Friday, July 19, 2019

Splendid Sentences, Part 24: Samuel P. Huntington on the Greatest Global Threat

Last sentences should be powerful if authors want readers to remember their books. But few capture the imagination as creatively as this final sentence from the 1996 best-selling The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order by Samuel P. Huntington:
In the emerging era, clashes of civilizations are the greatest threat to world peace, and an international order based on civilizations is the surest safeguard against world war.
Rather than analyze the substance of Huntington's brilliant, prophetic pre-9/11 premise (clashes of civilizations), I simply want to focus on the author's rhetorical approach to this 28-word sentence. Note the parallel treatment of greatest threat to world peace with surest safeguard against world war: a negative with a positive followed by a positive with a negative. Clear contrasting expressions equal easier understanding. 

 Read previous installments of  "Splendid Sentences" in WORDS ON THE LINE:
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