "engage[s] a critical moment in the development of American political and rhetorical traditions" (45). Looking at the same formative moments as scholars before him, Engels's contribution lies in illuminating how the earliest U.S. leaders and citizens used the rhetorical tool of enemy-making not only to argue for revolution, but also as a "technique of governing" (215).
Enemyship, as Engels defines it, is "a bond of mutual antagonism for an enemy, resulting in a solidarity of fear, a community of spite, a kinship in arms, and a brotherhood of hatred" that "signifies the many ways that political actors name the enemy in order to achieve desirable rhetorical eff ects" (13). As a rhetorical tool, enemyship operates in three stages. First, the enemy is named and defined. Next, communication with the enemy is made to seem impossible or is categorically eliminated. Finally, with communication no longer an option, the situation is escalated to the level of crisis, as "rhetors deploy the discourses of fear, paranoia, and anxiety to focus their audience's thoughts on how best to defend themselves and their families from the enemy, and how best to exact hurt on the enemy if the chance arises" (22). Enemyship as a rhetorical technique thus has a variety of material eff ects.
Engels reviews several key moments of conflict in the early Republic that pitted commoners against...