"He writes restlessly and compellingly... [An] intricately but also urgently argued book." -- John Lloyd Financial Times "Ranging masterfully from Aristotle and Pericles to the age of Trump and Twitter, Mark Thompson makes the case for political rhetoric as a democratic art. This vividly-written, trenchant book is a much-needed antidote to the miasma of spin, incivility, and "truthiness" that afflicts politics today." -- Michael Sandel, author of What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets "[An] important study ... [Thompson] usually advances his case in cool, nuanced and forensic prose, but he is a blistering flame-thrower about the consequences of the digital revolution." -- Andrew Rawnsley Observer "Given Thompson's standing as a past leader of one of the world's dominant news organizations and the current head of another, what he thinks about the interactions among politicians, citizens and the press is by definition important." New York Times Book Review "Thompson uses his unique vantage point ... to assess the deterioration of political language and the current state of the media landscape. Thompson's writing packs a high percentage of insights per page and his book manages to be an exemplary investigation, a history, an autopsy, a practical manual, and a cautionary tale all at once. " Publishers Weekly

Mark Thompson is CEO of the New York Times and has served as Chief Executive of Channel 4 and Director General of the BBC. In 2012 he was a visiting professor of rhetoric and the art of public persuasion at the University of Oxford.