Words on Fire

Helio Fred Garcia (known as Fred) is founder and president of the crisis management firm Logos Consulting Group and also heads its research, publishing, and executive education arm, the Logos Institute for Crisis Management and Executive Leadership. Garcia is an adjunct associate professor in the Professional Development & Leadership department of Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, where he teaches MS and PhD students leadership, ethics, and crisis management. Garcia is in his 32nd year on the New York University faculty, where he has received numerous awards for teaching excellence. He is an adjunct professor of management in the Stern School of Business Executive MBA program. He is an adjunct associate professor of management and communication in the MS in Public Relations and Corporate Communication program. At NYU, Garcia teaches courses in crisis management, crisis communication, communication strategy, and communication ethics and law. Garcia has an active practice coaching and teaching senior executives on leadership communication. For more than 35 years, he has personally coached more than 400 Fortune 500 CEOs, plus thousands of other high-profile individuals in other complex fields. His corporate clients include the largest U.S. and European banks and investment firms, the largest insurance companies, the top pharmaceutical and life sciences companies, hospitals, food and beverage manufacturing and marketing companies, advertising and professional service firms, and technology and software companies. He is the author of four prior books on communication, language, reputation, and trust.

“Many of us were taught a lie as youngsters that sticks and stones can break our bones, but words will never hurt us. Garcia courageously, graphically, and powerfully illustrates that it is words on fire that cause deep internal permanent damage while often triggering accompanying physical damage. Words On Fire should be mandatory reading and a guide book for every journalist, business school, religious leader, and elected official. Important institutions in our society and culture have the affirmative responsibility to stand up and speak out against the users and use of dangerous language.”- James E. Lukaszewski, America’s Crisis Guru®“Drawing on history and his deep expertise in communications, Helio Fred Garcia documents how Trump's barrage of hate, divisiveness, and falsehoods are even uglier and more dangerous than we thought, right out of the autocrat's playbook. This is a highly readable guide to how we can call out and combat Trump's toxic language and malignant agenda, and push back against the corrosive forces that enable Trumpism and put our country in peril.”- Evan Wolfson, Founder, Freedom to Marry“Garcia, a proven scholar on communication, enables his readers to understand both the benefits and threats of words that inevitably alter the direction and the values of a nation. He identifies rhetoric that breeds violence, affirms autocracy, and prompts terrorism as well as critical responses to those developments that serve as antidotes to trouble and strategies for building a more equitable, united world.”- Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, President Emeritus, Interfaith Alliance“Language is powerful. It can uplift or harm. Helio Fred Garcia is an astute student of language and communication. This book offers historic examples, keen insights, and valuable advice on recognizing patterns of language that can lead to violence.”- David Lapan, Colonel, USMC (ret), Former Pentagon and DHS spokesman “In this dark moment of hateful and divisive rhetoric in our blessed country, at a time when such original analyses and solutions are scarce, Words on Fire serves as a guiding light. Garcia details the incendiary language used by our leaders and offers practical tools for leaders and citizens to combat it. Every American should read this timely, imperative book if we are to save our democracy.”- Khizr Khan, Gold Star Parent, Immigrant American