The Argument Culture: Stopping America's War of Words

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!

The author has focused in on all the poison that seems to be rife in our conversations today - from radio talk shows to Jerry Springer to organizational discourse. Reading this book, taking it to heart and following its suggestions would eliminate almost all organizational conflict and go along way toward restoring civilized behavior.

Dr. Tannen's publisher proves one of her theses within the book by retitling it in the transition from hardcover to paperback.The change in title which in the hardcover was "The Argument Culture : Moving from Debate to Dialogue" to the paperback "The Argument Culture : Stopping America's War of Words" illustrates her claim that the media have taken a position that only battle and war are interesting and will inject the language of contention wherever possible whether or not it is true or relevant.One reason that she may be light on suggesting solutions is that she does not have one. She is investigating an idea with its examples and relevance. With no need to battle for dominance or start a crusade, she does not need to wrap everything up in 30 second sound bites, even if the publisher thinks she should or readers demand short snappy answers.

I really enjoyed listening to Ms. Tannen read her latest book on tape. While her view of history is cursory on the audio version, her main points are really important. Academe, politics and journalism are ill-served by simple, two-sided arguements. Having a political system that forces us to either "the left" or "the right" seems remarkably rediculous when one considers the real complexities that face us in the 21st century. In academe, the standards of debating two opposing view may have some value (such as excitement, and the focusing power of such an assignment), but traditional debate formats, as Ms. Tannen points out, are inconsistent with an authentic search for truth. Finally, she explores some of the assumptions that give us TV shows such as Crossfire and Both Sides. Essentially, these show provide entertainment, but, due to their competetive formats, nothing is ever resolved and viewers are left only confirmed in their previous points of view. Is seems as if, according to the Tannen view, Crossfire is rather like a verbal equivalent of WWF wrestling. Tannen's invocation of Peter Elbow's alternative, a "Culture of Belief," seems like a great antidote. The Arguement Culture is a very useful and inspiring resource. I recommend it.

although i haven't read the whole book yet, i believe the problem of discourse is one americans need to resolve if we are to survive as a nation. as a scientist, it appears to me that math is one of the few convincing arguments accepted in the public arena. we desperately need a cultural method for accurately evaluating and judging non-mathematical ideas.