Hatchet Jobs and Hardball: The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang

by Grant Barrett

Here is a wonderful Baedeker to down-and-dirty politics--more than six hundred slang terms straight from the smoke-filled rooms of American political speech.
Hatchet Jobs and Hardball: The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang illuminates a rich and colorful segment of our language. Readers will find informative entries on slang terms such as Beltway bandit and boondoggle, angry white male and leg treasurer, juice bill and Joe Citizen,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195176855
• ISBN13: 9780195176858
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

America and my teenagers have a lot in common.

This book was given to me while I was leaving D.C. Feeling defeated and confused in how to handle my American clients, much like the feelings I have in London dealing with my teenage kids, I opened the book and surprisingly the book helped open my eyes. Treating this dictionary more like a book on the history of Americas adopted language...Helped intrigued me more by illustrating clearly a comedy, a weakness, and a immaturity the states exhibit with brut force. The book didn't help solve my problem, but did give me a sense of enlightenment and understanding on how to handle my American clients next time. Much like my teenagers, I will show them unconditional love, but I'll have to wait until they grow up to give them more responsibilities. Nothing more appealing then the words "Oxford", "American", and "Slang" for the cover. For me, the title "Hatchet Jobs And Hardball" is awful and misleading.

a timely dictionary!

I was given this book as a gift, and was a little shocked - as I love words, but I am not necessarily very politically minded...although I am trying - and I found this book to be truly enjoyable! I can use it when I try to seem "up" on politics and people are impressed! I have enjoyed reading the stories of where and when the terms started to come into use, and it's all thoughtful and well written!

Hate Politics. Dig the book.

I really don't like political slang basically because I never know what the hell people from the "beltway" are talking about on the news. I finally have a resource that will tell me what one of those cloistered freaks taking charge of my government are talking about.

For politcal junkies to armchair lexicographers

This is an entertaining and informative book that transcends its "reference" status. It's an exhaustively researched illustration of how political discourse (not to mention politics) has changed over the past 250 years.

Outside the beltway? All over America!

As the editor of this book, I'm happy to contradict the review below. We spent months combing through Oxford University Press' vast lexicographical resources to pick the best American political terms that qualified as slang and could be substantiated in the time and space available. Chinaman, usually found in the phrase "have a Chinaman," does indeed seem to be a Chicago political term, going back to at least 1973, and means "to have political influence." The reason it was not included, however, is that at the time of publishing, we had a single citation for it. Too many other better-substantiated terms took precedence. Fetcher, on the other hand, is almost too common to be considered slang, and so was not included, although juice bill, which means the same thing, is included in the book.