Dialogue and Deliberation

This book really helps me understand what my teacher is trying to explain in class. She may not do a great job explaining it in class but this book really helps me for the class. I also write notes in the book so I can understand it and ask questions later.

This is a thoughtful, insightful and helpful analysis of a difficult problem with concrete ideas for change. I have recommended this book to others!

I Love It, One Of The Best Purchase I Have Done Here

What I needed, its a textbook but shipped and handled well.

I applaud the author's concise depth while addressing complexities that are too often glossed over, making it such a captivating read. Mostly I appreciated the crucial aspects of listening including re-activity, open-mindedness, self- reflection, responsiveness and the process of deliberative inquiry. Many books on communication and conflict resolution focus on how to negotiate by convincing others what you want and focus on the conflict vs. the unfolding of possibility while keeping relationships intact. No one can listen until they feel heard; this book cleverly identifies how we can reverse the combat culture in our own lives, while embracing multiple perspectives, in making ethical decisions. It offers a path to increased authenticity via self-awareness, respect, dignity along with the critical thinking and communication skills required to address differences. I found it so powerful I bought copies for my friends so we can co-create the paradigm shift needed in our lives and our communities.

Dialogue and Deliberation is a great compendium of techniques to help oneself, one’s students, and one’s colleagues learn how to escape the argument culture and build a healthy civic discourse. The book gives guidance in how to evaluate arguments and evidence, disagree with style and confront constructively. It offers extensive rationale and instructions for how to rework one’s thinking and conversational styles, and learn to have real conversations, even with those with whom one disagrees. The ultimate, worthy, goal of the authors is to help readers live wisely and conversationally with their fellow human beings. What a marvelous mission and guidebook to help it come about!

This wasn't a book so much as an article expanded by reiterations of the same idea, padding with examples that were not particularly insightful, and explanatory passages muddled by too much hot air. To understand any section, just read the italicized statements and save yourself the headache of trying to muddle through the excess verbiage.It also suffered from what is called "false balance", acting as if both sides are always equally valid or equally to blame, such as in blaming the loss of civility in Congress on partisanship on both sides when one is calling for meetings and compromise and the other side threatens to punish any member willing to negotiate. To ignore factual imbalance in order to claim equality may help provide an illusion of impartiality, but it is distortion, and to anyone aware of the facts, makes other testimony by the authors suspect.The authors also assume the readers come in full of skills appropriate to the argument culture and must unlearn the bad habits of it, but also assume they can draw upon the useful skills (being able to advocate for one's views in the face of opposition). They teach the reader how to listen, but not how to be heard, making it of rather limited value for the reader who has usually found their open mind facing closed ones whenever there is disagreement. They provide insufficient evidence that being a good listener and setting a good example will change minds, offering only a few cases without any statistics to indicate if these are representative or sufficient.I learned a few things, but certainly not what I was looking for and little beyond the skills I began with.