The Death of "Why?": The Decline of Questioning and the Future of Democracy (BK Currents (Paperback)) (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

America's preference for easy answers over hard questions is castigated in this unfocused critical-thinking manifesto. Schlesinger, director of the Drum Major Institute, blames an alleged (but undemonstrated) decline in the habit of asking big questions for a grab bag of shortcomings in education and public rhetoric: students who rely on Google to do their research; standardized tests that demand regurgitated facts rather than analysis and evaluation; the displacement of civics courses by financial literacy curricula that insinuate free-market ideology; Sarah Palin's evasive gobbledygook in the vice-presidential debates. It all adds up, she contends, to an attenuated democracy that never challenges the status quo, that values solutions and being right over thoughtful inquiry. One cannot argue with Schlesinger's call for deeper thinking about public affairs, but her framing of the issue as a crisis of questioning is obtuse. She ignores how inquiry can be an instrument of obfuscation (think of the fossil-fuel industry's persistent questioning of global-warming research), and her disdain for factual knowledge slights the role of sheer ignorance in clouding political debate. Hers is a regrettably shallow take on the problems of public discourse. (July 13)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Schlesinger, executive director of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, considers the decline of civic consciousness as symptomatic of a general "habit of mind." She adduces much evidence about the diminishing use of "Why?" among American youth and in society at large. From the Internet to the decline of civics education in recent Bush Administration policy, the sources of our indifference move from the philosophical to the explicitly political. There are pedagogical bright spots to suggest methods to revitalize questioning in the classroom and "slow democracy" in public life. Schlesinger helps connect educational theory with the current debate about "social capital" in Robert D. Putnam's classic, Bowling Alone. Verdict Schlesinger's book may attract a wide audience of readers concerned with education, political science, and community organizing. Recommended.--Zachary T. Irwin, Pennsylvania State Univ.-Erie -- Library Journal, August, 2009

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (July 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576755851
• ISBN-13: 978-1576755853
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #108,759 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #46 in	Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Political Science > Political Doctrines > Democracy
  #51 in	Books > Nonfiction > Government > Civics
  #84 in	Books > Nonfiction > Government > Democracy

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why Ask Why?, June 21, 2009

By	Dean Freedman - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Andrea Batista Schlesinger's new book is one that really makes you think. Though its focus is primarily on the habits and miseducation of young people, the issues raised have broad applicability to all segments of society. (Before you read on, please note that I may be somewhat biased, as I helped the author early on in the writing process by responding to several surveys she conducted as part of her research.)

The main question is: Have we forgotten how to ask questions and is this leaching the life and vitality out of our society? In particular, are we so used to getting easy answers through modern conveniences like internet search engines that we don't even bother to think deeply about anything anymore? Are we really becoming a society of "headline skimmers" who are too impatient to read whole newspaper stories (let alone whole books)?

From beginning to end, this book got me thinking. The author has many theories and ideas you'll have to ponder. She suggests we need to institute "slow democracy," where we all take more time to think about, and debate, policy issues; she believes schools need to teach young people how to participate in their communities rather than training them to balance their checkbooks; she thinks the current way we do presidential debates is a sham where the candidates get to yammer on about whatever they want without actually answering the questions that were posed to them; she posits the proposition that our country was founded on a single question: "Why can't I be free?" and that, therefore, the need to question things is at the very root of our democracy.

She will get you thinking about, and questioning, everything you've done, are doing, and may or may not want to do.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling critical thinker writes important book, June 22, 2009

By	Pastora Cafferty "Pastora San Juan Cafferty" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The author makes a compelling argument for the importance of analytical thinking in today's society and convincingly examines the impediments raised by educational institutions as well as information technology to exercising critical judgment: this is an important book for policy makers and educators as well as for anyone who is concerned about the failure of government and private enterprise to address the needs of contemporary American society. Pastora San Juan Cafferty, Professor emerita, University of Chicago

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Challenge your assumptions...., July 27, 2009

By	Tom Watson "tomwatson" - See all my reviews

Every era has at least a few serious voices who openly question the new ways, the settled conventional wisdom around innovations in style, technology and social habits that change - at least on the surface - how society operates. As everybody else is celebrating the greatness of, well, themselves, these idoloclasts happily throw poison-tipped darts in a cultural clash with the totems of perceived progress.

