Goodall portrays a world caught up in the middle of a narrative arms race, where the message of the political right has outflanked the message of the political left. It is a world where narratives used by the far right inch ever closer to those employed by right-wing extremists in the Muslim world. Rather than dismiss the use of political narratives as a shallow tactic of the opposition, Goodall promotes their usefulness and outlines a number of ways that liberal academics can retake the public discourse from the extremist opposition. This is an essential text for the aspiring public intellectual and will appeal to students and scholars of qualitative methods, communications and media, and political science alike.
Counter-Narrative
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Counter-Narrative is the book the critical, social justice interpretive community has been waiting for. It is impassioned. It is incisive. It cuts to the bone. It challenges the extremists -- the birthers, the tea-party activists -- those who would derail the progressive agenda. It offers a core narrative for the common good; a narrative that makes a difference, opens paths for critique, clears a space for resistance, nurtures the utopian imagination. A critical narrative inquiry that matters."
- Norman K. Denzin, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana
"In this thought-provoking book, Goodall shows how language and rhetoric have been used to fuel a conservative, libertarian, and right-wing ideological narrative about the world in which we live and the threats to U.S. society. More important than his careful analysis of the structure of the narrative and how it has been put together is his call to respond--to cut through the Right-Wing fog by constructing counter-narratives that are based on critical thinking, clearly phrased arguments, and relevant empirical evidence. The time to do this is now."
- Thomas C. Patterson, University of California, Riverside
"A rhetorical tour de force that offers academics and the public alike a persuasive counterstatement against far right political views, and, even more important, a compelling core narrative and viable strategies for intervening into societal discourse to reclaim the original intention of U.S. democracy—to promote the common good."
- Lawrence R. Frey, University of Colorado at Boulder
About the Author
H. L. (Bud) Goodall, Jr. is Professor of Communication and former Director of the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University. He is the author or co-author of 20 books and over 100 articles, chapters, and papers. His edited volume, with Steve Corman and Angela Trethewey, Weapons of Mass Persuasion: Strategic Communication and the War of Ideas includes is currently required reading for members of the defense and intelligence communities. A pioneer in the field of narrative ethnography he has study high technology organizations, rock n roll bands, alternative forms of religion and spirituality in the southern United States, and recast his own life story in A Need to Know: The Clandestine History of a CIA Family (Left Coast, 2006). With Eric Eisenberg and Angela Trethewey, he is the co-author of the award-winning best textbook, Organizational Communication: Balancing Creativity and Constraint, now in its fifth edition, and he authored the highly acclaimed Writing the New Ethnography and Writing Qualitative Inquiry. His most recent work is in applying theories of communication and narratives to the challenge of countering ideological support for terrorism.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
H. L "Bud" Goodall starts out with this truth: We on the left suck at narratives.
We do - at least compared to the right - be that right the economic libertarians, the religious conservatives, the neo-cons, or the conspiracy theorists like the Birthers. Slowly but surely those on the right have spun their tales so well, that what they say is too often taken for granted, as given, as the way things are and the way things ought to be. All these `givens' aren't givens at all. They are stories told over and over and over until we believe them to be true. For instance:
"Free markets should be unfettered!" (Hello financial crisis.)
"Democrats are weak on defense!" (Goodbye Osama Bin Laden!)
"Jesus was not interested in justice!" (Hello? Have you read the New Testament?)
"Obama is a Kenyan born Muslim!" (Hello long-form birth certificate!)
"Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot!" (Yes, ridicule is helpful but not constructive in the long term.)
Sure, we have facts on our side.
Yes, the deficit was caused by the Bush tax cuts and the wars.
Yes, Jesus was interested in justice.
Yes, the founding fathers were human with human foibles.
Yes, Teabaggers gave themselves that name without knowing what "Teabagging" is.
Here's the thing: facts only matter if they are embedded in a good story. To quote Reagan's 1988 slip up: "Facts are stupid things." Narratives drive information, not the other way around.
Have you ever wondered how Al Queda can recruit people into killing themselves? Have you ever wondered why Glenn Beck's conspiracies were accepted by so many? Have you ever wondered why the Birther issue will not die? Have you ever wondered why people who say they follow Jesus only follow the free-market Jesus? Have you ever wondered why academics are losing the battle over who academics are and what we do? Have you ever wondered what ever happened to the concept of the common good (clean air and water, state and national forests, public education, etc.)? Here you will find the stories conservatives tell dismantled, examined, and critiqued.
Finally Goodall doesn't let us off the hook. He delivers to us an ultimatum. If we don't start actively writing our narratives to counter the conservative narratives, we will no longer have the words by which to tell our narrative.
Read it. Practice it.
