Skip to content
IUScholarWorks Journals
Raymond Summerville - Review of Wolfgang Mieder, A Rising Tide Lifts All the Boats: The Proverbial Rhetoric of John F. Kennedy

Raymond Summerville - Review of Wolfgang Mieder, A Rising Tide Lifts All the Boats: The Proverbial Rhetoric of John F. Kennedy


Portrait photo of former president John F. Kennedy

A Rising Tide Lifts All the Boats: The Proverbial Rhetoric of John F. Kennedy by Wolfgang Mieder is an interesting assessment of the life and rhetoric of the thirty-fifth president of the United States. Mieder probed over eight thousand pages of documents, which included personal correspondence in the form of typed and handwritten letters and memos, transcripts from JFK’s political debates, speeches, press conferences, and manuscripts of several important books that he wrote, including Profiles in Courage (1955) and A Nation of Immigrants (1958). The end result of Mieder’s scholarship is the discovery of dozens of proverbs and proverbial expressions that may help scholars learn more about Kennedy and also gain more insight into the former president’s moral and political philosophy. Mieder is one of the first scholars to write about the importance of proverbs and proverbial language in politics and in fights for social justice. Mieder’s important books on political figures include Abraham Lincoln, The Proverbial Abraham Lincoln (2000), Frederick Douglass, “No Struggle, No Progress”: Frederick Douglass and His Proverbial Rhetoric for Civil Rights (2001), and Martin Luther King, Jr., “Making A Way Out of No Way”: Martin Luther King’s Sermonic Proverbial Rhetoric (2010). Mieder explains in the preface why A Rising Tide holds special importance to him. He says after arriving to the United States as a sixteen-year-old German exchange student in 1960, he became captivated by American history and completely absorbed by everything pertaining to the founding of the nation, and this ultimately fueled his enthusiasm for politics. He asserts, “At the home of my American family, I witnessed the debates between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. There was also plenty of discussion about the presidential campaign at school. It surely was an exciting time to be introduced to American politics, and I still have a mental picture of the vigorous and youthful Kennedy delivering his many campaign speeches” (vii). Personal experience narratives such as this one are interspersed throughout A Rising Tide. It is one feature that makes it an enjoyable read and also distinguishes it from many other academic texts.

A Rising Tide includes ten chapters, each exploring a different aspect of Kennedy’s moral and philosophical worldview. Chapter 1, “‘Let the Word Go Forth’: John F. Kennedy’s Concern about Language and Style,” reveals the importance that Kennedy placed on public oratory. In this chapter, Mieder emphasizes the extent that Kennedy was able to manipulate biblical “word” expressions and incorporate them into his own discourse. Mieder also shows readers how this inclination simultaneously speaks to Kennedy’s zeal for the spoken and written word, which goes all the way back to Kennedy’s early years as a journalist in England and Germany in 1945. Mieder identifies this era in Kennedy’s life as ground zero for Kennedy developing his own unique style of delivery. Additionally, Mieder explores Kennedy’s meticulous and painstaking process of writing with ghostwriters such as Theodore Sorensen. Mieder walks readers through Kennedy’s revision process and reveals how Kennedy’s ability to communicate with well-known axioms and folk expressions enabled him to make the speeches and public addresses he collaborated on largely his own.

Chapter 2, “‘Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You’: The Visionary and Formulaic Language of the Inaugural Address,” continues the conversation regarding Kennedy’s writing process by focusing on what is arguably the most important of all the Kennedy speeches, the inaugural address delivered on January 20, 1961. Readers should expect to read about much more than the famous chiasmus depicted in the title. Mieder reveals that the development of the speech involved numerous steps including careful research on all the inaugural addresses of past presidents, the meticulous employment of a variety of rhetorical strategies, the repetitive writing and rewriting of specific lines, and the rearrangement of the wording of several key phrases until Kennedy felt that the speech could elicit the desired effect in his audience. After reading chapter 2, readers may gain a new level of appreciation for the inaugural address and the well-known Kennedy phrase.