Such a counter-programmer is my friend Andrea Batista Schlesinger, the 32-year-old New Yorker and progressive activist whose first book The Death of Why holds up a big, fat stop sign to those who would celebrate under the banner "all that is modern is good."

[Note: Andrea is the longtime executive director of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, a progressive think tank on whose board of directors I've served since 2002. She's on leave from that position while working as a policy adviser to the reelection campaign of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.]

The Death of Why goes against the grain. It stands opposed to any triumphalist viewpoints regarding digital communications. You can easily read it as the diametric opposite of Jeff Jarvis's somewhat hagiographic What Would Google Do?, for example. Andrea doesn't believe the Internet in general - and Google specifically - has necessarily made us any smarter or more democratic as a society. While she praises the innovation of always-available information and the worldwide networked conversation made possible by the network of networks, she also strikes out at the idea of searching as knowledge, of linking as journalism or education.

And she uses one particular commentator's voice as a stalking horse for her arguments against the Internet-as-knowledge: mine. In the fourth chapter - In Google We Trust - Andrea posits that the "Internet responds to curiosity as much as it creates it" but argues that "searching for answers" isn't the same thing as answering questions. Then she quotes me: "Certainly we're in far better shape, in terms of tools and ability, for deep inquiry than we used to be."

Not so fast, argues Andrea. "When I survey the search engine landscape, I see conditions that are less than inspiring of 'deep inquiry' especially for our youngest. I see the formation of habits of mind characterized by a dangerous lack of discernment." And young people, she says, bounce around as guileless link and search-box addicts, mistaking the search-cut-paste process for deep inquiry.

This is undoubtedly true in many instances. I've seen it. But I'm not sure it's a bigger problem than the use of Cliff Notes or the Xerox machine by earlier generations. In the end, I'm not sure young Americans really are less inquisitive. That may be because of the field I've worked in for the last decade - progressive causes and philanthropy - tends to attract young, enthusiastic professionals who won't take no for an answer and seem to question everything. Then too, the social entrepreneurs I profiled in my book CauseWired: Plugging In, Getting Involved, Changing the World were similarly driven to challenge every status quo they found - and to use digital technology to do so. Finally, my own three children are constantly questioning things that I tend to think of as settled subject matter, with no hesitation to challenge and probe and looks things up. They don't necessarily follow the leader.

Nonetheless, The Death of Why is an important book - and I think it's particularly timely, given the challenges that major American institutions (like big newspapers and Federal agencies) are facing in an increasingly crowd-sourced era. It's a great book for journalists concerned that the so-called "link economy" leaves serious inquiry out in the cold - and for e-government types who seek to go beyond merely making information available in vast databases but to actually encourage citizen involvement in our republic.

And this goes for newspapers, whose approaching demise the author mourns loudly. Currying no favor with the digerati, Andrea argues (and I agree) that the decline of news organizations is bad for democracy and that it's unlikely that blogs and online specialty sites will rise to replace the full gamut of professional journalism. "When you start the day with the newspaper," she writes, " you start with the recognition that you are a person in the world, with a need and responsibility to engage."

Throughout the book, Andrea decries the echo chamber of modern information and communications - the trend toward finding what you want (the viewpoint you already support) rather than coming across something you didn't know. That "self-segregation" does indeed permeate much of what we take as political dialogue for instance. Andrea decries the national political process in the modern age, panning the 2008 Presidential debates between Senators Obama and McCain as flimsy and personality-driven, and slyly pointing out that Hillary Clinton's campaign was rejuvenated when she came out of the bubble and started taking tough, unscripted questions. "The irony is that the candidates need not fear questioning," she says.

Perhaps the best quality of The Death of Why lies in its inherent skepticism toward what we've come to accept as the right way to approach learning, particularly public education. Andrea's a bit young for curmudgeon status, but her gruff and skeptical take on so-called "financial literacy" is welcome. So much of this kind of education is really marketing, priming the sales pump for future consumers. And if that passes for inquiry, we're in serious trouble. Writes Andrea: "Our democracy will suffer if the youngest among us grow up thinking that today's society and the economy that sustains it are working just as they should."