Winning Arguments

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.

Ever wonder how gay marriage became accepted over such a short period, after thousands of years of peril? Or how you were dumb enough to get in that last quarrel with your significant other? Or how Donald Trump became the clear front-runner in the Republican presidential primary? Or how millions continue to deny the devastating effects of global warming? In Winning Arguments, professor and New York Times–bestselling author Stanley Fish touches on these hot-button issues as he reveals how successful argument can be used to win over popular opinion.


With wit and wisdom, Fish delves into a wide range of subjects, including Donald Trump, the Supreme Court, the logic of toddlers, Monty Python, the National Football League, Holocaust denial and creationism, the nature of political spin, and the fall of Adam and Eve.


For students, teachers, lawyers, managers, husbands, wives—indeed, anyone looking to persuade their opponent—Winning Arguments is a fun read and powerful tool that will stay with readers long after they finish the book. For, as Fish writes, "argument is unavoidable, argument is interminable, argument is all we have."