Chapter 3, “From ‘civis Romanus sum’ to ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’: Kennedy’s Sententious Remarks as the Gospel of Freedom,” delves into some well-known Kennedy sayings that illustrate Kennedy’s approach to addressing global freedom. Mieder’s side-by-side comparison of carefully selected statements that Kennedy made in front of audiences around the world will give readers a sense of how Kennedy’s views on freedom and liberty are intrinsically connected to his personal convictions on issues such as war, peace, and leadership. Chapter 3 includes sayings such as “Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind” (18), “A man who causes fear cannot be free from fear” (19), and many others. Mieder pays ample attention to the way Kennedy’s messages were received by listeners, further illustrating how Kennedy’s proverbial rhetoric helped to simplify his philosophical viewpoints, making them easier to comprehend and more appealing.

In Chapter 4, “‘The Cause of America is the Cause of All Mankind’: Kennedy’s Propensity for Familiar Quotations,” Mieder highlights the fact that Kennedy was a connoisseur of literature. Mieder provides evidence that Kennedy enjoyed such authors as William Shakespeare, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and many others, and he frequented some of their sayings in his speeches. Mieder pays close attention to Kennedy’s scrupulous reading process, emphasizing the fact that when Kennedy came upon passages he found particularly intriguing, he would often read them aloud, write them down, and store them for later use. Over time Kennedy amassed a diverse storehouse of files with quotes from well-known writers. Overall, in chapter 4, Mieder proves to readers that Kennedy was not only an excellent speaker, but also a devout scholar.

Chapter 5, “‘The Truth Shall Make You Free’: Kennedy’s Reliance on Proverbial Wisdom from the Bible,” illustrates Kennedy’s penchant for drawing on universal themes in his speeches through proverbial insights derived from the Bible. In this chapter, Mieder addresses Kennedy’s use of sayings such as “Seek peace, and pursue it” (Psalms 34:14), “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35), “The tree is judged by its fruit” (Luke 6:44), The Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12), and others. Throughout chapter 5 Mieder shares biographical information about Kennedy to help readers understand motivations behind Kennedy’s interest in the Bible. For instance, Mieder asserts that “Kennedy’s interest was not strictly in Catholicism but rather in the ethical messages of different religions. In fact, he ‘abhorred religious divisiveness and provincialism’” (41). Thus, by Mieder’s own assessment, Kennedy’s didacticism was done less for the purpose of seeming holy and more to illustrate that he was a “sociopolitical visionary” (51) with the goal of promoting world peace.

In chapter 6, “‘This is a Free Country’: Proverbs in the Service of Justice, Freedom, and Peace,” Mieder addresses a vast array of folk proverbs and sayings used by Kennedy. Many of the “folksy phrases” (53) used by Kennedy are oftentimes circulated without people knowing where they originated, and as Mieder demonstrates, they are sometimes attributed to sources by Kennedy incorrectly. In chapter 6, Mieder’s paremiological insight is on full display as well as his profound knowledge of literature pertaining to his home state of Vermont. Mieder clarifies for readers the origins of several important Kennedy folk sayings, including: “Good fences make good neighbors” and “Don’t take down a fence until you know why it was put up” (57), both of which Kennedy incorrectly attributes to Vermont poet Robert Frost on several occasions. Readers may appreciate the conversational tone in which Mieder conveys his new findings. Mieder says “in a letter of January 3, 2023, he [Fred R. Shapiro] informed me that he had found ‘Good fences make good neighbors’…in the Vermont Gazette (May 30, 1794), page 2, column 4. A couple of weeks later I discovered it verbatim in Spooner’s Vermont Journal (June 16, 1794), page 1, column 4. It was surely picked up subsequently by other publications in Vermont, and it does my heart good to finally know that this proverb almost certainly had its beginnings in my beloved rural state of Vermont… Fred Shapiro and I wholeheartedly agree that President Kennedy was thinking of ‘Good fences make good neighbors’ when he mistakenly attached Frost’s name to ‘Don’t take down the fence until you know why it was put up’” (59,60). Mieder’s colloquial insights may help readers to appreciate the significant amount of research that went into the project while also making it more accessible.

