Jason Stanley and David Beaver spent eight years writing the book The Politics of Language.
Posted by Robinson's Podcast, Checked
- Sources
- 3 support
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 70%
Robinson's PodcastSep 23, 2026
Yale News reports that The Politics of Language, co-authored by Jason Stanley and David Beaver, was 'eight years in the writing,' which matches the claim. The extraction is faithful to the passage, and the publisher and review sources confirm the authors and title, though only one source directly addresses the eight-year figure.
What was said
… So I had to rewrite really rewrite the foundations of semantics and pragmatics to get to where I wanted. So I did this with the linguist David Beaver at the University of Tucson, Texas at Austin, former semanticist. We spent eight years writing our book, The Politics of Language, which is very much my magnum opus, I suppose, and that is a reconstruction like redoing of linguistic theory exactly to show that it must be a spectrum, that really all we can do we really can't distinguish, you know, non-propagandistic speech from …
Robinson's Podcast · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. Yale News describes The Politics of Language as co-authored by Stanley and David Beaver and states it is 'a scholarly work eight years in the writing.'[1]
Supports. Princeton University Press and Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews confirm Beaver and Stanley as the book's authors and its title, though they do not address the duration of writing.[2][3]
Context. The claimant's own passage says 'We spent eight years writing our book,' which matches the claim but is not independent evidence.
Sources
3 sources: 3 primary
- 1Politics of Language: Jason Stanley on speech as 'hustle' | Yale Newsnews.yale.edu · primary source · cited for: supports
- 2The Politics of Language - Princeton University Presspress.princeton.edu · primary source · cited for: supports
- 3The Politics of Language - Notre Dame Philosophical Reviewsndpr.nd.edu · primary source · cited for: supports
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
- Jason Stanley published a book in formal semantics and philosophy of language in 2023.True
- Jason Stanley published a 500-page book and a 350-page book on propaganda and philosophy of language while working as a public intellectual.True
- Jason Stanley was a professor at Yale University for 12 years.True
- Jason Stanley's book How Propaganda Works was published in 2015.True
- Jason Stanley moved from Yale University to the University of Toronto in 2025.True