Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations
Fourth Edition
Edited by Anthony Jay
Oxford University Press, 2012
xxv + 446pp.
ISBN 978-0-19-957268-7
‘They say that 24 hours is a long time in politics’. This statement was made on the breakfast time programme on BBC Radio Ulster I listened to this morning. But do they? What was actually said and by whom?
This dictionary is intended to help answer these questions. It is a paperback reprint of the 2010 edition of an established collection of some of the most memorable words on politics both present and past.
The editor’s introduction defines the elusive concept of ‘political quotation’. It covers memorable phrases illuminating
understanding of events in politics and related fields, such as
economics. The editor hopes that, in addition to the dictionary’s
primary reference function, ‘many people will also use it as an
illuminating, if wildly unsystematic, compendium of opinions, ideas, and personalities that have marked our progress towards the
political society we live in today.’ While for the most part he only includes things that have been quoted, there are some things that in his judgment deserve quotation even if, as yet, they have not received it!
As well as the editorial introduction there is an elegant essay on
political oratory by Matthew Parris. He provides a politician’s
perspective on why quotations are needed and comments on the
sort of changes modern communication methods have brought
about.
Arrangement is by author and coverage is comprehensive. Sound
bites, as Matthew Parris reminds us, are nothing new. Gladstone
was a great orator but Disraeli was the more quotable. It is a sign of Winston Churchill’s mastery of language that of the thirteen and a half columns devoted to him, just under four are from his period as wartime prime minister. Ireland is well represented with among others, Charles Stewart Parnell, Edward Carson, Patrick Pearse and Ian Paisley, but, perhaps surprisingly, not James Craig with ‘a Protestant parliament for a Protestant people’. Literary sources are also well represented. Shakespeare as might be expected has the largest number, but I was glad to find John Ruskin although to my surprise not ‘no wealth but life’. This is one of the few ‘sound bites’
of a writer and speaker who tends to think in paragraphs and so is
not easily quotable. It is good to have accurate versions of
quotations that have taken on a life of their own, such as Martin
Niemoller’s ‘First they came for…’
There is also a high standard of cross-referencing. One quotation
will inspire another and the reader is frequently referred between
similar or related quotations.
As well as individuals there are collections of genres like last
words, epitaphs and newspaper headlines. These include popular
phrases like ‘winter of discontent’ (with acknowledgment of William Shakespeare!) as well as more elusive ones like ‘splendid
isolation’.
Also useful is the treatment of misquotations and misattributions.
Those of us who have tried to find the quotation attributed to
Edmund Burke that ‘It is necessary only for the good man to do
nothing for evil to triumph’, or variations thereof, will appreciate the entry here. In passing, I must pay tribute to the magisterial treatment of this particular quotation in Boller’s ‘They never said it.’
The keyword index comes up to the high standard established by
Oxford dictionaries of quotations. From the word ’long’ it was
possible to retrieve the original of my introductory quote, Harold
Wilson’s ‘A week is a long time in politics’. There is also a
reference to a related quotation by Joseph Chamberlain.
(Interestingly, the time span has moved in a century and a quarter
from ‘the next fortnight’ to ’24 hours’.) I also was able to use this index to locate the precise origin of ‘the West Lothian question’.
There is also a selective subject index. This is good on countries
but otherwise confines itself to broad subject areas like ‘finance’ or ‘trade’ but not ‘economy’ or ‘education’. Those looking for concepts like ‘banks’ or ‘devolution’ will find what they need with some lateral thinking!
The last two pages are phrases from the 2010 general election.
They were clearly inserted at a late stage of production as the
introduction to the fourth edition refers to the election result but is still dated December 2009. It will be interesting to see how many of these endure to the next edition.
The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations is valuable both as a source of quotations and as an anthology. For example, the entry
on Lyndon Johnson conveys his extraordinary combination of
unscrupulousness, courage and high principle more vividly than
any biography. I conclude by exercising a reviewer’s privilege and
suggest a ‘quotation in waiting’ crying out for inclusion in future editions. It is GK Chesterton’s description of a young politician, the Duke of Chester, from The Innocence of Father Brown:
When he thought of a joke he made it and was called brilliant.
When he could not think of a joke he said this was no time for
trifling and was called able.
GEORGE WOODMAN
(Formerly a librarian in the Northern Ireland Assembly Library)