Chapter 7, “‘We Must Set Our House in Order’: Proverbial Expressions as Evocative Political Discourse,” illustrates Kennedy’s ability to take well-known expressions and use them to make suggestive political statements. Throughout the chapter Mieder cites Kennedy’s use of a multitude of proverbial expressions, including “To be two sides of the same coin” (80), “To mind one’s own business” (81), “To sit on the sidelines” (82), and “To get off to a flying start” (87). Mieder contextualizes each expression thoroughly, so that readers may simultaneously gain a better understanding of Kennedy’s policies and the overall sense of awareness that Kennedy had of the global political climate of his era.

Chapter 8, “‘We Are Willing to Look Life in the Eye’: Somatic Phrases as Signs of Emotive Commitment,” addresses what Mieder defines as “somatisms” or “figurative expressions containing references to the human body that tend to add a certain emotionality to otherwise rather straightforward texts” (95). Expressions such as “To fall on deaf ears” (97), “To be a thorn in one’s side” (97), and “To see eye to eye,” (98) are used by Kennedy to make important points, and they are often employed with very specific intentions. According to Mieder, Kennedy’s primary objective was to communicate ideas that would ultimately move “his country forward” (103) and help to establish global peace.

Chapter 9, “‘Riding the Back of the Tiger’: Animal Metaphors as Reflections of Human Behavior,” is a comprehensive analysis of some of the ways that Kennedy employed proverbs and expressions involving animals. Mieder asserts that a number of political leaders including Theodore Roosevelt frequented animal expressions in their speeches and writings, and Kennedy was no different. Mieder’s discussion is chronologically organized. He traces this particular rhetorical strategy as far back as Kennedy’s first book, Why England Slept (1940), when Kennedy employs the proverbial expression “To be a Trojan horse” in his evaluation of British politics before the Second World War (105). Mieder’s last example of Kennedy’s use of animal imagery is cited in a major address Kennedy made at the Free University of Berlin in 1963. Mieder asserts that by incorporating the expression “riding the tiger” Kennedy wanted “to bring across that the ‘popular’ appeal of Communism is a tiger in disguise and will most certainly not be ridden by the democratic people of the West” (113).

In chapter 10, “‘A Rising Tide Lifts All the Boats’: Maritime Expressions as Symbols of Life’s Vicissitudes,” Mieder addresses a long history of the use of metaphors and expressions involving the sea dating all the way back to ancient times. Mieder also demonstrates that it has always been common and convenient for human beings to equate leadership with the navigation of sea vessels. Mieder cites Salty Words (1984) by Robert Hendrickson and his own Salty Wisdom: Proverbs of the Sea (1990) as examples of previous scholarship on the subject. The biographical information Mieder provides illuminates the importance of such phrasing to Kennedy. Mieder asserts that Kennedy was “an experienced recreational sailor” and like Churchill and Roosevelt Kennedy also had “wartime service as the commander of PT 109, which was rammed by a Japanese destroyer, almost costing him his life” (115). In chapter 10, readers may enjoy Mieder’s examples of maritime expressions used in Churchill-Roosevelt correspondence. Readers may also benefit from Mieder’s comparative analysis with leaders such as Harry Truman and Barack Obama. Mieder addresses Kennedy’s use of such proverbial expressions as “to sail with the wind” (119), “to lie at anchor” (118), and “to stem the tide” (121). Mieder also includes several memorable proverbs, such as the chapter’s namesake, “A rising tide lifts all the boats” (122-23), and the famous maritime aphorism of Socrates, “If a man does not know to what port he is sailing, no wind is favorable” (120). The final chapter introduces the reader to a unique genre of proverbs and provides readers with a thought-provoking glimpse into Kennedy’s life. This chapter also recapitulates Mieder’s previous assessments of Kennedy’s moral compass, which he observed to be remarkable.

All in all, A Rising Tide includes ten chapters, a detailed bibliography, and an extensive index of proverbs and proverbial phrases spanning over one hundred pages. Historians and other scholars may appreciate the fact that each proverb listed in the index is also accompanied by examples, and in some cases several examples, making all of the proverbs and expressions easy to cite and easy to cross reference. A Rising Tide has no serious drawbacks for scholars. However, it may be a bit tedious for the casual reader, who may still find this text to be very accessible. A Rising Tide should be of interest to scholars of all levels, and it may be of great use to paremiologists, historians, linguists, and folklorists alike.

--------

[Review length: 2195 words • Review posted on September 22, 2024]