Customer Reviews

Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in World Politics

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This series of books, "Taking Sides", are great for anyone who wants different perspectives on the controversial issues of today. I bought this book for a Political Science class. I found myself reading the book from cover to cover. The book gives several different topics. There is usually an introduction to the topic and two different essays written about the topic, one for and one against. It is organized in an easy to read format. I highly recommend this book and I would recommend trying some of the other books in the "Taking Sides" series.

Taking Sides is an excellent series. Each book contains a series of debates on the given topic. These normally take the form below.

1. 2-3 page introduction and background material
2. 'Yes' argument in favor of question
3. 'No' argument against question
4. 1-2 page concluding remarks with recommended additional reading

I love the style, and it gives a great sense of the different views on the topic.

However, this book also has some problems. First, the introduction is not impartial. For example, one of the introductions said that one of the debaters made a 'dubious' claim. However correct this assertation may be, I don't think it holds any place in the introduction for a debate.

A second problem was the source material for the debates. Some were lifted directly from a live debate, with no editing. Reading a speech that is often conducted on the fly is among the most difficult things one can do. Some of the debates refer to the debater showing graphs. However, the graphs are not provided in Taking Sides! In addition, one of the debates was out of order. When the debate occurred, the 'no' argument went first. However, in Taking Sides, the 'yes' argument is presented first. Therefore, the reader must wade through references to a speech they have yet to read!

Although it does have some problems, they are fortunately limited to only about 3/5 of the arguments--therefore the three stars.

This book has a lot of useful information. It takes an issue and has two experts arguments one for each side of the issue.