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The revenge of God
Book Reviews
included support Iacocca’s claim that he sought to motivate his audiences while also making them “uncomfortable” about the challenges Chrysler and America faced. Perhaps more than any other corporate speaker, Iacocca was effective at linking Chrysler’s future to America’s. That linkage was reinforced when he became head of the Ellis Island-Statue of Liberty Commission. The various essays also reveal Iacocca’s reliance on traditional values and his skill at adapting them to his various audiences. The analysis of his crisis management skills and argumentation is also sharp particularly Jack Kay’s bridging of stock issues and values, There are insights into Iacocca’s dealing with the press and trying to maintain clarity in language. However, the authors miss several very important points that go along toward explaining how Iacocca grew beyond corporate speaker to national figure. First, Iacocca has been heavily reliant on speech writers, a fact he refused to acknowledge in his autobiography or in this foreword. Much of the credit that the various authors give to Iacocca belongs elsewhere and those writers should have been interviewed for this volume. Second, Iacocca instructed his writers to leave him a blank page at the beginning of every speech. On that page, he would adapt to the local situation and write one liners that often brought the house down. Third, I find no in depth analysis of Iacocca’s use of style or his talented delivery. Iacocca almost always spoke from texts, yet audiences believed him to be speaking extemporaneously. That is not an easy task. Furthermore, he was the master of litanies, metaphors, and all kinds of other tropes and figures. Style is the vehicle for ideas that would otherwise have been ignored. That assertion is evidenced over and over again in the speeches, but hardly mentioned by the writers. Another problem is that important speeches are missing. For example, on December 7, 1982, Iacocca spoke before the Commercial Club of Boston and was so favorably received that he had the address printed up and mailed around the country. Some in the media speculated that, Iacocca was launching a presidential bid. Eventually the full text was run in Psychology Today with a picture of Iacocca on the cover. This address is not in this book. Nor do we get to examine any of his testimony before Congress which was often electrifying. On the other hand, some of the speeches that are included seem of dubious value. Anyone studying Iacocca’s rhetoric will need to pick this volume up, but my bet is that they will wish it contained fewer but more important speeches, and fewer but longer essays analyzing them. Craig R Smith California State University Long Beach, CA Gilles Kepel, translated by Alan Braley l%e Revenge of God University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, $35.00 cloth, $14.95 paper, 1994 Whether you call Him Allah, Jehovah, or God, his wrath has come upon the modern world. Notions regarding: “The Revenge of God” may Fall 1995
267
Public Relations Review
evoke images of fire and brimstone for some, but one may interpret the title of Gilles Kepel’s book as a catch-all theme for the religious revivals exploding throughout the modern world. Kepel, a French scholar of Islam, examines trends in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity to track the resurgence of fundamentalism in all of these sects. According to Kepel, much of modern society is turning away from a secular life because of its disillusionment with modernity. Each religious movement has rejected secularism and believes the separation of reason from faith has been the cause for all social ills of the 20th century. Now they are turning to religion to remold their society because they feel a modernist society without God has not succeeded in creating values. Instead, it has created further problems and invoked the wrath of God. The book, written in an historical perspective from the mid-70’s to present day, explores the resurgence of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Up until that time, religion seemed relegated to the private sphere, with little emphasis on it in the public sphere ofpolitics and economics. However, in the mid-70’s, a reversal occurred. Though the reasons for this reversal in these religions were all different, each “set itself up against a ‘crisis’ in society, claiming to have identified the underlying causes of that crisis beyond the economic, political or cultural symptoms through which it is manifested.” For example, American Christians turned to the “New Christian Right” to find the values they felt had been left behind in the name of progress. The mid-1970’s marked a turn in the attitude toward religion as not an outgrowth of personal life but the foundation on which society should stand. As contemporary events in America and around the world demonstrate, rehgion is a major force in public relations-not only in shaping attitudes and opinions, but also behavior. It affects the way we as practitioners form those relationships with publics that affect our organization. Values, attitudes and lifestyles play a key role in how we approach those key constituents that are valuable to our organization. What does this mean for public relations? It is a key skill of a public relations practitioner to be in tune with the changes in society, serve an external barometer of sorts, and adapt his or her organization to that change. Religion has pervaded the political sphere, thereby affecting how organizations choose issues to support (such as pro-life or pro-choice efforts) affect political elections, and bring into the forefront the morality of our leaders. The political arena has become the venue for the expression of religious beliefs, most notably in America under the auspices of the abortion debate. These debates point to the connection between moral and ethical values in all facets of our lives-one cannot separate those from the political arena. Not investigated by Kepel is the personal interpretation of this new spiritualism. For instance, if Christianity emphasizes love and concern for others, why is the religious right obsessed with eliminating social programs and emphasizing Islamic movements appear to capitalistic enterprise ? Why do fundamentalist emphasize terrorism? 268
Vol. 21, No. 3
Book Reviews
And what of religious trends and their effect on the workforce? It may be useful to look at recent research in Americans’ attitudes toward their work. Roper Starch Worldwide Inc. has found in its 1994 study, “The Dream in Danger,” that Americans are expressing more and more dissatisfaction with their work life. In addition, they are realizing that the “American Dream” is becoming harder to attain. Does disillusionment with work mean that American workers may be leaning more toward the spiritual in life? The study also found that Americans are looking less and less to government to step in with programs to solve society’s problems. Could this change in the social contract be the possible crisis Americans are responding to in their turn towards religion? Repel’s book emphasizes the trend of religion influencing the social, economic, and political facets of modern society. Any public relations professional who does not consider this connection will be missing key information in guiding his or her organization into the 21st century. Religion is now a public issue, as this book makes clear. Patrick Jackson, Senior Counsel Jackson, Jackson, & Wagner Exeter, NH
