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The Argument Culture: Stopping America's War of Words
 
 
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The Argument Culture: Stopping America's War of Words (Paperback)

~ (Author) "This is not another book about civility..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, White House, Admiral Boorda (more...)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
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The Argument Culture: Stopping America's War of Words + That's Not What I Meant! + You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Do Americans argue too much? Deborah Tannen, author of You Just Don't Understand and That's Not What I Meant!, is an expert on miscommunication. In The Argument Culture she posits that misunderstanding is endemic in our culture because we tend to believe that the best way to a common goal is by thrashing out all our differences as loudly as possible along the way. Thus we are treated to a whole array of confrontational public forums, from congressional partisan politics to media circuses à la Jerry Springer and Jenny Jones, all based on a metaphor of war. What gets lost in all the shouting, Tannen says, is thoughtful debate and real understanding. Perhaps it's time to consider other methods of communication, she suggests. In addition to outlining what she considers the worst excesses of our argument culture, Tannen revisits some of the territory covered in You Just Don't Understand as she discusses the different ways in which young boys and girls express disagreement or aggression. Finally, she offers a survey of other, mostly non-Western ways of dealing with conflict, including the use of intermediaries and rituals. After reading The Argument Culture you might never again look at the evening news in the same way. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.


From Publishers Weekly

Tannen's bestseller You Just Don't Understand was a guide to gender-based differences in conversational style that set the stage for follow-up titles on talk at the office and in relationships. Here she branches out, applying linguistic theory to the whole compass of American culture and public life. In law, education, multiculturalist policy making and particularly in journalism, Tannen finds that "our spirits are corroded by living in an atmosphere of unrelenting contention," and that we thus most often argue emotionally when we should instead be trying to understand and evaluate rationally different points of view. The Georgetown linguistics professor is impatient with journalists who think that a two-sided debate between extremist positions makes the best story. The attack-dog posture of the press, she argues, is responsible for public cynicism about politics. Politicians in turn find that aggressive sound bites are the ones most likely to be publicized. This results in bickering partisanship that disenchants voters. She sharply criticizes our legal system for pitting one party against the other on the theory that justice will emerge out of a survival of the fittest, comparing this type of advocacy to the trials by battle used to settle disputes in the Middle Ages. Tannen's obvious passion for helping people understand one another is well served here by her clear, direct writing. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Ballantine Books (February 9, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0345407512
  • ISBN-13: 978-0345407511
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #274,547 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Deborah Tannen
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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First Sentence:
This is not another book about civility. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, White House, Admiral Boorda, President Clinton, The New York Times, State of the Union Address, Bill Clinton, World War, Senator Rudman, Supreme Court, Washington Post, Newt Gingrich, Representative Gunderson, James Fallows, Philip Morris, Colonel Hackworth, First Amendment, Admiral Inman, Charles Yablon, David Luban, Governor Kunin, Tory Island, Business Litigation, Geneva Overholser, George Bush
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Customer Reviews

26 Reviews
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3.6 out of 5 stars (26 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars I would like to argue with the other reviewers!, April 7, 2002
By Jerry in Japan (Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Japan) - See all my reviews
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!
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful evidence, but what can we do to change?, October 4, 2000
By Jeremy Jennings (Walnut Creek, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars From dialogue to war, July 25, 1999
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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars The Argument Culture
The book itself was used for a class project. I found the cultural perspective somewhat stilted. I think that the author could have been more culturally astute in her... Read more
Published 12 months ago by J. Stanton

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable read, interesting premise.
I've always enjoyed reading Deborah Tannen for her insight into the role of language in our society. Read more
Published 16 months ago by L. King

5.0 out of 5 stars Give Peace a Chance!
Debra Tannen does an excellent job in The Argument Culture of bringing to the surface the problems with the way we communicate and how we can open a better dialogue with each... Read more
Published 16 months ago by C. Clayton

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
Required reading for my English 101 class. Very interesting in the sense of studying different argument styles. Read more
Published on September 9, 2007 by Tina Coronado

4.0 out of 5 stars Arguing for Culture
In this book, Dr. Tannen asserts not that people argue too much but that US culture promotes debates of opposing extreme views - towards winning vs. discovering truth. Read more
Published on September 19, 2006 by Neal J. Pollock

5.0 out of 5 stars A valuable exploration of an under-appreciated problem
After I read this book I wished I could send a copy to every member of Congress. The cultural predilection favoring adversarial argument instead of constructive discourse is a... Read more
Published on September 1, 2005 by Robert H. Wentworth

2.0 out of 5 stars 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... Read more
Published on December 31, 2003 by Charlotte

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing - My last Tannen book.
Oh, so disappointing. Kind of like a WHO album. You know "same old song with different lines". Read more
Published on March 8, 2002

4.0 out of 5 stars Tannens culture
The argument culture is an inetresting look at our cultures obsession with arguing. Tannen, charasmatically, explores the world of the argument, and gives strong examples to prove... Read more
Published on March 7, 2002 by Ria

4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful and thoughtful but slightly disjointed
This book is quite readable but not perfect. Ms. Tannen jumps from topic to topic in short spurts, sometimes with little connection. Read more
Published on December 22, 2000 by R. Kelly Wagner

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