We do - at least compared to the right - be that right the economic libertarians, the religious conservatives, the neo-cons, or the conspiracy theorists like the Birthers. Slowly but surely those on the right have spun their tales so well, that what they say is too often taken for granted, as given, as the way things are and the way things ought to be. All these `givens' aren't givens at all. They are stories told over and over and over until we believe them to be true. For instance:
"Free markets should be unfettered!" (Hello financial crisis.)
"Democrats are weak on defense!" (Goodbye Osama Bin Laden!)
"Jesus was not interested in justice!" (Hello? Have you read the New Testament?)
"Obama is a Kenyan born Muslim!" (Hello long-form birth certificate!)
"Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot!" (Yes, ridicule is helpful but not constructive in the long term.)
Sure, we have facts on our side.
Yes, the deficit was caused by the Bush tax cuts and the wars.
Yes, Jesus was interested in justice.
Yes, the founding fathers were human with human foibles.
Yes, Teabaggers gave themselves that name without knowing what "Teabagging" is.
Here's the thing: facts only matter if they are embedded in a good story. To quote Reagan's 1988 slip up: "Facts are stupid things." Narratives drive information, not the other way around.
Have you ever wondered how Al Queda can recruit people into killing themselves? Have you ever wondered why Glenn Beck's conspiracies were accepted by so many? Have you ever wondered why the Birther issue will not die? Have you ever wondered why people who say they follow Jesus only follow the free-market Jesus? Have you ever wondered why academics are losing the battle over who academics are and what we do? Have you ever wondered what ever happened to the concept of the common good (clean air and water, state and national forests, public education, etc.)? Here you will find the stories conservatives tell dismantled, examined, and critiqued.
Finally Goodall doesn't let us off the hook. He delivers to us an ultimatum. If we don't start actively writing our narratives to counter the conservative narratives, we will no longer have the words by which to tell our narrative.
Read it. Practice it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Excellent book. One dominant narrative is that the 30-year trend in America of greater inequality is a natural economic/historical trend of economic rewards for those with educational achievements and workplace skills. One counter-narrative offered by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson is that income distribution hasn't followed a pattern of "the 29% of Americans with college degrees pulling away" from those who have less education. It's the top 1% that have pulled away from the top 20%, and most especially "the top 0.1% or even 0.01%" that has grown richer than the rest of the population.
We need better narratives than what neo-cons and the top 0.1% are dishing out with their media outlets and the politicians they own, be better at articulating these narratives, getting these narratives out to more people.
We need better narratives than what neo-cons and the top 0.1% are dishing out with their media outlets and the politicians they own, be better at articulating these narratives, getting these narratives out to more people.
1 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Don't waste your time or money. First of all the book is way overpriced, and you should be able to acquire the entire text online for free. I found mine on a discussion group. It is a one-sided left wing view of how he wants things to be in this country. It is a typical left wing approach- the one most of America has decided to fire from schools for indoctrinating instead of teaching, and that is exactly what this rag tag book is about- attacking right wingers and promoting progressive liberalism. If you are a lefty then this book if for you! If you are an American patriotic right wing conservative then this book does not offer anything of value- other than a look inside a corrupted progressive liberal mind- a scary place. It is a textbook for liberals to try- and I repeat try- to combat conservatives with. Fortunately not very many people are reading this type of thing any longer nor even listening to liberals period. It is quite sad when people such as this Anti-American progressive liberal author claims to promote social justice for everyone except right wingers that he absolutely hates and despises with a passion- and he won't hesitate to say so! Your basic hypocrite indoctrinator who is nearing retirement thankfully!
In his mind he thinks he can create a progressive Kum Ba Ya utopia, but reality escapes him and his ideas.
If you want to learn about how progressives have destroyed public education with social indoctrination there are quite a few good books on the subject. Try the "UN Report" by Chesly Manly for starters. It gives a clearer picture of why Americans and the federal government have had to finance alternative schools to save children from progressives who would rather indoctrinate them than actually teach them!
Also check out another excellent book that exposes progressives and their social agenda: "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life" by Richard Hofstadter. By far a better and much more comprehensive and insightful look under the hood of progressive corrupted public education.
In his mind he thinks he can create a progressive Kum Ba Ya utopia, but reality escapes him and his ideas.
If you want to learn about how progressives have destroyed public education with social indoctrination there are quite a few good books on the subject. Try the "UN Report" by Chesly Manly for starters. It gives a clearer picture of why Americans and the federal government have had to finance alternative schools to save children from progressives who would rather indoctrinate them than actually teach them!
Also check out another excellent book that exposes progressives and their social agenda: "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life" by Richard Hofstadter. By far a better and much more comprehensive and insightful look under the hood of progressive corrupted public education.
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