The Argument Culture: Stopping America's War of Words

Written a quarter of a century ago, this book warned us of what has since become a lot worse. Many newer books such as Hate Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Anotherand Why We're Polarized, or The Meritocracy Trap: How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite cover some of the outcomes, but this book addresses the way of thinking underlying it all. The policies of competition come out of the view that we are individuals whose freedom depends on self-interest. The alternative would be communism.

But even that opposition is an example of the binary thinking this book explains. It turns out that changing the way we think requires more than logical analysis.

Although this book is a few years old, it is even more sharply applicable. The first few chapters are the laying out of data and can seem scattered but the final few chapters pull together her ideas in a powerful way. I agreed more and more as I read and saw how the culture of critque and agonism has created many of the scenarios she predicts (less than half the population voting in the 2000 election). Should be required reading for anyone invovled in public discourse in ANY way. I can only hope that the horror of the terrorist attacks will perhaps cause some of the argument culture to fade away. Now, more than ever, we need thoughtful reflection.

Ms. Tannen's writing style is engaging, her anecdotes were interesting and her conclusions seemed plausible... at first, anyway. Unfortunately, her reasoning (particularly her over-generalizations) drove me bonkers.

Preaching to the choir. Only she’s much less skeptical about the intentionality of it all, at least on certain levels, than I am.

And goodness, but so many words to say this. Repetitive and not really all that illuminating.

I know; I sound very critical, and after reading this book I should be more collaborative or supportive or what have you. I actually agree with much of what she says, which is why I shouldn't feel like I had to wade through all of that, like it was more of an obligation than a free pursuit.

I guess if you have no idea what she is talking about, or if your first response to the idea of America as being rife with antagonism is a reflexive denial or dismissal, then this is the book for you.

contends that making every issue a debate is detrimental to public policy