In "Guillotined," Alexander Cockburn sets out to save the English language from abuse by journalists, politicians, and bloggers. Cockburn lines up a most wanted list of cliches, over-used phrases and tedious words and consigns them for execution. In his lethally sharp prose, the co-editor of the popular website and political newsletter CounterPunch inveighs against the corruption and debasement of common speech. He ridicules the use of hackneyed terms like "national conversation," "international community," and "sustainable development."

This short, scorching pamphlet was Alexander Cockburn's final work; "Guillotined" was literally written on his deathbed. But the prose is fiery as ever. From the pen of one its greatest practitioners, Guillotined is a lucid and funny polemic about saving the English language from extinction.