Winning Arguments: What Works and Doesn't Work in Politics, the Bedroom, the Courtroom, and the Classroom

Description

"Fish mines cultural touchstones from Milton to 'Married with Children' to explain how various types of arguments are structured and how that understanding can lead to victory" - New York Times Book Review A lively and accessible guide to understanding rhetoric by the world class English and Law professor and bestselling author of How to Write a Sentence. Filled with the wit and observational prowess that shaped Stanley Fish's acclaimed bestseller How to Write a Sentence, Winning Arguments guides readers through the "greatest hits" of rhetoric. In this clever and engaging guide, Fish offers insight and outlines the crucial keys you need to win any debate, anywhere, anytime-drawn from landmark legal cases, politics, his own career, and even popular film and television. A celebration of clashing minds and viewpoints, Winning Arguments is sure to become a classic.

Stanley Fish is a professor of law at Florida International University in Miami, and dean emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has also taught at the University of California at Berkeley, Johns Hopkins and Duke University. He is the author of 11 books, most recently 'Save the World On Your Own Time', on higher education.

Compelling...The points [Fish] presents are philosophical, metaphysical, even ontological. -- Kirkus "Timely... readers will find this latest work simultaneously challenging and accessible." -- Library Journal "A guided tour through some of the most beautiful, arresting sentences in the English language." -- Slate on HOW TO WRITE A SENTENCE "Both deeper and more democratic than The Elements of Style." -- Financial Times on HOW TO WRITE A SENTENCE "[Fish] shares his connoisseurship of the elegant sentence." -- New Yorker on HOW TO WRITE A SENTENCE "How to Write a Sentence is a must read for aspiring writers and anyone who wants to deepen their appreciation of literature. If extraordinary sentences are like sports plays, Fish is the Vin Scully of great writing." -- Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, authors of They Say/I Say An important book for any lawyer, scholar, or pundit-not to mention any spouse who has tried to walk back fractious words-Fish's shrewd work can help everyone better understand the power of effective communication in everyday life. -- Publishers Weekly