Book Reviews : Energy and Structure: A Theory of Social Power. By RICHARD NEWBOLD ADAMS. (Austin and London: University of Texas Press, 1975. Pp. 353. $15.00.)

Abstract

veloped here is that language is a tool which can have a mutually reinforcing relationship with the thoughts it expresses and the actions it mediates. But the instrument which is shaped for our purposes may, without constant reflection, distort those purposes. For language may become encrusted with atavistic, malicious or evil irrationalities. The specific thesis (borrowed from George Orwell) that provides the central organizing rationale for Max Skidmore’s book is that &dquo;sloppy language makes it easier to have sloppy thoughts, just as sloppy thoughts encour-