Fall 1995
269
included support Iacocca’s claim that he sought to motivate his audiences while also making them “uncomfortable” about the challenges Chrysler and America faced. Perhaps more than any other corporate speaker, Iacocca was effective at linking Chrysler’s future to America’s. That linkage was reinforced when he became head of the Ellis Island-Statue of Liberty Commission. The various essays also reveal Iacocca’s reliance on traditional values and his skill at adapting them to his various audiences. The analysis of his crisis management skills and argumentation is also sharp particularly Jack Kay’s bridging of stock issues and values, There are insights into Iacocca’s dealing with the press and trying to maintain clarity in language. However, the authors miss several very important points that go along toward explaining how Iacocca grew beyond corporate speaker to national figure. First, Iacocca has been heavily reliant on speech writers, a fact he refused to acknowledge in his autobiography or in this foreword. Much of the credit that the various authors give to Iacocca belongs elsewhere and those writers should have been interviewed for this volume. Second, Iacocca instructed his writers to leave him a blank page at the beginning of every speech. On that page, he would adapt to the local situation and write one liners that often brought the house down. Third, I find no in depth analysis of Iacocca’s use of style or his talented delivery. Iacocca almost always spoke from texts, yet audiences believed him to be speaking extemporaneously. That is not an easy task. Furthermore, he was the master of litanies, metaphors, and all kinds of other tropes and figures. Style is the vehicle for ideas that would otherwise have been ignored. That assertion is evidenced over and over again in the speeches, but hardly mentioned by the writers. Another problem is that important speeches are missing. For example, on December 7, 1982, Iacocca spoke before the Commercial Club of Boston and was so favorably received that he had the address printed up and mailed around the country. Some in the media speculated that, Iacocca was launching a presidential bid. Eventually the full text was run in Psychology Today with a picture of Iacocca on the cover. This address is not in this book. Nor do we get to examine any of his testimony before Congress which was often electrifying. On the other hand, some of the speeches that are included seem of dubious value. Anyone studying Iacocca’s rhetoric will need to pick this volume up, but my bet is that they will wish it contained fewer but more important speeches, and fewer but longer essays analyzing them. Craig R Smith California State University Long Beach, CA Gilles Kepel, translated by Alan Braley l%e Revenge of God University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, $35.00 cloth, $14.95 paper, 1994 Whether you call Him Allah, Jehovah, or God, his wrath has come upon the modern world. Notions regarding: “The Revenge of God” may Fall 1995
267
Public Relations Review
evoke images of fire and brimstone for some, but one may interpret the title of Gilles Kepel’s book as a catch-all theme for the religious revivals exploding throughout the modern world. Kepel, a French scholar of Islam, examines trends in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity to track the resurgence of fundamentalism in all of these sects. According to Kepel, much of modern society is turning away from a secular life because of its disillusionment with modernity. Each religious movement has rejected secularism and believes the separation of reason from faith has been the cause for all social ills of the 20th century. Now they are turning to religion to remold their society because they feel a modernist society without God has not succeeded in creating values. Instead, it has created further problems and invoked the wrath of God. The book, written in an historical perspective from the mid-70’s to present day, explores the resurgence of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Up until that time, religion seemed relegated to the private sphere, with little emphasis on it in the public sphere ofpolitics and economics. However, in the mid-70’s, a reversal occurred. Though the reasons for this reversal in these religions were all different, each “set itself up against a ‘crisis’ in society, claiming to have identified the underlying causes of that crisis beyond the economic, political or cultural symptoms through which it is manifested.” For example, American Christians turned to the “New Christian Right” to find the values they felt had been left behind in the name of progress. The mid-1970’s marked a turn in the attitude toward religion as not an outgrowth of personal life but the foundation on which society should stand. As contemporary events in America and around the world demonstrate, rehgion is a major force in public relations-not only in shaping attitudes and opinions, but also behavior. It affects the way we as practitioners form those relationships with publics that affect our organization. Values, attitudes and lifestyles play a key role in how we approach those key constituents that are valuable to our organization. What does this mean for public relations? It is a key skill of a public relations practitioner to be in tune with the changes in society, serve an external barometer of sorts, and adapt his or her organization to that change. Religion has pervaded the political sphere, thereby affecting how organizations choose issues to support (such as pro-life or pro-choice efforts) affect political elections, and bring into the forefront the morality of our leaders. The political arena has become the venue for the expression of religious beliefs, most notably in America under the auspices of the abortion debate. These debates point to the connection between moral and ethical values in all facets of our lives-one cannot separate those from the political arena. Not investigated by Kepel is the personal interpretation of this new spiritualism. For instance, if Christianity emphasizes love and concern for others, why is the religious right obsessed with eliminating social programs and emphasizing Islamic movements appear to capitalistic enterprise ? Why do fundamentalist emphasize terrorism? 268
Vol. 21, No. 3
Book Reviews
And what of religious trends and their effect on the workforce? It may be useful to look at recent research in Americans’ attitudes toward their work. Roper Starch Worldwide Inc. has found in its 1994 study, “The Dream in Danger,” that Americans are expressing more and more dissatisfaction with their work life. In addition, they are realizing that the “American Dream” is becoming harder to attain. Does disillusionment with work mean that American workers may be leaning more toward the spiritual in life? The study also found that Americans are looking less and less to government to step in with programs to solve society’s problems. Could this change in the social contract be the possible crisis Americans are responding to in their turn towards religion? Repel’s book emphasizes the trend of religion influencing the social, economic, and political facets of modern society. Any public relations professional who does not consider this connection will be missing key information in guiding his or her organization into the 21st century. Religion is now a public issue, as this book makes clear. Patrick Jackson, Senior Counsel Jackson, Jackson, & Wagner Exeter, NH
Fall 1995
269