The Argument Culture : Moving from Debate to Dialogue
Author: Deborah Tannen
List Price: $14.00
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ISBN: 0345407512
Publisher: Ballantine Books (09 February, 1999)
Sales Rank: 47,780
Average Customer Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
I would like to argue with the other reviewers!
How often does a person get to argue about a book that says we argue too much! I disagree, with a smile, with the other reviewers, and think that Tannen has deepened and extended her research by focusing her linguistic talents on the broader cultural domains of politics, journalism, and academia. While some overlap with her former work regarding the difficulty in communication gender, I found her other insights quite relevant and sagacious. I live and work in Japan, and I can assure you that this book has opened my eyes to look at myself and how often I approach discussions here with the argument attitude. Alfie Kohn (No Contest) and others have pointed out how our competitive attitudes are a result of the social structures that we inhabit. Tannen skillfully paints a accurate picture of the American system that reinforces and rewards arguments and acheivement. It is easy to see how easily how distrust, skepticism, and misunderstanding occurs when discussion is replaced with debate. It is easy to see too why we have become such a violent society when you have to fight to be heard. Our whole system is built on persuasion and politics, geared to attack people and their positions, not to promote cooperation and dialogue. As an academic, I can certainly identify with the one-upmanship that constantly occurs among university professors. Tannen has not covered all of the bases regarding conflict, nor needs to. I would recommend other works like Morton Deutsch's Handbook of Conflict Resolution, or Stephen Toulmin's The Uses of Argument, or Wiliam Ury's work Getting to Yes, Getting Past No for some practical applications. But this informative book takes a meta-view of American discourse and makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the language we are immersed in, and offers the alternative of dialogue instead of debate as a effective way of connecting with others. I often recommend this book to Americans who are living and working overseas so they can understand how to be more relationally sensitive to cultures that are not so direct in their dealings with people. Thank you, Dr. Tannen, your illustrations and insights are enlightening!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Powerful evidence, but what can we do to change?
The author compiled a powerful case against the "culture of critique" that we live in. She chronicles the emergence of an "attack dog" media from the days of Watergate, and shows the damage they do to the political process and the people who serve us in public office. She thoroughly analyzes the impact that our "agonistic" culture has had on politics, particularly the difficulty of appointing people to office and passing the media's intense scrutiny. Gender differences are covered fairly and related to our love of a good fight, our education system, and our legal system. The author finishes off the book with a host of cultural comparisons that serve to give perspectiveand offer alternatives to our "war of words" culture. The only weak point in the book is the lack of concrete methods to turn our culture in a better direction. I agree that this cynical, attacking atmosphere has gone too far, but the book doesn't address the issue of what specifically is to be done about it. Overall an intelligent, scholarly review of contemporary culture, and well worth the read. The best books leave you with new ways to see the world and this one certainly opened my eyes to what I had become blase and indifferent to.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Book is Mostly a Political Rant
The premise of this book matches an observation I had come up with on my own -- that intelligent debate, or just letting people be has been replaced on a cultural level with persistent and ubiquitous climate of belligerant and puerile namecalling. Thus when I heard about this book I was really excited and wanted to learn all abut Ms. Tannen's insights and thoughts on this matter.
I was sorely disappointed. This book is not what it purports to be.
Most of the book is a longwinded rant about how Republicans are evil and must be stopped, unlike the Democrats who are as pure as the snow.
Among Ms. Tannen's various swipes, she lashes out at people who oppose abortion as hateful rights-stealers, people who question whether there is a scientific basis for abortion as ignorant doofuses, etc etc. It just goes on and on.
If you are looking to read a book by a leftist who hates the right with a passion, this is the book for you.
If you are looking for an intelligent and thoughtful analysis of the problem of antagonistic debate, this book does not provide it. Similar Products
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