Abstract
This is a well articulated and impressive book that provides far more than a case study of the political hyperbole that facilitated the George W. Bush Administration’s ability to garner overwhelming public support for an illegal war. It is a theoretically grounded, systematic analysis of not just a moral panic, for Bonn extends our understanding of how these processes occurred through the application of an integrated, multi-disciplinary theoretical approach.
The thesis of the book suggests that in advance of the invasion of Iraq, the Bush Administration and the US news media carried out an elite-engineered moral panic that generated the general public’s support for the war through heightened levels of fear, propaganda, and ideological appeals. Bonn supports this as he takes the reader through the social processes, from the framing of the issues and agenda-setting to the presidential rhetoric used to influence public attitudes. In doing so, Bonn provides an in-depth overview of the theoretical perspectives that are applicable to analyzing the phenomenon (see Chapter 2) and then proposes an integrated, multi-disciplinary, elite-engineered model: critical communication theory. As noted by Bonn, it is important to not only recognize that a moral panic occurred, but to advance theoretical understandings of how thiswas done.
Further, Bonn finds support for the existing literature that has made claims that a moral panic was indeed created by the Bush Administration and the news media. For example, Chapter 3 combines an in-depth content analysis with subsequent statistical testing, examining not only the numbers of articles and coverage that occurred in two different 18-month phase periods but also the tone and type of discourse, including direct administration quotes and the results of public opinion polls to link the effect of the rhetoric on public opinion and support for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Chapter 4 follows with Bonn applying the findings of Chapter 3 to the five criteria used to determine if a moral panic did indeed occur.
Drawing from communication theory, social constructionist framing, and critical sociology, the author is able to expose the processes how moral panic was generated though a detailed integrated approach. Having said this, some of the concepts drawn from critical sociology and the Frankfurt school are given a bit too simplistic in application and interpretation. Specifically, the use of Marx’s notions of false consciousness, alienation, and species-being are applied in a very generic manner that does not reflect the full context of the terms. Likewise, instrumental conflict theories are used as the foundation of Bonn’s use of the critical criminology perspective; however, more current critical criminological work has significantly developed the historical instrumental understanding of law, power, and politics, which Bonn regretfully overlooked. This is a minimal criticism, however, given the overall analysis Bonn has put forth.
Overall, Bonn has done an excellent job of not only enhancing the research through a systematic empirical analysis on moral panic but also adding to and expanding theoretical understandings with the development of an elite-engineered model of moral panic and critical communication theory. Further, he has added to the state crime literature by combining the above approach to further support the extant literature that has shown the war on Iraq to be illegal: a crime of the Bush Administration.
Bonn has successfully accomplished answering ‘how’ moral panics are engineered by political elites with the tacit support of the news media and the subsequent impact on public opinion by drawing on the case of the US war on Iraq. This coupled with the extant state crime literature, some of which Bonn has drawn from, that has shown ‘why’ a moral panic was engineered and ‘why’ the Bush Administration needed it to create and have one—to garner support for an illegal war—provides a holistic understanding of the political processes at play before, during, and immediately after the invasion of Iraq. Consequently, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in communication theory, discourse analysis, elite power models, moral panic, or the Iraq war as Bonn has successfully combined these interests.