How to Avoid Making a Fool of Yourself: An Introduction to General Semantics by Wayne Pace is a very timely book. Published at the beginning of 2017--the year after Oxford Dictionaries chose -Post-Truth- as the word of the year--it provides a good starting point for the understanding of language, its connection to concepts of truth, and its effects on behavior.

With the questions--What, Why, When, How, Where and Who--as organizing principle, the book covers all of the major concepts of General Semantics and, through multiple examples, makes clear how these are practical tools for...