Todd A. Diacon. Stringing Together a Nation: Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon and the Construction of a Modern Brazil, 1906-1930. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2004. xi + 228 pp. ISBN 0-8223-3210-8, $74.95 (cloth); 0-8223-3249-3, $21.95 (paper).

Biographical studies of military men seldom have much in commonwith analyses of either economic enterprise or society at large.But the present work by historian Todd A. Diacon clearly deservesa review in this journal under both these headings—onthe one hand, because it deals with two long-lasting nationalinitiatives related to the beginnings     

What Do Economists Talk About? A Linguistic Analysis of Published Writing in Economic Journals

A bstract .   The present study aims to add to our knowledge about economic rhetoric by conducting a data-driven analysis of economic academic discourse, both synchronically in its contemporary form, and diachronically over the past four decades. We find (1) that linguistically, economics is clearly an academic genre of its own, (2) that there are at the same time clear differences in vocabulary and style usage across economic journals, and (3) that there have been major developments in economic prose during the past four decades. We argue that there is some, albeit tentative, evidence that the discipline may face an increasing methodological gap.